This assessment task requires you to apply your sociological imagination to critically examine the film ‘Ants and Grasshoppers’ (2021). You will then be required to provide a sociological analysis of the issues and themes of the film. You should draw from specific content and themes in the film, as well as literature in this course, in answering the following questions as part of your film review:
- How does key environmental theory (eg. treadmill of production, ecological modernisation, political economy – consider choosing one) assist you to explain the global climate crisis?
- What are the various ways this film showcases climate justice, and importantly, climate injustice? How are discourses about climate (in)justice ‘assembled, presented and contested’? (hint see Hannigan, pp. 56 – 66).
- How does the film grapple with themes of loss and emotions, including specifically in relation to climate change?
- How does the film showcase the significance of gender equality in building a climate just future?
- How might Anita and Esther’s experience have been similar and/or different had they travelled from Malawi to Australia, rather than the US? In otherwords, what are the similarities and differences between Australia and the US related to political and public responses to the climate crisis, as well as local movements driving climate justice?