‘Chloe and Theo’ brings idealism to Cli-Fi

By Dan Bloom

CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — There’s a new movie in town, well, not yet, but it’s “coming soon,” as they say in the movie biz, and it’s called Chloe and Theo.

The co-star is an Inuit man from Canada named Theo Ikummaq who plays himself in the climate-themed flick, and it’s not an Al Gore documentary. No, it’s pure a cli-fi feature film. Fiction. A scripted ”story.” Entertainment

I myself haven’t seen the movie set for summer release yet, just a short trailer on YouTube, but if the teaser scenes give its true drift, you might also want to check out this film when it opens. I know I will. First, some background. See the trailer here, too.

Take an engaging and photogenic man from Canada and put him a United Nations comedy that aims to serve as a warning flare about the possible impacts of global warming in the far north, and you may have a winner by Hollywood standards.

Dakota Johnson [“Fifty Shades of Grey”] co-stars as a young woman who wants to help him, and her presence may attract younger fans.  And Mira Sorvino plays a major role too.

It’s a serious movie, with a cli-fi theme and cli-fi message, but it’s also being billed as a comedy.. The film’s producer, Monica Ord, says there is some heavy dialogue, some good comic lines, and it’s a tear-jerker that will not only touch viewers’ hearts but may goad some of them into action on climate issues.

At a recent screening of the movie at a World Bank function in Washington, Marty Katz, the Canadian founder and president of Prospero Pictures, participated in a panel discussion about the power of cinema to connect with people over serious issues.

”Can film be an agent for social change? Can the arts be an agent for social change? Can anything but the arts be an agent for social change?” the Jewish film maven asked rhetorically. “I can’t think of how to change people’s perception or behavior except for the arts. That’s why governments who don’t want people’s behavior to be changed censor the arts.”

“I think that film can be a catalyst for those who can be social agents who can affect change in the world and I think that’s a great thing,” he added.

Later, Katz tweeted a 140-character quote, and I saw it on his Twitter feed:

“You need the big story that comes from films. Then you need to give tools to people to make them able to make a change” #TakeOn — @Connect4Climate

Like the HBO TV hit Games of Thrones, the movie Chloe and Theo is the latest in an expanding genre of films, novels and TV shows that touch on the genre of climate-change fiction, or “cli-fi.”

While climate change can be a scary and overwhelmingly difficult topic that people want to avoid, as Manjana Milkoreit at Arizona State University has blogged, storytelling in movies like Chloe and Theo can bring the harsh realities of climate change home to world audiences — and world leaders.

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Bloom, based in Taiwan, is a climate fiction enthusiast and an inveterate web surfer.  You may comment to him at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com, or post your comment on this website, provided that the rules below are observed.

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