“Being Overwhelmed Doesn’t Have to Lead to Cynicism”: Rachel Lears on Her Climate Change Sundance Doc, To The End

That issue is climate change, the existential issue of our time, which adds both enormous stakes as well as storytelling challenges to the film. But, as Lears points out, with climate change as the overarching issue, that was always to be the case for To the End. It’s such a cultural thing that action in terms of the environment or climate change is defined in terms of consumer choice. Filmmaker: Which, at least at this moment in history, would always be the case for a film about climate change. What I hope people will take away from the film is that that sense of being overwhelmed doesn’t have to lead to cynicism.