Young people have grown up with mainstream narratives, largely created by the advertising industry, telling them that high consumption lifestyles are the route to the good life, while simultaneously hearing about the dire consequences they can expect if high consumption lifestyles continue. With the support of KR Foundation, in 2019 we launched Flickers of the Future, a campaign that works with young creatives to help people imagine a more sustainable future.
Engaging and inspiring young creatives
Our Flickers of the Future campaign has directly engaged with 373 young creatives to inspire them to develop new stories and content that show positive visions of sustainable futures. We have helped young people to envision a better future through four creative initiatives.
A competition to find the creatives of the future. Over 100 young film makers were inspired to develop creative treatments that told the story of a positive sustainable future, in a competition launched with film writer and director Richard Curtis CBE.
Creating content for MTV. There were over a million views of our three competition finalists pitching their creative ideas for a sustainable future. Bethan Moore won with her ‘Bonk for Britain’ concept, now viewed over 1.8 million times.
Including sustainability in drama and comedy. We called on the TV and media industry to feature more sustainability themes, and attracted 273 attendees (mostly TV industry professionals) to our ‘Making a Drama out of a Crisis’ webinar, hosted in partnership with the Royal Television Society.
Setting up an Instagram channel, #FlickersoftheFuture. We developed this channel to act as a source of inspiration, and paired up 13 young artists with sustainability experts and futurists to create beautifully curated posts.
Promoting positive narratives
The campaign demonstrated the demand – from both audiences and the media – for alternative narratives of the future that counter negative stereotypes and offer hope and inspiration. It inspired the creative sector to explore sustainable ways of living as source material for powerful storytelling. In future, we will inspire positive climate narratives in popular drama and comedy by providing the expertise on the individual, cultural and systemic changes needed by the broadcast sector. We are working with writers to ensure that this complex topic can inspire and enhance the creative process.
Your(e) trash is a hybrid live action and animation short film, set in a future where the trash we generate over a period of five years must fit in a single mason jar. In this world, you are given a mason jar every five years. Everything that you are going to throw away that cannot be recycled MUST fit in this jar. If you can’t fit it, then you have to find another use for it. That’s it. Simple. Our film follows a young woman in her 20’s, Marcy, who has recently had a very dramatic breakup. She wants to throw away everything in her flat that belongs to her ex, everything that he has ever given her, everything that he has ever TOUCHED. But she can’t. Because IT DOESN’T FIT IN THE JAR.
In this quirky comedy depicting a world where meat and dairy are no longer acceptable, a lonely farmer has a stark realisation. That he must apologise to his cow. An impressive cast of actors play the main roles. John Hannah (Four Weddings & a Funeral, The Mummy) as Cassette Voice, Perry Fitzpatrick (Line of Duty, This is England) as Tim the Farmer and Charlotte Mills (Behind her Eyes, Letter for the King) as Cow.
A man struggling to deal with his mental health, his inconsiderate housemate and the state of the planet sets out on a mission to work out how he can after the environment when he can barely look after himself. Paper Cuts is an honest, moving and ultimately uplifting fictional short about the little things we can do to find hope in a time of personal and climate crisis. A film made with the support of Global Action Plan, as part of the Flickers of the Future initiative.
Maanuv Thiara - Bradley
Callum Woodhouse - John
Directed by Laura Clifford
Written by Jack Stanley
Produced by Zoe Papadopoulou
Environmental programming doesn't have to be boring, didactic or terrifying - it can be funny, interesting, educational and personal.
Richard Curtis CBE, film writer and director
Funded by the KR Foundation
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