Cli-Fi Blockbusters Hit Theaters

Currently, yet another remake of Godzilla is stomping its way through the summer blockbuster season. The film is part of a recent trend in cinema that has been dubbed “cli-fi” by environmental activist Dan Bloom. Godzilla, Into the Storm, and Snowpiercer are among the films highlighted in a recent issue of Time magazine. Here’s a link to the article by Lily Rothman and a brief excerpt:

“These films are far from the first to give the idea of climate change its due in the fear department . . . but they arrive on the crest of a new wave of optimism about the power of fiction.

. . .

“The term [cli-fi] started to gain traction in the past year, showing up in news reports and classrooms, where courses like Stephanie LeMenager’s graduate seminar The Cultures of Climate Change, at the University of Oregon, explore what’s behind the intuition that stories can make a difference. . . . LeMenager says fiction has and advantage: hope. ‘Literature always imagines a world elsewhere, even when it’s imagining this one. It’s a stimulant to a sense of possibility that is very hard to maintain given the facts of climate change,’ she says. ‘In the world of fiction, no future is inevitable.'”