February 25, 2023 - Filmmaker Max Hayes (GREENFINGERS)

GREENFINGERS, 16min., UK, Documentary
Directed by Max Hayes
Following fateful scientific reports, protestors pose the argument for a better future against the vested interest of industry. Small to large, individual to collective, where do I fit into this?

Get to know the filmmaker:

I knew throughout my Middlesex University Film BA that I wanted my final year project to be a documentary. Climate activism is a subject that I’m existentially tied to but I didn’t think I was well connected enough to make a film on it. When I fully considered how I wanted to use my time in education I decided to go for it, commit to researching environmentalism and hope that the experience could make a story.

I found that media coverage is set up to make activists defend their actions; whilst this is an important question to ask, I found this necessitates the activists to be combative towards the interviewer and I wanted to use my film to show their genuine humanity that may not be captured on the news.

I’ve studied Berthold Brecht and believe that addressing the audience directly and taking them out of the illusion of a film is important to communicate a political message. Barbara Kruger and Shepard Fairey’s bold work appealed to me as something that is both political, visually captivating and could be used to break my project up into chapters. They all motivated me to add a more experimental artistic side to the documentary.

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