PRODUCTION STATEMENT

After working all my life on climate issues and seeing different communication strategies fails one ofter the other, I deeply felt the need to redefine the subject of climate change by bringing it home, by making it physical and intimate. I wanted to make a film that breaks away from the duality of business-as-usual voices on one side – “there are no easy solutions, do everything to postpone any binding action!” ­– and climate activists' voices on the other – “we promise you a better world if we just act now and make good use of our current technological, behavioral, and/or political means!”.

The film questions both sides and offers a third voice, trembling but true, to reach a growing part of the public who feels increasingly numb because – like the scientists and activists I met for the film, and like myself – they have become skeptical about false hopes.

SYNOPSIS

ONCE YOU KNOW is the intimate journey of director Emmanuel Cappellin across the abyss of a world at the edge of climate-induced collapse. His voyage into this uncharted territory is that of a whole generation turning to climate scientists, local democracy, grassroots initiatives, and mass rebellion in a courageous search for an exit.

DIRECTOR

Emmanuel is a documentary filmmaker and producer at Pulp Films. After growing up between France and the US, studying Environmental Studies at McGill University, and film at Berkeley Digital Film Institute, Emmanuel chose non-fiction to creatively explore the relationship between humans and planet Earth. His work began with Oscar-winning film animator Frédéric Back in 2006, followed by shorts, docs (To the Tar Sands – DOXA, CIFF) and private commissions (Thoughts & Reflections - China). He now shoots for television (ARTE, France3) and cinema, regularly collaborating with Yann Arthus-Bertrand for world-releases such as Climate Voices, HUMAN, or WOMAN (Venice Mostra 2015 and 2019), and has most recently been directing Once You Know, his first feature doc.