There’s plenty of serious documentaries on the world’s environmental problems. How to Boil a Frog takes a different approach, mixing fast-paced comedy with hard-hitting facts to help make complex subjects both understandable and more engaging. The accompanying study guide, done in the same style as the film, is an additional useful and unique resource.
This highly entertaining film features everyman dad narrator, Jon Cooksey (a screenwriter in real life), who is a guy worried about his daughter’s future. Cooksey effectively plays a dozen different characters in the film to illustrate his points, from a lab-coated scientist to a surfer. He recounts his own wake-up moment, on the subject of climate change, and his subsequent discovery that global warming is part of a bigger problem: “global overshoot” – humans putting too much demand on our limited natural world.
After presenting the consequences of overshoot, Jon launches into a clever review of five major problems and how they’re connected: overpopulation, the war on nature, income inequality, peak oil and finally global warming. From there, he offers a set of positive solutions that can be accomplished by individuals and families to help turn things around. Along with the comedy, the movie interweaves high quality animation and world-class experts in relevant fields (presented both briefly and humorously) to help encourage both awareness and action.
ADVISORY: PG13 for some language and scenes.
STUDY GUIDE: The 64 page multi-disciplinary guide for high school to college classes mirrors the style of the movie: funny and colorful. It follows the movie’s structure and examines issues more in depth. A teacher’s section aligns the movie with various curricula, and includes questions and exercises for students.
Running Time: 87 minutes Grades 9-Adult Chaptered for Scene Selection • Closed Captioned A Film by Jon Cooksey
“A feisty little film which is down-home in style, and humorous.” – Vancouver Sun
“Ambitious and insightfully practical…I give this one high marks. (Cooksey) has tapped in to an important way to communicate tough issues to an increasingly distracted audience: make ‘em laugh. He presents it all with an edgier take on the whole Bill Nye the Science Guy vibe. Only, the PG-13 version. Hey, it works for Jon Stewart.” – Transition Voice
Winner Best Environmental Film, FilmShift Film Festival Best Documentary & Best Director, Los Angeles Movie Awards Best Green Film, Mammoth Film Festival Finalist, Screenwriting Award, Writer’s Guild of Canada
Official Selection Wild and Scenic Film Festival Newport Beach Film Festival Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival San Antonio Film Festival Warsaw Film Festival Blue Planet Film Festival
