On November 19, 2024, VISIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY screened Jennifer Abbott’s moving documentary The Magnitude of All Things as part of the ICN project’s transdisciplinary climate protection film series.

Despite stormy weather, the second film screening of the VISIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY research project was very well attended – in the fully occupied cinema hall at the Harmonie Kino in Freiburg, the 100 spectators again had the choice between an online survey and a paper questionnaire. This time, in keeping with the subject of the film, the researchers were particularly interested in attitudes towards grief as an emotional reaction to the effects of climate change. The data collected is currently being evaluated.

In the subsequent discussion, psychologist and psychotherapist Verena Heidenreich and VISIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY project director Alexa Weik von Mossner talked to the audience about initial reactions to the film and about the challenge of accepting and “enduring” feelings of climate sadness in order to achieve more emotional resilience and meaningful action.

At the end of the event, Verena Heidenreich referred to numerous further offers as well as to her own follow-up workshop (in German), “Raus aus Ohnmacht und Hilfloskeit – Rein ins Symbiozän”, which will take place on December 4, 2024 at the VHS Freiburg in cooperation with the VISIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY project.

Our film series continues on December 10th with the Australian film 2040-Join the Regeneration by Damon Gameau, in which the filmmaker tries to give his 4-year-old daughter a better future by going on a search for existing solutions to the problems and challenges of climate change. Pia Laborge and Dr. Volker Stelzer from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, who together with AllWeDo, have established the ICN project “KBR Innovation Communities” in Freiburg-Herdern, will join the discussion after the film. Registration through the VHS Freiburg is required; admission is free.

VISIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY is an inter- and transdisciplinary research project funded by the Innovation Sustainability Campus (ICN), located at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Non-university cooperation partners include Harmonie Kino, the Volkshochschule Freiburg and Greenmotions. The Freiburg environmental mayor Christine Buchheit has take on the patronage of the project.