Carbon—The Unauthorized Biography: A Climate Crisis Doc That's, Um, Fun?
By Jim Slotek
Rating: B-plus
As the climate changes, could humour be a cleanser capable of removing crass politics from the discussion of how we save ourselves from ourselves?
Or put another way, when we talk about our “carbon footprint,” are we blaming a promiscuous but otherwise blameless element for the company she keeps?
The playful documentary, Carbon—The Unauthorized Biography by Niobe Thompson and Daniella Ortega, eventually does find its way to dire things.
Along the way, though, it takes the spoonful-of-sugar approach to explaining how carbon works, the stellar nursery that produced it, the role it played in the evolution of life on earth, and how its miracles could backfire in a big way globally.
Sample jibe from the script, in a segment explaining how the valence of carbon makes it one of the most reactive elements on the periodic table: “She even bonds with zirconium,” says geologist Dr. Robert Hazen. “For gosh sakes, very few elements want to bond with zirconium!”
Hazen is one of a handful of experts who anthropomorphize carbon and talk about “her” in the third person. Some of those will be at a special world premiere of the 90-minute doc at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on Monday, Feb. 28. Thompson will be there live, joined for a Q&A via Skype by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe and carbon capture scientist Phil De Luna.
It will be Canadians’ last chance for a while to see the full version of Carbon—The Unauthorized Biography, which will be making its way through the film festival circuit through the spring and summer.
However, a 44-minute version will make its world television debut Friday, March 4 on CBC’s The Nature of Things.
For all the commentary, carbon does her own talking, in the voice of Australian actress Sarah Snook of HBO’s Succession. And yes, as a salsa soundtrack plays, she admits, “I like to dance.”
Maybe it’s harder to deny climate change when you start having things explained at the atomic level in the easiest-to-understand terms. With terrific and even hypnotic effects, Carbon—The Unauthorized Biography takes us from stellar fusion, and the helium-to beryllium-to-carbon magic act, to the carboniferous era on Earth, the miracle of photosynthesis (which, with the help of sunlight, turns carbon into glucose).
The end result: millions of years worth of “sunlight” energy buried in the Earth in various forms of hydrocarbon that we (over)use as our energy playground now.
And rather than fulminate or preach, Ms Carbon is merely saddened in the last act, commenting on the irony that the magic she used to bring things to life is now used in the service of death (cue the explosions here).
Not every “issue” documentary is this imaginatively conceived. Sometimes it seems easier to coal-mine a mountain than to change a mind. But, who knows? Maybe the passion and playfulness of the scientists in Carbon—The Unauthorized Biography could soften a few hard lines.
Carbon—The Unauthorized Biography. Directed by Niobe Thompson and Daniella Ortega. Starring Sarah Snook, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Robert Hazen. World Premiere Theatrical Screening, Monday, February 28 at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Theatre. World premiere broadcast screening (shortened version), Friday, March 4 on The Nature of Things, on CBC and on CBC Gem..