When Jennifer Abbott lost her sister to cancer, her sorrow opened her up to the profound gravity of climate breakdown. Abbott’s new documentary, The Magnitude of All Things, draws intimate parallels between the experiences of grief— personal and planetary. Stories from the frontlines of climate change merge with recollections from the filmmaker’s childhood on Ontario’s Georgian Bay. What do these stories have in common? The answer, surprisingly, is everything. This is a film about love of the earth, sisterly love and coming to terms with loss.
For the people featured, climate change is not happening in the distant future: it is kicking down the front door. Battles waged, lamentations of loss and raw testimony coalesce into an extraordinary tapestry, woven together with raw emotion and staggering beauty that transforms darkness into light, grief into action.
The Magnitude of All Things was named Best Canadian Feature at the 2020 Planet in Focus.
It is featured at the World Community Film Festival, which runs virtually from Feb. 5-13.
For tickets and a full program guide, visit worldcommunity.ca/film-festival
