Reflections of Hope and Anxiety in Audience Responses to Three Environmental Films

Abstract

This article discusses the results of a reception study of three environmental films with a focus on emotional reactions and the films’ influence on the respondents’ environmental awareness. The short experimental film Valtakunnat/Realms (Finland, 2018) envisions post-human life, and the potential destruction that the planet is being driven towards. To Teach a Bird to Fly (Finland, 2020), a short documentary fiction film about a woman raising critically endangered birds, imagines a future where the effects of climate change have been reversed. The documentary film The Biggest Little Farm (USA, 2018) follows a couple who buy a barren farm with the aim of restoring its biodiversity. Through thematic analysis two interconnected responses – hope and anxiety – were identified. The article discusses the connection between viewers’ emotional responses, the films’ different styles, their utopian and dystopian elements, and the impact of the films on viewers’ environmental awareness. The article concludes that both gloomy and hopeful films can help viewers reflect on their own relationship to nature and consider their role in preventing an environmental catastrophe.