Earth Protectors (2024) Film Review
What are you doing to make this world a better place?
Anne de Carbuccia is an artist with enough good and interesting work to draw the attention of fans across the world. There’s a story so powerful that it doesn’t fall between the cracks and has enough agency of its own to stay alive in conversations that are not exactly about artistic expression. The French artist left the comfort zone of galleries and meeting rooms in order to capture Earth in its raw state. Damaged but resilient, the organism in which we live is begging for help, and the artist listened.
She decided to grab a bag, clean up her multilingual capacity, and travel across the world in search of environmental pieces that she can think of at the exact moment when she feels she’s able to capture what she needs. She arrives at an isolated area and designs the art piece that her camera will shoot. She takes with her the evidence of the remains, the newborn, and most important of all, the interaction between humans and the environment. We have ravaged and pillaged, but there’s hope, and in Earth Protectors, Anne de Carbuccia documents the broad concept that should be in everyone’s mouths.
The documentary runs at the pace and style of this documentary niche. It’s an environmental piece where the activist and artist visits obscure corners in the world and takes the pictures that perfectly reflect the ways we interact with Earth and what some are doing in order to make it a livable place. This journey is so ambitious that it could be taken as an excuse to travel the world, but the director does enough to show that this isn’t a leisure trip. It’s an eye-opener that uses impressive art.
Nevertheless, it also addresses how most people are forced to take battle positions in the concrete jungle. Activism is now so streamlined in popular culture that some people live by it. As extreme as it sounds, Anne does turn the camera the other way and gives voice to those who march and protest as a lifestyle and don’t even care about making an impact. It’s just how their lives are designed. Fortunately, the documentary doesn’t address politics. This doesn’t mean that digging deeper isn’t necessary. Sometimes, a bias also consists of stopping where you shouldn’t stop.
But luckily, the director’s journey feels like the center of her speech. It’s just impossible for secondary elements to surpass the beauty of what she’s trying to do with her art and the stories it tells. And her method doesn’t just consist of taking a picture. Anne asks the right questions to the right people and gives them the opportunity to speak their mind. It’s actually very curious to see how all the sides fighting on one side compare to each other. One thing’s protesting and doing performance art, and another is to be on the trenches.
In the end, the question shouldn’t be, “What are you doing to make this world a better place?” It should actually be “Are you sure it’s enough?” Anne de Carbuccia proves you can always take one step further and spread the word, even if it’s through art, something elemental that most wouldn’t associate with the environment but which has the capacity to make an impact.
