The Trillion Dollar Case

Logline

A group of law students from the South Pacific refused to watch passively their homeland being destroyed by climate change. Legal obligations for states should finally be created – they founded an initiative that introduced a historic UN resolution to initiate the largest lawsuit to date before the world’s highest court.

Impact Statement

“Many young people today still leave decisions concerning their future and livelihood to the older generation. This must change, decisions must be made by those who are affected by them the most. We want to encourage younger people to become more involved in decision-making processes that affect their own future and livelihood. To achieve these goals, we implement a number of specific types of measurable actions that need to be defined at a later stage. Since there are already many initiatives and campaigns around the topic, we will not start our own initiative, but rather team up with existing ones.”

Partners Attached

• File Foundation (Finance)
• Little Dream Pictures (Distribution Germany)
• PISFCC
• WYCJ
• SPC

Goal at Take on Film & Impact

“We would like to learn more about Impact Producing, Campaigns and make relevant contacts. We are also interested in how to budget an impact campaign.”

Participants

Valentin Thurn (filmmaker) gained international fame with his films Taste the Waste and 10 Billion – What’s on your Plate Tomorrow?. Both cinema documentaries were audience favourites, brought him numerous awards both in and outside of Germany and are complemented by his books Die Essensvernichter and Harte Kost. Over the past 20 years, Valentin realized 40 documentaries for German broadcasters like ARD, ZDF and ARTE. Furthermore, he co-founded “Foodsharing e.V.” in 2012, the first German food policy council in Cologne in 2016 and “Das Netzwerk der Ernährungsräte” (EN: “Food Policy Councils Network”).

Felix Golenko discovered his fascination for cinematic storytelling through a documentary film project that he began in 2013. In the following years, he developed his skills and signature style as an autodidact. Since 2015, he has also worked as a freelancer on various productions. Since 2016, he has been studying directing at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, specialising in documentary film, graduating in 2024 with the MFG-funded young documentary film Yumi – The whole world. His films are always characterised by strong protagonists and a great deal of personal closeness.

Contact: Valentin Thurn