Rebellion

Fascinating look inside climate action group Extinction Rebellion. From its exuberant and disruptive public actions based on civil disobedience and non-violence, to its inner tensions and personality clashes. As the authorities’ stance becomes more aggressive, differences within the group come to a boiling point.

‘Disruption, that’s the key thing,’ says charismatic Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam. As an organic farmer, Hallam experienced the consequences of climate change when the increasingly irregular weather caused crop failures and layoffs. Within a year of its foundation in 2018, Extinction Rebellion got the idea of a ‘climate emergency’ to the top of the worldwide political agenda.

Rebellion follows the group from its inception to the breakthrough and jubilant ‘April Rebellion’ of 2019, and beyond. We see them blocking strategic traffic points and gluing themselves to the Shell offices, following Hallam’s adage: ‘If you’re not in prison, you’re not resistance’. At the same time, inner tensions increase as different strategies, styles and personalities clash. Eventually, Hallam himself becomes a source of discontent – not in the least from his daughter Savannah.