McGill has an incredible reputation and Montreal is a rich, diverse and exceptional city to live in. When I came to McGill as a mature student, it was the right time and the right program for me.
My studies in fact gave me a lens through which to look at the world, and still inform my work every single day.”
The teachers and mentors I had in the Philosophy Department and in the School of Religious Studies were outstanding. I experienced the luxury of learning for the sake of learning, and was fascinated by those subjects of ethics, epistemology and metaphysics. And although my work as a documentary filmmaker ostensibly took a right turn, my studies in fact gave me a lens through which to look at the world, and still inform my work every single day.
In Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, the Anthropocene Working Group scientists were our inspiration. For 12 years, they have been investigating human impact on the planet, and their research suggests that humans now change the earth and its systems more than all natural processes combined. The interdisciplinary nature of the project was perhaps the most challenging and most satisfying part: one medium of enquiry – art – trying to illuminate another – science.
We have always believed in promoting "experiential understanding"; that is, taking people to places they are connected to but would never normally see, and allowing them to experience these contexts without judging or telling them what to think. This was perhaps most tricky in Anthropocene (Manufactured Landscapes (’06) and Watermark (’13) are the other two collaborations with Edward Burtynsky), because of trying to relay the science.
Dandora Landfill #3, Plastics Recycling, Nairobi, Kenya 2016
The first question we get asked in Q&As is "What can I do to make a difference?" To me, the answer is an ongoing, daily combination of small and big gestures. Small things like not always driving a car, limiting or offsetting air travel, refusing to accept single-use plastics and boycotting the companies that use them, trying to measure full-cost accounting as a consumer, eating less or no red meat.
The bigger gestures involve engaging with activist groups and collectives that are doing the vital work of fighting against corporate lobbying and influencing, driven by profit and greed, our governments and political systems. Erica Chenoweth wrote a paper that suggests that only 3.5 per cent of a population is necessary to create change. We can manage that!