Review: I Am Greta

Greta and marchers in I Am Greta

I Am Greta begins with Greta Thunberg sitting alone with a “School Strike for Climate” sign outside the Swedish Parliament. It ends several months later when Greta Thunberg was known and admired all over the world as a climate activist.

You see clearly how much courage Greta Thunberg has in I Am Greta. She’s diminutive in size but not intimidated by the larger than life people around her. Heads of state, celebrities, or other kids fighting for the future like her – she treats them all the same. She says what she needs to say in plain language and she doesn’t hold back.

Greta has Asperger’s syndrome, which gave her the focus to devour (and almost memorize) many books on climate change. But it also made it hard for her to meet people in social situations and have her routines disrupted.

She has a horse and dogs, both of which mean a lot to her. In her traveling, she often mentioned missing the dogs. The film gives us several glimpses into Greta’s home life and pops in the occasional home video of her as a younger child.

I don’t know why or who decided to document Greta’s fight for climate justice from its humble beginnings on the sidewalk in Stockholm. But the documentary follows her from there to all around Europe where she spoke at various meetings. She then traveled across the Atlantic on a sailboat (a 15 day trip) to address the U.N. on climate change. Her father accompanied her on all these trips.

While in the U.S. she participated in several marches and spoke out again and again saying the people in charge have failed. Something needs to be done now and not left for 15 year old schoolgirls to grow up and fix. There is no time to waste or spare.

As she struggled with seasickness and the uncertainty of the sea voyage, she reflected on how crushing it was to have so much responsibility on her shoulders.

I actually got goosebumps watching this brilliant and courageous young woman as she struggled to convince the people with the power to create change to actually DO IT. I’ve been fighting for environmental causes for 50 years. People used to think I was an extremist when I talked about recycling. I understand the frustration of young people who see that the adults around them have only made things worse.

The film was directed by Nathan Grossman. It’s available on Hulu.

Poster for I Am Greta

Here’s the trailer.

Are you interested in Greta’s story?

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