I Am Greta

Greta Thunberg is fifteen and sits alone in front of the Swedish parliament. She has a sign. On the first day nobody takes an interest. The documentary starts there and follows two years: the strike grows, students in other countries do the same, invitations arrive. Greta does not fly; she crosses the Atlantic by sailing boat. She speaks at conferences, meets leaders, takes the platform. The camera also shows something else: the exhaustion of the travelling, the difficulty of eating, the tension with her father and the threats that never stop. Nathan Grossman directs. It is a Swedish based production with international partners. Grossman held the camera from the first day; he started filming when the strike was not yet news, which is why he holds the archive. At the centre there is a family as much as a politics; Svante Thunberg is inside the frame and shares his daughter's load. Greta discusses her autism diagnosis openly and describes it as a method rather than an obstacle. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The matter it treats is a person being made into a symbol; the film shows the applause and the loneliness both. Its limit is distance; the documentary stands close to its subject and gives no room to the criticism directed at the climate movement. Who it is for: anyone curious about the climate movement and personal portrait documentary. Who it is not for: the critical view is weak, the structure conventional, and the story already known.