When Jennifer Abbott lost her sister to cancer, her sorrow opened her up to the profound gravity of climate breakdown. Abbott’s new documentary The Magnitude of All Things draws intimate parallels between the experiences of grief—both personal and planetary. Stories from the frontlines of climate change merge with recollections from the filmmaker’s childhood on Ontario’s Georgian Bay. What do these stories have in common? The answer, surprisingly, is everything. For the people featured, climate change is not happening in the distant future: it is kicking down the front door. Battles waged, lamentations of loss, and raw testimony coalesce into an extraordinary tapestry, woven together with raw emotion and staggering beauty that transform darkness into light, grief into action.
Awards and distinctions
Creative Excellence Award
Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, Banff
2021
Special Mention of the Jury for the Grand Prix
Film Recherche et Développement Durable (FReDD Festival), Toulouse
2021
Special Mention- Documentary
Riviera International Film Festival, Sestri Levante
2021
Audience Choice Award
DocLands, San Rafael
2021
Best Nature & People Film
Mountain Film Festival, Ulju
2021
Best Canadian Feature Award
Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival, Toronto