Thank you to the residents who joined us for this week’s free screening of Re-Action Collective’s thought-provoking short film, Actionism – and thank you to Liverpool Life Sciences UTC for hosting us in their spectacular theatre space. Our screening was followed by a discussion, and notes from both are below. We’d love to keep this conversation going in Liverpool, so if you have any suggestions for next steps, get in touch!

Actionism is a documentary about finding your people and taking action on the things that matter to you. It begins with a young lady called Ellie, who is struggling—like so many these days—with climate anxiety. She meets Jon Alexander (who Engage has previously hosted in Liverpool three times, once in 2022 for his book launch ‘Citizens’, and as a speaker in two of our seminars, in 2016 his first appearance in Liverpool, during Reclaiming the City, and in 2022 for our seminar series Making Liverpool Better Together) and he gives her advice: “Think about what gives you joy. Then find the place that your joy meets the need for a citizen shift.”

For Ellie, that place of joy is nature. So Jon put her in touch with Re-Action Collective, and the remainder of the film follows Ellie as she meets members of the Collective, across the UK and Europe – organisations making a social enterprise out of pro-nature actions, like recycling tents, repairing and re-selling hiking gear, and running a lending library for outdoor kit.

Over the course of her journey, Ellie discovers that you don’t have to fix everything on your own. Find your one way into the problem, and trust others to fix their parts.

Discussion

After the screening, we stuck around for a conversation about what we’d all taken from the film.

One resident noted that it was nice to see the film start with joy, with finding what you care about. It feels like an approachable way to break down an otherwise huge, impossible problem like climate change.

Another resident felt that the focus on fast and slow fashion was an interesting angle. Clothing waste is such a big issue, but many are unaware of it. A parent in the audience agreed – there’s such a stigma around second hand clothing, even in school uniforms, where second-hand makes so much sense for rapidly growing kids!

One resident was surprised that these organisations are able to make these business models around clothes recycling stack up, financially. Someone else wondered whether maybe the businesses are “successful”, but in a different way to most businesses these days. She added that, when you look back over history, businesses in the past used to be more about feeding and serving the local community of workers, rather than shareholder return on investment. Maybe the way forward is a return to that more community-focussed culture?

Someone else agreed – perhaps there’s value to the intangible benefits of this less consumption-based lifestyle: the people you meet, the skills you learn. But hard to communicate that value.

There was a returning question over how much responsibility we all have for this, and how much national or local government has. An older resident said that he felt his generation had failed the younger generation. He asked what people like him could do to contribute to the shift required? Are there skills they could pass down?

Another resident asked “Could we show this film in schools?” Showing is one thing—someone else responded—but young people need to meet the people and organisations doing this work, like Ellie did. A young person in the audience agreed: Showing the film isn’t enough, kids will say they’ve heard it all before. They already feel like all the pressure is on them. It would be better to organise workshops or things that get the kids involved – show them how to make a small change themselves.

We discussed how there are people and organisations doing this stuff in the Liverpool City Region – if you can find them. How do you find them, though? Someone suggested that it feels like a community forming around this across the water, in Birkenhead, especially around reusing spaces. Places like Make Hamilton Square, Futureyard, repurposing spaces, running community-focussed businesses that do a good job of things like integrating into public transport as well.

Our discussion ended with a question – “What do we do next?”. Ellie’s answer would be “Find your people.” In Engage’s experience, connecting between the siloes that Liverpool communities often find themselves in, is the big challenge. Who can facilitate the connections between those groups? Who should watch Activism next?

If you have any ideas, let us know!