2040

Damon Gameau made this documentary as a letter to his four-year-old daughter. His question: what would the year 2040 look like if we actually adopted the solutions already available today? There is no science fiction in it, only things working somewhere right now. Neighbourhood grids in Bangladesh where people sell each other solar power, marine seaweed farming, regenerative agriculture that brings soil back, shared driverless transport. He takes each one to the experts and puts numbers on it. Ninety-two minutes. Gameau uses optimism as a deliberate choice, arguing that catastrophe narratives leave people paralysed. That is also the film's weakness: it barely engages with the political and economic obstacles in front of these solutions.