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“…There’s something valuable in putting yourself sort of in an imaginary way or in a vicarious way through a disaster that strengthens your ability to deal with it if it happens to you. And in a sense, that’s what this film is… It’s sort of, you know, ‘I’m going to go through all of these things with people just like me and see them respond in incredibly human ways.’”
Greg Jacobs, co-director of The Here Now Project and co-founder of Siskel/Jacobs Productions
A note to listeners who may be sensitive to the subject matter: This episode contains brief descriptions of death and distress caused by climate events.
With a widescale and urgent phenomenon like climate change, there are innumerable ways to imagine communicating its impacts through articles, film, or television. That said, given the immensity of this subject within our minds and environment, certain audiences may be unwilling or unprepared to interact with the challenging realities of man-made warming.
Emmy-winning filmmakers Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel needed to overcome exactly this difficulty when directing their latest documentary, The Here Now Project. Luckily, through their previous projects documenting harrowing events such as Hurricane Katrina in their film Witness: Katrina (2010) and the September 11th attacks in 102 Minutes That Changed America (2008), the team behind Siskel/Jacobs Productions has become skilled at using film to memorialize and give context to communal grief at the site of disaster.
Like these previous documentaries, The Here Now Project combines amateur and professional videos captured by eyewitnesses to convey the lasting social impact of its subject—namely, climate change. Through thoughtful editing and compilation of this primary source footage, the film provides the viewer an intimate experience of over 200 climate-related events that took place in 2021, including the 180 simultaneous wildfires that burned around the globe that summer.
Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Greg Jacobs, co-director of The Here Now Project and co-founder of Siskel/Jacobs Productions, discuss the directorial process behind this latest film, how the Ten Across geography is present within it, and why this kind of climate storytelling is necessary today.
The Here Now Project will premiere before select audiences at the Toronto Hot Docs Festival, April 26 and May 1. Stay up to date on timing for its wider release by visiting herenowproject.com.
Feature photo credit: Courtesy of Siskel/Jacobs Productions
Guest Speaker
Greg Jacobs is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and co-founder of Siskel/Jacobs Productions, alongside Jon Siskel. Greg recently co-directed and co-produced the film The Here Now Project, which compiles several firsthand video accounts of climate-related events from around the globe in 2021. He has built a reputation for films that tackle vital stories with integrity, complexity, and emotion, including the acclaimed documentaries 102 Minutes That Changed America, Louder Than A Bomb, and Witness: Katrina. Greg is also the author of “Getting Around Brown,” and a 2016 New America Fellow.
