“I hope that after seeing this movie, people find some extra respect for people who are different, people who have that style of saying what they think and pointing at problems instead of just shoving them under the carpet. We should embrace these people, because we need them to show what’s wrong.”
Sometimes, the story you don’t see can be every bit as compelling as the story you do see.
I Am Greta, Swedish filmmaker Nathan Grossman’s absorbing and surprisingly intimate portrait of Greta Thunberg, makes its streaming debut Friday on Hulu. Grossman’s feature length, first-person documentary is a testament to the resilience and determination of a world-renowned — and somewhat reluctant — teenage climate activist.
It’s also, at its heart, a home video of a tightly knit family that deals with personal struggles on a day-to-day basis, and is unprepared and overwhelmed at times to be the focus of the white-hot glare of the global media spotlight.
Climate activists have been disappointed, some of them anyway, that Grossman’s film is more biography than a call to arms, but that is precisely what makes I Am Greta an eye-opening experience. It’s not the kind of climate film that has been made thousands of times before. It’s not about preaching to the converted, or winning new converts to the cause. It’s the story of a life, and in so doing its reach is universal. That’s one reason why I Am Greta drew such a warm response at last month’s international film festivals in Venice and Toronto. The consensus seemed to be: This is not what I was expecting, followed by, well, This is really, really not what I was expecting.
The story of how the film came together is another story, but also one worth telling. Grossman followed the young Thunberg, a shy 15-year-old, from the time she first staged her one-person protests outside the Swedish parliament, through her rising prominence as she became the leader of a global youth movement, and ends with her extraordinary wind-powered sail across the Atlantic Ocean by racing yacht, to speak at last September’s UN Climate Action Summit in New York City.
“A friend of mine had met the Thunberg family,” Grossman recalled, in a social-distancing interview with Hulu’s media arm. “They told him Greta was planning to do a sit-down strike to protest for the climate because she felt that no one was doing anything. The national election was coming up in Sweden and she wanted to show how important this issue was. We stayed in the background and thought we could shoot a day or two and see what happened.
“I saw her sitting by herself with a sign and asked if I could put a mic on her and follow
her for the day.
“ I told her, ‘Look, we don’t really know what to do with this. Maybe we can do a short (film), or maybe we can do a series on different child activists, and you can be one of them.’”
Things didn’t exactly work out that way, for either of them. Her life story — and the film — took on a life of its own.
“Things went so quickly,” Grossman recalled. “Just during that (one) day, people started to stop by and ask questions. She was very articulate.
“After three weeks, she decided to continue past the election, striking every Friday. Suddenly, the movement was starting to spread to other parts of Sweden, then it was in Finland and Denmark. We had been filming for a month. I said I wanted to work with this full-time and see if it could be a piece about this movement and about her.”
Activism had always lied at the heart of Grossman’s early work as a filmmaker.
“I’m a documentary filmmaker and my background is in cinematography. During that first week I was so mesmerized by her expressions that I just wanted to take that camera from the tripod and sit with her on the street. So we started doing that, and we had more discussions. She was very shy, but I could understand that as long as we were discussing topics she was interested in, that was something that she wanted to do. I think she and her father figured that we had the same point-of-view and interest in climate change, and that was the beginning of our friendship.
“When they started to travel to other countries, I told them that I would like to come with them. I think they felt that I was a person who was easy to be with.”
From thew beginning, Grossman chose to leave a light footprint.
“The entire film is 99% shot by me, and I would say that the sound is 95% taken by me. I was just this one-man band. In the beginning there was no budget. Usually, when I start a project, I try not to bring in too many people. This took off so quickly, and I decided to keep shooting on my own, even though it got tough (at times) with so much going on, as the pace became quicker and quicker. It’s hard to be the director, sound technician, and cinematographer all in one.”
There were challenges along the way.
©Hulu/Nathan Grossman
“The first issue was trying to wrap my head around how I wanted to tell the story. In the beginning, it was so hard to know: Is Greta going to be a lead figure in this movement, or is this film going to be more about the movement? I solved that issue with the feeling that my camera was drawn towards Greta. She has this special perspective on the world. She wasn’t interested in always framing things nicely and being polite.
“Getting into these meetings with high-profile leaders was another challenge. The entire project was made without flying. I eventually did fly back home from the U.S. — one sailing trip over the Atlantic was enough). It took so much time traveling with them by electric car and train, often not knowing if I was even going to get into any events in the end.”
Grossman could not have anticipated that first sail.
“When she told me about her invitation to go to the U.S., I said that I’d love to go with her, because I felt like that would be an ultimate end to the story. We were so deep into the narrative, I wanted to have a camera on the boat. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to go with her, because it takes a few weeks sailing over and I know it would be rough. But even though I was scared of going, I felt like that was what the story deserved.
“Some moments aren’t easy to watch, like when Greta is having a tough time toward the end of the boat trip, or when she’s reading hateful comments made about her on social media.”
He thought it important to include those moments in the film, though.
“I’m impressed with Greta, but of course I needed to show the full spectrum of her activism, which is that there are bad days and there are good days. I felt this was a really important part of the story. I talked to Greta about that.
“I said, “I need to be able to follow you guys when it’s not comfortable. Of course you can say, ‘We want you to stop shooting’ or ‘Leave the room.’” But I wanted to capture the fullness of how it feels being Greta and being an activist dealing with this very hard issue.”
Unsurprisingly, Thunberg had a surprising reaction when she first saw the film.
“Her biggest reaction was she felt very weird seeing herself on screen, which I totally
understand.
“She’s not doing this to become a celebrity; she’s doing it to tell the story of climate change and get her message out.
“Greta said to me once that she was afraid she wouldn’t recognize herself in the film, that I would make her into someone else. When she watched the film, she said she recognized herself. It was a pivotal moment hearing her say that. It felt like I had achieved what she hoped for, in the sense that the portrait of this crazy year was true to her.
“This isn’t as much a portrait of Greta, as it is a documentary about this crazy year that she had. It’s a movie which brings you into the eye of the storm. The way the influence of Greta and the youth climate movement grew in just one year is really quite crazy, and historic I think. So I’m happy to get to take the viewers with me on this journey, in the public and private sphere, in Sweden and in Europe, and on the Atlantic Ocean.
“I had to hunch my back for two years shooting the film because I wanted to be on Greta’s eye level. The point-of-view is hers, and it’s her own words. I’ve made it from her perspective as much as I’ve been able to.
“This film is more about Greta than climate change. As you see in the movie, she’s developed a lot during this year and opened up more. What Greta tells the world about change, I think, is that sometimes it’s good to see the world in black and white, because that’s how you can really see what’s uncomfortable.
“I hope that after seeing this movie, people find some extra respect for people who are different, people who have that way of saying what they think and pointing at problems instead of just shoving them under the carpet. We should embrace these people, because we need them to show what’s wrong.
The film highlights the growing gap between worsening climate impact and warnings from scientists on the one hand, and the words and actions of world leaders on the other. Greta and other young people demand a safe future and that leaders listen to the science. Instead they are met with empty words from politicians, and ridicule or even death threats from individuals. This is the source of so much of her frustration and I hope viewers will leave with a lot of that frustration as well.”
©Hulu/Nathan Grossman