Oliver Ressler´s film on Ende Gelände, part of his series "Everything's coming together while everything's falling apart", focuses on a massive civil disobedience action at the Lusatia coal pits (near Berlin) in 2016. 4.000 activists entered an open-cast mine, blocking the loading station and the rail connection to a coal-fired power plant. The blockades disrupted the coal supply and forced the Swedish proprietor Vattenfall to shut the power station down. The action was part of an international “global escalation” against the fossil fuel industry, calling on the world to “Break Free from Fossil Fuels” and putting that imperative directly into practice.

Everything's coming together while everything's falling apart

An ongoing film project by Oliver Ressler (2016-2019)

Not too long ago, global warming was science fiction. Now it has become hard science, and a reality we already live in. The latest scientific reports suggest that the planet may be approaching multiple thresholds of irreversible damage faster than was ever anticipated. The title “Everything’s coming together while everything’s falling apart” refers to a situation in which all the technology needed to end the age of fossil fuel already exists. Whether the present ecological, social and economic crisis will be overcome is primarily a question of political power.

The climate justice movement is now stronger than ever. It obstructed multiple pipeline projects. It stopped Arctic drilling and blocked fracking all over the globe. Coal power plants were shut down by resistance, and the divestment movement has had massive successes as well.

The story of this ongoing film project may turn out to be a story of the beginning of the climate revolution, the moment when popular resistance began to reconfigure the world. The project follows the climate justice movement in its struggles to dismantle an economic system heavily dependent on fossil fuels. It records key events for the movement, bringing together many situations, contexts, voices and experiences. There is one film for each event.

Despite the efforts of government and corporate PR to convince us otherwise, whether and when fossil fuels are abandoned will be determined above all by social movements and the degree of pressure they exert on institutions. Powerful structures force us into lives that destroy our livelihood. It is these structures that must be changed, and nothing but our action in common can change them.