Documentary Australia Foundation

An Inconvenient Truth

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Synopsis

Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.

If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American public life. Here he is seen as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late.

With 2005, the worst storm season ever experienced in America just behind us, it seems we may be reaching a tipping point - and Gore pulls no punches in explaining the dire situation. Interspersed with the bracing facts and future predictions is the story of Gore's personal journey: from an idealistic college student who first saw a massive environmental crisis looming; to a young Senator facing a harrowing family tragedy that altered his perspective, to the man who almost became President but instead returned to the most important cause of his life - convinced that there is still time to make a difference.

With wit, smarts and hope, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ultimately brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is the biggest moral challenges facing our global civilization.

Impact

An Inconvenient Truth premiered in May 2006 at the Sundance Film Festival and has since become the third top-grossing documentary film of all time. It has been released in over 30 countries and has won countless international awards. By July, the book of the film was top of the New York Times best-sellers' list.

The film has generated international awareness about global warming, and inspired numerous initiatives to address this issue from grass roots activism to corporate.

A 'Take Action' link on their website provides information on how to take action and to become 'Carbon Neutral'. The website also has a free downloadable study guide for schools and 50,000 copies of the film were given away to teachers in the United States via the participate.net website between 18 December 2006 and 18 January 2007.

Al Gore and a team of renowned climate change scientists and educators have trained more than 1,000 individuals to give a version of his presentation on the effects of - and solutions for - global warming, to community groups throughout the U.S.

As part of the campaign to encourage audiences to see “An Inconvenient Truth,” Paramount Classics made an unprecedented pledge of 5% of all box office receipts to be donated to The Alliance for Climate Protection. With the success of the film, that donation will exceed $1 million dollars.

The Australian release of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

The Australian Conservation Foundation was the key outreach partner of the Australian release and distribution of the film as it was a good fit with ACF's mission.

ACF Statement
An Inconvenient Truth promotes greater awareness and understanding of climate change, what it means for our planet and our way of life. At the same time, it serves to inspire people to take action in their own lives and encourage those around them to do so also. Boosting people's awareness of our environment and the serious challenges we face is key to any activity undertaken by ACF and similarly, we seek to inspire Australians to work together towards a sustainable Australia.

How did ACF benefit by participating as the key outreach partner of the Australian release and distribution of the film An Inconvenient Truth?

ACF benefitted in several ways:
a) close association with the film and therefore enhanced credibility through joint promotion and advertising
b) free cinema advertising
c) exposure of ACF to new audiences
d) opportunity to form a relationship with tens of thousands more Australians

What are the learnings that have come out of the partnership?

Think creatively to achieve win-win scenarios - for the Australian distributors of An Inconvenient Truth, it was important to add some local relevance and an outlet for people motivated by the film to take action and help the environment in their own lives.

Would you do things differently next time?

Enhance ACF's capacity to work with all cinemas showing the film, as well as engaging with the major chains.

How effective has the outreach been to date?

ACF has distributed 50,000 free Climate Action kits to Australians to date and about half of these kits were requested via promotional cards distributed in association with An Inconvenient Truth, including through cinemas and in video/DVD stores. As a result, 50,000 Australians are now better informed on the impacts of dangerous climate change in an Australian context, how they can make a diference in thier own homes and how they can inform their political representatives of thier concerns.

What was the target audience for the outreach program?

A broad base of people who were interested in knowing more about climate change or already concerned about climate change.

How did the outreach program attract its target audience?

The program used the following tools to target people:
a) Jointly branded postcards distributed by Avant Card and cinema box offices promoting the film, offering handy hips for reducing energy use at home and encouraging people to order a free climate change action kit from ACF
b) postcards distributed by major video/DVD chains around Australia (same content as above but promoting the DVD instead of the film at the cinema)
c) free cinema advertising opportunities

How did you assess the impact of the outreach?

Numbers reached and actions kits ordered via the promotion.

Did the relationship enable you to support your mission and reach new audiences?

The relationship allowed ACF to reach and engage a new and much broader group of people through a non traditional medium.

Did ACF have the resources to manage and deliver the outputs required from the partnership?

The film promotion activities were managed within existing resources. At the end of An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore undertakes to train 1,000 people to take his presentation out into the community, ACF partnered with Al Gore to bring his training program to Australia (The Climate Project - Australia): this program required significant additional resources.

Do you have any evidence that the outcomes from the project have changed behaviours in the community?

That Australian's requested 50,000 Climate Action Kits is evidence that we have filled a demand created by the film for information on climate change and how to make a difference. In addition to the joint promotion around the film, ACF 's partnership with Al Gore's The Climate Project has resulted in 84 Australians being trained by Al Gore to date with further training expected before the end of the year. Each presenter is required to deliver 10 presentations over 12 months. At each presentation, the audience is able to request further climate information by filling out a postcard to receive a climate action kit. To date an estimated 40,000 Australians have attended a climate presentation.

What did the Australian 'outreach' program of An Inconvenient Truth constitute?

a) postcards distributed by Avant Carde and cinema box offices promoting the film, offering handy hips for reducing energy use at home and encouraging people to order a free climate change action kit from ACF
b) postcards distributed by major video/DVD chains around Australia (same content as above but promoting the DVD instead of the film at the cinema)
c) free cinema advertising opportunities d) The distribution of 50,000 Climate Action kits.

What was the cost of the outreach program and what tools were used?

ACF used internal staff and resources to organise the outreach program: addittional costs were limited to the production of Avant Cards and the the Climate Action Kit.

Does ACF share its knowledge of outreach with other foundations?

Yes. ACF works with a range of foundations, other ngos, businesses and the broader communtiy.

Would you do support documentaries again?

Certainly, assuming the overall messaging and tone of the documentary are largely consistent with ACF's own vision and goals.

How do filmmakers approach you to work in collaboration?

In this case the relationship was with the film's distributors and not with the filmmakers. In the past, ACF has been directly approached by filmmakers to partner in promotional activities.

ARTCILE By Gregg Goldstein Jan 24, 2007
PARK CITY -- "I was 100 percent certain we weren't going to get nominated," said "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim, whose film picked up two Oscar nominations Tuesday, for best documentary and best song. Despite stellar reviews and big boxoffice, he noted that the Paramount Vantage film missed key nominations, including the DGA, "so I didn't think the documentary branch would go for it."

Then again, Guggenheim on Tuesday pointed to "a series of small miracles" that began even before his feature's Sundance Film Festival world premiere a year ago.

"We thought the victory was just to get the film made, and maybe get some teachers to show it in classes," Guggenheim said. "After (producer) Laurie David said 'There's an Al Gore slide show we should see," people said, 'You can't make that' into a movie!' " But with producer Lawrence Bender and funding from Jeff Skoll's Participant Prods., it went into production.

"Then when we decided to do it, people said, 'You can't do that in six months for Sundance,' " he continued. "Then when we got in, there were people inside our group that thought, 'This can't get a theatrical release.' Then John Lesher chose it as his first acquisition for Paramount Vantage. Then we told him, 'We need you to put together a campaign in two-and-a-half months' when it normally takes nine, and with Megan Colligan and Guy Endore-Kaiser, we did it. Then we wanted to bring it to Cannes, and it happened."

It took many villages to raise "Truth" to a nearly $24 million gross, and the way several of them worked together was yet another miracle, Guggenheim said.

"In the nonprofit world, many groups compete for attention and money," he said, "but this is one of the rare cases where they threw aside their differences and said, 'This is bigger than ourselves,' without getting territorial or petty."

After the Natural Resources Defense Council was recruited, other organizations jumped on the bandwagon, including the Environmental Defense Fund, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Council of Churches, the Rainforest Alliance and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life. Web giants MySpace, Google, Yahoo! and Netflix also joined in to promote the cause.

Soon, the film seemed to take on a life of its own. "It was really like a wildfire," Guggenheim said. "My father-in-law called me one day and said, 'Fifty churches in Maine are showing your film tonight.' "

Al Gore came to Sundance last year to promote the film, and he might just show up on Oscar night. "I had a nice talk with Al. I said. 'Are you ready to go to the show?' He said, 'I'll think about it,' " Guggenheim said, laughing.

As many public triumphs as "Truth" has given the first-time feature director, the most valuable one might be Guggenheim's most private: His late father, documentary director Charles Guggenheim, was nominated for an Oscar 12 times and won four.

"I know he's looking down on me and smiling," he said.

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