Though sporting a rather plodding title, Conscientious Protectors: A Story of Rebellion Against Extinction is an engaging and rather compulsive documentary that offers fascinating insight into those few days back in 2019 when environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion brought London to a virtual standstill and succeeded through civil disobedience in focussing much-needed attention on climate change.
While dwelling briefly on the origins of the group and detailing statistics in the aftermath of the actions, the film essentially tracks the 10-day act of rebellion and the personalities involved. It is also a remarkably generous-spirited film allowing space for the opinions of the XR campaigners while also never demonising the police officers who have to deal with them.
Some of the key figures are introduced in footage shot three months before the protest started, focussing specifically on organic farmer Roger Hallam and environmental campaigner Gail Bradbrook, who had first worked together in 2016 when they set up the campaigning group Rising Up. Other co-founders of Extinction Rebellion include Stuart Basden and Clare Farrell, while other key XR members are also introduced.
Basden recounts matter-of-factly how 15 early members of the group met at Café Connect in Bristol where they “decided we were going to try and launch a rebellion.” The plan was that they would go onto the London streets with three demands. 1: Tell the truth about the climate emergency. 2: Net Zero emissions by 2025. 3: Form a Citizens Assembly.
The ’rebellion’ itself kicked-off on a sunny April 15, 2019, with co-ordinated and highly organised demonstrations in London, focussing specifically on Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Parliament Square, Marble Arch and Waterloo Bridge. A bright pink yacht is secured to the centre of Oxford Circus; a mobile stage is set up on Waterloo Bridge and protestors settle in for the long haul, to the clear bemusement of police who suggest that they should clear out as soon as possible.
The film follows the various protest sites as they fend off police attention, stage parties, offer up food, make speeches, plan further protest action – including a protest on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) – and try to plan ahead and work out how to retain public support, gain political attention and devise ways of stopping police reclaiming the locations.
Director Leigh Bloomfield utilises striking and exclusive access to the Extinction Rebellion movement with his fly on the wall doc buzzing between numerous sites and detailing the various developments over the days. On Day five a group of young XR members stage a small protest at Heathrow airport and on the same day the boat at Oxford Circus is moved by police; on Day 8 police liaison says that arrest conditions may be changing while by Day 9 senior members of XR realise people are tired and some drifting away… though at the same time senior government officials finally agree to meet them.
The incredible story of how Extinction Rebellion took over central London in 2019 makes for striking viewing. Some 1,151 people were arrested during the 10 days of action. More than 9,000 police responded costing the Metropolitan Police £16,100,494.39. On May 1, 2019, the UK Parliament declared a Climate Emergency. By March 3 2021, XR subscribers had grown to 224,724 activists.
Interestingly the film is generous in tone and spirit when it deals with both the protestors and the police. The XR members appear compassionate, intelligent, determined and emotionally engaged with their protest, while the police – until they start arresting folk – appear polite, communicative and genial in the way they handle the situation. Many other films of this type may have been more provocative, but while perhaps gentle and unchallenging to all involved, it does reinforce the power of resonance within this memorable protest.
UK, 2022, 98mins
Dir: Leigh Bloomfield
Production: Leap Productions
Producers: Leigh Bloomfield, Jeff Emerson
Editor: Leigh Bloomfield
Music: Hollie Buhagier
With: Roger Hallam, Gail Bradbrook, Clare Farrell, Stuart Basden, Larch Maxey, Clare Farrell
