Al Gore’s follow up to the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, brings climate change up to the present moment, or at least up to events before President Trump’s pull out of the Paris Accord. Under the fine filmmaking of a team, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, the documentary goes beyond the terrors of witnessing our ice melting to show what Al Gore has done in training an army of climate leaders to spread the message, and offer solutions. Of course the film goes into the Paris Accord and Gore’s work, along with John Kerry and others in forging a global unity regarding our carbon footprint. The film also shares Gore’s concerns over the Trump election and the people he has put in office surrounding him, many of them climate change deniers, showing footage of Al Gore entering an elevator at Trump Tower, when he met with Trump to discuss his concerns. But the film does not reveal what went on behind closed doors.

That came up at the Q&A with Cohen and Shenk, but the filmmakers were mum on that subject as per Al Gore’s insistence. They did say that the final version, to open nationally on August 4, will include an epilogue bringing up to date Trump taking the U.S. out of the Paris Accords. It will further include the activism that has arisen in the aftermath of Trump’s move. When Trump said, I am governing Pittsburgh, not Paris, the mayor of Pittsburgh proclaimed that he did not stand with Trump on his pull out. Many Americans, Republicans included, agree. Nantucket, as was pointed out, is a vulnerable place, as is so much of our planet. This sequel brings hope.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power was one of many excellent documentaries screened at the Nantucket.Film Festival. Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators won the audience award for Best Documentary Feature, with After Auschwitz: The Stories of Six Women the runner up. The Adrienne Shelly Foundation Excellence in Filmmaking Award, announced at a luncheon sponsored by Showtime, went to Alexandra Dean for Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.

Regina Weinreich

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