El Tema: A Youtube Documentary on Climate Change
Blog by Benazir Baig
Every summer it has become commonplace to hear about severe heat waves, forest fires, and drying lakes and rivers. We are at the brink of a climate disaster and, unfortunately this is the start of a new normal; in fact the worst is yet to come.
While some privileged people are able to live in their air conditioned bubbles, ignorant of the impending doom, there are others who are at risk of losing it all, including their means to survive. It’s an apocalypse in the making that is not getting enough coverage. But some individuals, communities, and governments around the world are making organized efforts to create awareness about the ongoing environmental deterioration.
Gael Garcia Bernal, is a Mexican actor, director, and producer, popularly known for his performance in Amores Perros and Motorcycle Diaries amongst others. In a career spanning over two decades Bernal has also ventured into creating more conscientious films. As a part of this endeavor, during the pandemic, Bernal produced a six part documentary series centered around the climate crisis in Mexico. The series is called ‘El Tema’ which translates to ‘The Theme’.
Each episode is based on a theme that is at the center of the climate crisis in Mexico. These themes are explored through the lived experience of the communities, human right activists, and climate defenders from across the country battling against big corporations to restore equilibrium in the environment.
The first episode, titled ‘Agua’ (Spanish for ‘water’) begins with the following, “It all starts with Aqua, even here, where it seems the earth has forgotten it… As a species we try our luck at the expense of all others. Today, territory and water are forcing us to stop. To submerge in the hope that another way of understanding life is possible”. The subsequent themes revolve around air, mining, energy, food, and ocean.
One of the activists in the series says “What’s going on with the water, the air, and this virus is that it tells you in case you have forgotten you are the ecosystem too, you are correlated but getting organized is coming together too, to figure out what we can do”- this statement is a reminder of our reality and now is not the time to be complacent.