‘I Am Greta’ director explains ‘extreme hatred’ climate activist received

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It was the clapback heard ‘around the world. On November 5, two days after the U.S. presidential election, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg reached out to President Trump on Twitter with some youth advice. Trump recently tweeted his staunch objection that some states were counting mail-in ballots that rocked the race for President-elect Joe Biden.

“So ridiculous,” Thunberg wrote in response. “Donald needs to work on his anger management problem, then go see a good old movie with a friend!” Chill, Donald, Chill! ”

Her tweet instantly went viral, and not just because the 17-year-old was telling the truth to power. What specifically delighted her supporters was the fact that she was using Trump’s own words against him. Almost a year ago, in December 2019, Thunberg made history by becoming TimeThe youngest person of the year in history for his international climate change awareness campaign. Far from congratulating her, Trump laughed at her online, tweeting a message that ended with “Chill, Greta, Chill!”

Rather than take the bait, Thunberg bided his time and dropped his clapback when he would have maximum impact. According to Nathan Grossman, director of the new documentary, I am GretaThis social media strategy is Greta’s classic.

“It was only a matter of time before she hit back,” he told Yahoo Entertainment, with a knowing laugh. “She’s a lot cooler than Trump. And that shows his humorous side, which is what you see in the movie. We’ve seen her be very stoic in interviews, but she’s also very ironic and funny, which is how she was able to gain a lot of followers with comments like that.

Grossman has spent enough time in Thunberg’s company to recognize his multi-faceted personality. He started filming her in 2018 – long before she became the global face of environmental activism – and rolled the cameras throughout her triumphant appearance at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. in September 2019. In order to attend this event, Thunberg crossed the Atlantic. Ocean from Europe to New York on a small sailing yacht rather than flying through friendly skies in a fuel-hungry plane.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg is the subject of new documentary I am Greta. (Photo: Hulu)

Pictures of the trip are included in I am Greta, which debuts on Hulu on November 13 after its premiere at the Venice and Toronto film festivals earlier this year, and captures the normally stoic Thunberg in unusually vulnerable moments. “I miss the house,” she said in tears at one point. “I miss having a regular life, with routines. It is such a responsibility; I don’t want to have to do all of this. It is too much for me.”

Scenes like this are a powerful reminder to viewers that for all her determination and dedication to her cause, Thunberg is still a young person who navigates her own personal issues at the same time as she tries to solve a global problem. . (As she has revealed in the past, Thunberg was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Selective Mutism when she was 11 years old.) This, in turn, makes everyone unhappy that she is. there are so many voices that seem invested in demolishing it. Besides Trump, Thunberg has been the frequent target of conservative critics like Dinesh D’Souza and Michael Knowles, who called her “mentally ill” in a 2019 Fox News interview. (The network later apologized for the Knowles comments.)

Even after spending two years telling Thunberg’s story, Grossman remains amazed at the amount of vitriol she receives on a regular basis. “I am surprised at the extreme hatred she feels, because a lot of the things she mentions are not new,” he says. “These facts were reported by the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But Greta had this ability to point out that they were going to affect the future of her life and that of many young people, and I think the part of the world that refuses climate change started attacking it because it didn’t want to. . discuss these facts. It’s like smoke and mirrors in a way.

Greta Thunberg speaking at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019 (Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Grossman also sees Thunberg’s youth as one of the triggers for his criticism, in the same way that Parkland shooting survivors David Hogg and Emma González became targets in the right-wing mediaphere after speaking out in favor. gun control. Likewise, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is often the target of attacks from politicians and commentators who seem bewildered by her popularity among younger and more progressive voters.

“If you are a young person who does not even have the right to vote or the economic power, you have to cry louder and protest louder because it is your future at stake,” he explains. “And with regard to climate change in particular, the younger you are, the more you will feel the effects. The old people tend to be the ones attacking Greta, and they want to push this issue into the future because it’s not something that will affect them. But I think it gives young people and their concerns even more legitimacy – they are the ones who have to live in this future. And they never asked to be the generation to solve this problem.

According to Grossman, Thunberg is well aware of the hatred her open activism has engendered in adults, who then act like children when they write about her on the internet. Far from backing down, however, she continues to raise her voice and discuss the issue of climate change in unequivocal terms. During her speech at the UN, she memorably accused a room full of diplomats and politicians of stealing “my dreams and my childhood with your empty words”, exclaiming repeatedly: “How dare- you!

“Young people have grown up with the internet and social media, so they understand that crazy hate accounts are unfortunately part of the digital landscape,” he explains. “When the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, 500 people saw it in theaters, but thousands of people were logging into IMDb saying they had seen it and it was a piece of shit. This says a lot about the digital world and it shouldn’t be paid too much attention. Greta and many young people understand this better than the elderly, who still think everything on the Internet is real.

Thunberg leads rally to protest climate change in new documentary I am Greta. (Photo: Hulu)

At the same time, someone who screams so loudly for such a long time risks losing their voice. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Ocasio-Cortez has expressed uncertainty about her political future, in part due to the hostile treatment she suffered during her first term. “I’m serious about telling people the chances of me running for senior positions and the chances of leaving just trying to start a farm somewhere – they’re probably the same,” she says. And there are times in I am Greta – like Thunberg’s confession that fighting the climate is “too much for her” – which makes one wonder how long she will continue to lead the movement she helped launch.

When asked if he thinks Thunberg might step back from the spotlight, Grossman admits that “other things” like school will likely end up occupying his attention in the short term. “But I think we will continue to hear his voice on this subject,” he said. “When I was following her, I didn’t know if she was going to practice what she preached, but it was so much fun to see how over and over again she is obsessed with wanting to stand up for something and do it.

One thing she probably has habit to do is have a face-to-face meeting with Trump before or after he leaves. “Greta has already said that she didn’t think Trump would listen to her, so I’m not sure she would spend the time trying to convince him,” Grossman says, adding that despite his approval of Biden in the presidential election, Thunberg generally avoids political party affiliation, seeing a disheartening lack of will to deal with climate change on both sides of the aisle. “Biden has more [progressive] climate change agenda that Donald Trump has – it’s hard not to, ”he notes. “But we have to be very aware and watch how the political world is approaching climate change in the coming year, because we have to treat it as a crisis. We need to make sure our new elected officials do it.

I am Greta premieres Friday November 13 Hulu.

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