“A film full of wonders” – The Guardian
Our local friends at Stratford Net Zero, Welcome Here, River Hope and Stratford Amnesty International Group have teamed up to present this special screening of the Oscar-winning animated family film Flow.
Stratford Net Zero focuses on climate awareness and action. Welcome Here helps refugees rebuild their lives and achieve their full potential. River Hope is a new grassroots movement, which promotes positive narrative, gratitude, love and good stewardship for water as an essential element of thriving biodiversity and that supports all life. For this strand, all four partners have merged the ethos, activism and services they each provide into the theme of “Climate Refugees” and Flow is the perfect cinematic answer.
This stunning film follows a black cat navigating a post-apocalyptic world where rising waters threaten survival. As the flood engulfs the land, the cat joins a group of other displaced animals on a drifting sailboat, embarking on a journey through submerged landscapes and learning how to work together. The absence of people in the film means there are no words. Instead, the film speaks a universal language and says so much about our planet and what it means to exist.
The film explores themes of resilience, adaptation and the delicate balance of nature, using gorgeous animation to tell a story of survival and cooperation. The film is a grassroots success story. Made using open source software, Blender, the film’s non-traditional creation was deservedly nominated for the prestigious Un Certain Regard Award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. This is beautiful, lyrical, universal cinema, forged in technical miracle and storytelling mastery.