DAUK Film Night: Before the Flood

If you get to see only one climate change film, make it this one. Take this opportunity to engage with one of the most critical challenges we face.

Join us to watch Leonardo Di Caprio’s important contribution to climate change discussions, and then discuss the issues, challenges and opportunities we now face in the new political landscape in the U.S.A.

Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Fisher Stevens, both Oscar winners, Before the Flood is presented in an accessible and visually enticing way. We all know the impending dangers of climate change, but do we really understand how interconnected the world's climate is? When we hear the term 'climate change', we often paint a mental picture of melting ice caps and stranded polar bears, or disappearing islands, but this film goes deeper than that and explores the impact of climate change in all regions of the globe. DiCaprio uses the beautiful but haunting triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch as a very apt analogy for mankind's acceleration towards global, catastrophic doom.

The film benefits from DiCaprio’s delivery, low key and powerful at the same time, powerful perhaps precisely because it is so understated. He conveys a deep commitment to the cause dating back to his youth when he met - and was inspired by - then Vice President Al Gore. As narrator and interviewer, he projects humility in interacting with those he interviews – ordinary people affected by climate change and scientists, as much as powerful figures like Pope Francis, President Barack Obama, and Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki Moon. Without a hint of mega-star pompousness, he, as noted by Variety: "… is a highly effective audience surrogate, asking scientists and leaders the sorts of to-the-point questions that many viewers might well have for themselves" .

Date: Friday, December 8, 2017

Venue: Room CLM 7.02,Clement House. London School of Economics, 99 Aldwych. London WC2B 4JF

How to find the LSE: http://www.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/LSElocationMap.pdf

How to find Clement House Map of LSE campus: (Building CLM) http://www.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.aspx

Time: 6:55 pm – 9:30 pm

Schedule:

6:30 pm: Doors open for check-in

6:55 pm: Welcome and introduction. Please note this early start.

7:00 – 8 35 pm: Screening of Before the Flood

8:40 – 9:30 pm: Discussion and Q and A with Wen-Wen Lindroth

For the trailer, reviews, interviews and information on the issues addressed by the film, go to: http://www.daukpan.org.uk/FilmBeforetheFlood

The film was completed during Obama’s term and is only lightly updated to reflect the new reality under Donald Trump. But that reality is what make DiCaprio’s message ever more urgent. To the world’s horror, Trump has announced that the US will withdraw from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, so hailed in this film.

And Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Scott Pruitt, describing himself as a “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda”, has been busy dismantling Obama-era regulations aimed at combatting climate change.

Unlike many other productions on this subject, the film does not leave us depressed and fearful. Instead, without denying the complexity and enormity of the challenges of the road ahead, it nonetheless offers hope and easy prescriptions of how each of us can help prevent the disaster facing the planet.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

Barack Obama

About the speaker:

Wen-Wen Lindroth is a Senior Credit Analyst at Fidelity International, where she is responsible for the firm’s investments in global power and utilities. She has spent 2 decades in energy investing, including stints as a Senior Vice President at PIMCO overseeing $25 billion and as a utilities equity analyst on Wall Street.

Wen-Wen became committed to fighting climate change in the mid-2000s and now combines her work and her political ideals through socially responsible / ESG investing. She gave a TEDx talk in 2016 on the relationship between US electricity policy, economic development and coal mining communities.

Wen-Wen has an MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown (2000), MAs in English and Humanities from Stanford (1995) and a BS in Architecture from MIT (1992). She is a member of the DAUK Council, Co-Chair of the Policy Network and Resolutions Committee (PN) and Co-Chair of its Economic Issues sub-committee.

Please note: Unless sold out, tickets will be available on the door.

Special notices:

In compliance with US campaign and party funding laws, we can only accept payments from US citizens and green card holders. Non-US citizens are very welcome to attend, but only as guests of US citizens who must book and pay for—as a gift—their guests' admission. By booking and paying for tickets for this event, you are confirming that you are a US citizen or green card holder. You must tick a box affirming this before completing your purchase.

If you are unable for any reason to book online using this website, please email us with your request. Advance bookings will only be taken until 17:00 on the day of the screening. Tickets are also available on the door, unless sold out.

This event is CLOSED to the press.