Filmed over four years of hope and crisis, To the End captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders and the movement behind the most sweeping climate change legislation in U.S. history. The award-winning team behind Knock Down the House follows four exceptional young women— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, activist Varshini Prakash, climate policy writer Rhiana Gunn-Wright, and political strategist Alexandra Rojas— as they grapple with new challenges of leadership and power and work together to defend their generation’s right to a future. From street protests to the halls of Congress, these bold leaders fight to shift the narrative around climate, revealing the crisis as an opportunity to build a better society. Including up-to-the-minute footage that culminates in 2022’s landmark climate bill, To the End lifts the veil on the battle for the future of our world, and gives audiences a front seat view of history in the making.
WATCH THE FILM
To the End is now available to rent or purchase on the following platforms:
Important: the above are for home entertainment only. To learn about hosting a public screening, click here. To screen the film in a classroom, educational or institutional setting, see below:
EDUCATIONAL SALES & STREAMING
If you’re interested in purchasing or streaming To the End for a university, college, high school, community college, library or other institution, please visit our page at GOOD DOCS. You can also contact GOOD DOCS directly at outreach@gooddocs.net with any questions about buying the film.
Viewing options available:
★ Event Screenings
★ 14-Day Streaming Access
★ Digital Site Licenses
★ One Year and Three Year Subscription Streaming
★ DVDs
If you’re interested in booking director Rachel Lears for a speaking event, please contact GOOD TALKS using this form:
HOST A SCREENING
Interested in hosting a screening with your community group or organization? We would love to hear from you! Please fill out the request form below and we’ll be in touch to discuss the details.
Tag @ToTheEndFilm and hashtag #ToTheEndFilm
so we can see and share your posts!
RESOURCES
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY DISCUSSION GUIDE
Also available in a printer-friendly black & white version
POSTER
TO THE END SCREENING TOOLKIT
ACTION TOOLKIT (ENGLISH)
HERRAMIENTA DE ACCIÓN (ESPAÑOL)
JOIN THE FIGHT
The fight for historic solutions that match the scale of the climate crisis needs YOU! And getting involved in collective action has been shown to be the best way to relieve climate anxiety. To start, you can join or support one of the organizations featured in the film:
SUNRISE MOVEMENT is a youth movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. Find out HERE how you can join a local Sunrise Hub near you, attend a weekly welcome call, and take part in active Sunrise Movement organizing campaigns. Even if you don’t identify as youth, you can still show up and be part of Sunrise; scroll to the bottom of this page to see how.
JUSTICE DEMOCRATS is electing the next generation of Green New Deal champions to Congress all over the country. To challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry in government, we need elected representatives who refuse corporate money and embody political courage. You can learn more about these groundbreaking progressive leaders and how to support them HERE.
ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE is a think tank and campus network that works to move the country toward a new economy and democracy by the people, for the people. Dig deep into cutting edge research and policy proposals around Climate and Economic Transformation, Race and Democracy, Corporate Power and more HERE. If you’re a college student interested in a career in policy, connect with the Roosevelt Network HERE.
Other allied organizations involved in the fight for a better, cleaner, safer future for all of us include: Climate Justice Alliance, Sierra Club, Green New Deal Network, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace.
WHAT IS THE GREEN NEW DEAL?
The Green New Deal is a plan to transition the U.S. economy to 100% renewable energy in 10 years, making it one of the only proposals actually in line with what scientific consensus and the United Nations’ IPCC Report say is necessary. With a focus on jobs and justice, the Green New Deal is designed to ensure a just transition for fossil fuel workers and create prosperity for working people and marginalized communities in the process. Like FDR’s New Deal, it’s not intended to be a single bill, but rather a framework for how to structure policies at all levels of government over a decade or more.
CONVERSATIONS & CULTURE SHIFT
A lot of people ask us, “What are you doing to reach the climate deniers?” But years of communications research show that that’s the wrong question, and the wrong use of precious time. Our main goal with To the End is to get people who care about the climate crisis to become active supporters of the movements for major change (see above!), because the most efficient path to change is to convince passive allies to become active. Here’s a great article that lays out why this is the case and how it works. As the author Dr. Laalitha Surapanemi puts it, “We are past the time for convincing. It’s time to act.”
Also check out research from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications that shows that people who believe climate change is a threat and want to do something about it vastly outnumber those who dismiss or deny the risks.
If you’re a member of the media or a storyteller, you have a huge opportunity and responsibility to connect the dots and shift narratives around the climate crisis. Check out the Climate Storytelling Playbook for screenwriters for ideas on how to integrate climate change into the narratives that shape our cultural conversations.
THE STARS
VARSHINI PRAKASH is a co-founder and Executive Director of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led organization dedicated to building a movement to address climate change. Her career in organizing around climate change issues began during her college years at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she led a fossil fuel divestment campaign. The University eventually became the first large public university to divest from fossil fuels.
RHIANA GUNN-WRIGHT is Director of Climate Policy at the Roosevelt Institute, where she leads the think tank’s research at the intersection of climate policy, public investment, racial equity, and public power. Prior to joining Roosevelt, Gunn-Wright was the policy director for New Consensus, charged with developing and promoting the Green New Deal, and the policy director for Abdul El-Sayed’s 2018 Michigan gubernatorial campaign.
ALEXANDRA ROJAS is Executive Director of Justice Democrats, a group that recruits and trains primary challengers—often young, working-class people of color—to unseat less progressive incumbents. In 2018, they helped elect what’s now known as the Squad: Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley. Now Rojas is working to turn that momentum into more electoral power by building a bench of young progressives in Congress.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ was sworn in on January 3, 2019 as the youngest woman and youngest Latina ever to serve in Congress. Her first piece of legislation was the Green New Deal resolution, which envisions a 10-year national mobilization, akin to FDR’s New Deal, that would put millions to work in good-paying, union jobs repairing the nation’s infrastructure, reducing air and water pollution, and fighting the intertwined economic, social, racial and climate crises crippling the country.
THE FILMMAKERS
RACHEL LEARS (director, DP) is a documentary director, producer and cinematographer based in Brooklyn, NY. Rachel's most recent feature documentary, Knock Down the House (Netflix), follows four women who ran insurgent congressional campaigns in 2018, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush. The film won the US Documentary Audience Award and the Festival Favorite award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, was shortlisted for an Oscar and nominated for an Emmy in 2020. Her last feature, The Hand That Feeds (co-directed with Robin Blotnick; PBS), won numerous festival awards and was nominated for an Emmy in 2017. Rachel received the IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award in 2019, and also holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from NYU.
SABRINA SCHMIDT GORDON (producer, impact producer) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and impact strategist from NYC. She was selected for the prestigious Women at Sundance Fellowship in 2017, and in June 2018 was inducted as a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is the producer of the award-winning and New York Times Critics’ Pick Quest, which premiered at Sundance in 2017, and her feature directing debut was the Emmy-nominated BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, which she co-directed, co-produced, and edited, winning Best Film Directed by a Woman of Color at the African Diaspora International Film Festival in 2016. She is also the co-producer and editor of Documented, the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning undocumented journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas.
ROBIN BLOTNICK (editor) produced and edited Knock Down The House, winner of the US Documentary Audience Award and the Festival Favorite award at Sundance 2019. His previous work as director and editor includes the award-winning documentaries The Hand That Feeds (2014, co-directed with Rachel Lears), about a bitter struggle for justice at a New York City bagel shop, and Gods and Kings (2012), about masks, magic and media in the Guatemalan highlands. His archival collage City of Movement is currently playing on infinite loop at the Museum of the City of New York.
CREDITS
Directed by Rachel Lears
Produced by: Sabrina Schmidt Gordon
Written and Produced by: Rachel Lears, Robin Blotnick
Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Rebecca Gang, Gale M. Harold III, Martin Marquet
Co-Executive Producers: Lauren Haber, Kelsey Koenig, Nancy Stephens & Rick Rosenthal, Adam & Melony Lewis
Director of Photography: Rachel Lears
Editor: Robin Blotnick
Original Score by: Ryan Blotnick
