What is it all about ?
It’s been 3 years now that we’ve been working on this film project, and this summer we’ll finally start shooting and then working on the post-production ! The big release is set for spring 2026! Producing this film is a big adventure, and we need your help to make it happen!
Who are we?
We’re a dozen young semi-professionals from the film world, and a dozen improvisational actors, all from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. We are supported by the Doc’ It Yourself association, which is producing the film. And we’re all utopians.
What is this film about?
Switzerland, 2025. A group of friends from a high school environmental club meet up again several years later to mourn their friend Gaia, the club’s founder, who has been in a long coma. After high school, the characters have built up different relationships with the climate crisis, each acting in their own way. Some are involved in institutional politics, some live in squats, and some others don’t really care anymore. But facing death head-on, they question their future and debate their world turned upside down by climate disruption, politics and environmental and social movements, shaking their respective convictions and visions.
The scenario is structured according to the 7 phases of grief: Denial - Pain - Anger - Bargaining - Sadness - Reconstruction - Acceptance. Mourning is the parallel between Gaia’s coma and the changes that the world is undergoing and will undergo in the future, through climate change and the social issues it raises. This structure is the common thread running through a deliberately chaotic and emotionally charged narrative. But it’s not just the narrative that’s impacted by it: music, colorimetry, image and sound are also guided by it.
What’s the style?
The film is intended to be a docu-fiction, ultra-realistic and sincere, in order to create a close relationship with viewers. To achieve this, we’ll be using a very pared-down, raw style, with no artifice, natural lighting and a shooting style close to the Dogme 95 movement (for those who know). During the shoot, the actors will be guided by the script, which dictates the broad outlines of the scenes, but they will act while improvising dialogue and gestures, fully embodying their characters. The aim is to create realistic situations, especially when speaking, and to fully involve the actors in the co-creation of the film.
Throughout production, I conducted meticulous research into the film’s central themes. In particular, I interviewed some thirty people from a wide range of backgrounds - activists, politicians, workers, students - in order to identify the multiple profiles and opinions that exist on environmental and social movements. The actors also carry out in-depth research on their characters, meeting people who resemble them… All this to create a story as coherent and close to reality as possible!
What's behind the film?
The climate crisis has reached an unprecedented urgency. It is shaking up our daily lives, calling into question our lifestyles, our relationship with the living world, and our political and social systems. Whether we face up to it collectively or not, the world will inevitably change as a result of its impact.
Yet climate mobilizations, and in particular demonstrations, which were very popular in 2019, are attracting fewer and fewer people. The measures taken by the government are largely insufficient. These issues have had a fad effect, and now seem to be wearying, with the focus shifting elsewhere. The climate crisis is being replaced by other topical issues, even though our survival is still at stake. The green wave has lost its power.
Of course, some people who were once solely involved in climate movements are now even more vehemently committed, to social struggles, cooperatives and trade unions, or have become radicalized and lead lives punctuated by occupations, ZADs and civil disobedience.
The fact remains that, during the interviews I conducted for this feature film, many people told me they no longer had the energy to mobilize for climate justice. «The hype is over, I’ve gone back to work, to looking after my life, politics and demonstrations have come to nothing, I’ve got other things to do.» How can you blame them? When the system in place seems so elusive, impenetrable, unattainable.When some people have to fight day after day to eat, sleep under a roof, survive, leaving future crises to fade into the background. When activism remains a privilege.
Or when denial, anger and nihilism are all too comfortable refuges from which no one is spared.We protect ourselves as best we can in the face of loss and death.
We are collectively mourning. The mourning of the world as we know it today, the mourning of the living, the mourning of the Earth, the mourning of Gaia. How can we mourn? Is it even possible?
Along with the characters, the audience experiences the 7 stages of mourning, and will recognize themselves in the emotions and positions they take. The mystery ending: does Gaia wake up from her coma or does she die? allows the audience to feel involved in the story and beyond. Will they be able to free themselves from the weight of grief, denial, anxiety, anger, sadness, overcome the mourning of the past, ask themselves what choices to make, what struggles to wage, to build a viable future - our future?
Nuclear power, squats, institutional politics, armed struggle, collective gardens, capitalism, communism, anarchism. There are many solutions. Our characters are confronted with other ways of mobilizing and grieving. Through their eyes, the audience also questions itself. I want the audience to take these questions and fragments of answers home with them. When they return home, I hope they’ll find the courage to face up to the collective responsibility of our survival, and become aware of the inevitability of change. Maybe they’ll even get involved. But above all, they’ll ask themselves how they want to live with their grief.
We need you !
Every contribution counts.
With 20CHF, you provide meals for one person for a week on the set. 50CHF, you provide costumes for one character. With 100CHF, you pay our camerawoman for 4 hours on set. 200CHF will allow us to create a piece of music for the soundtrack. 500CHF will allow us to rent some great technical equipment for 1 week. 1000CHF will enable us to buy some great sound equipment.
3/4 of the money raised will be used to pay the artists working on this project!
