Session Details:
Join us for a double screening and kōrero, featuring two powerful films that explore climate action and ecological regeneration, followed by a conversation with key people involved in the films.
ACTionism is a short, powerful documentary from the Re-Action Collective, directed by Michael Shaw of Two Step Productions. It explores how taking climate action can transform anxiety into agency.
The film follows Ellie Meredith, a young woman overwhelmed by the scale of the climate crisis, as she sets out to discover how everyday people are responding. Not just with protest, but with creativity, care and collective action.
Along the way, Ellie meets change makers across the UK and France who are tackling the crisis in their own communities, from setting up repair cafés to rethinking local food systems. Through these stories, ACTionism reminds us that the most powerful response to eco-anxiety isn’t to retreat, but to connect with each other and with what matters most. Ellie, an 18-year old, starts her adulthood with climate anxiety, and uncertainty about her future. She wants to take action and do something, but she feels lonely and isolated. This is a story about 'finding the others'.
Inspired by the work of Jon Alexander, Ellie begins a journey, meeting the Re-Action Collective community. Through this journey she begins to build connections and find her purpose.
Think Like a Forest is a film about the incredible, diverse native forests in Aotearoa and all of their benefits. Yet, over two thirds of New Zealand’s native forests are already gone and more are being damaged because of human activity. In Think Like a Forest, Sam presents the vision for a regenerative future where humans can change this destructive trajectory through connecting with nature and taking action for Recloaking Papatūānuku.
Recloaking Papatūānuku is an ambitious, national-scale environmental initiative that will mobilise people to keep intact the old forests we have, remove predators, and carry out restoration of native bush across more than two million hectares of Aotearoa in the next 30 years. Restoration, regeneration, planting, and long term management of native forests will increase the resilience of our landscapes to the effects of climate change, and ensure our productive lands and communities thrive.
The leader on this journey is Sam the Trap Man. Sam is a father and self-described “bushman” — part hunter, trapper, fisher, forager and conservationist, an expert when it comes to the bush. He will take us to two significant areas of Aotearoa to share his knowledge and talk with kaitiaki of these ecosystems to show how we can all “think like a forest” to support and connect with nature.
Featuring Sam The Trap Man, Renee Raroa, Graeme Atkins, Dame Anne Salmond, Malcolm Rutherford, Jordan Tibble, Prof. David Norton, Matt Iremonger, Shannon Bennett, Gill Cox, Sam Rowland, and Mere Tamanui.
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Following the screenings, join us for a conversation with some of the key people involved in these films, a chance to hear more about their journeys, insights, and the stories that didn’t make it on screen.
Meet Your Panelists:
For ACTionism: Ellie Meredith & Gavin Fernie-Jones
For Think Like a Forest: Sam Gibson & Simon Millar
Moderator: TBC
Cost: $25 or included in your Wao Summit Better Summit Pass & Better Communities Pass
