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LEGION 44 FILM
Legion 44 is a documentary film about the rise of CDR: the innovators, the countries, the potential to make everything right again.
What happens when there's a breakthrough?
When, spontaneously, young people innovate and turn back what appears to be unstoppable catastrophe?
Legion 44 chronicles these visionaries, many from the Global South, who have invented groundbreaking solutions to reverse climate disruption. Our film shows we can indeed make everything right again. We start with the cautionary tale of Tuvalu that amidst global inaction and rising seas, is putting themselves into the metaverse to preserve their culture.
To which emerges our Legion, who answer the call and invent carbon removal. Building from the basic science of rocks, water and carbon, the film takes off and we see how human ingenuity can keep Tuvalu and other low-lying lands from going under. Legion 44 at times incorporates montages that shows a world distracted and so depressed that they have given up. But our heroes persist on.
This Legion is highly collaborative and from all walks of life and backgrounds. We journey to the Hajar mountains in Oman, to the vulnerable islands of Tuvalu, to the Rift Valley in Kenya, to the Southern Sahara in Morocco, to the Sargassum-rich seas of St. Vincent.
Legion 44 is more than a film, it is a love letter to humanity, and the 3rd film on climate by Leila Conners.
With Walton Goggins as narrator, his heartfelt compassion supports this tone. Conners works with Bosnian cinematographer Harun Mehmedinovic and his choice of anamorphic lenses to show collaboration in context. Legion 44 included Sun Creature from Denmark/France to build graphics that joyfully show the inner workings of the science. And most poignant, Marc Streitenfeld's strong score tinged with hope and yearning is a main pillar in our journey given that, will the world accept this pathway and scale in time?
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Conners has followed humanity's struggle with climate for over 20 years--first with The 11th Hour, then with Ice on Fire. Now she brings Legion 44 at a pivotal moment: will we inspire real action to fix climate once and for all?
Director's Statement
This film is my love letter to humanity and the earth. Over the course of my career I have had front row seats to the climate crisis and also the deeper impulses that have lead to a whole host of crises, from war to climate to famine, natural disasters and beyond. Throughout, I have always seen the love and the effort that so many people put into solving problems. In spite of the divisive media landscape and world we are all navigating in, and in spite of the very significant challenges we face, people have always, in the background, worked to make everything OK. And so Legion 44 went around the world to find young people who have risen up to meet the challenge of carbon even as many others doom scroll and observe the collapse. The story of Legion is one of resilience, ingenuity, collaboration and the healing not just of the earth of but of the deep divides between people as evidenced in the story thread with the Maasai in Kenya.
When one looks deeply at carbon removal and the momentum behind it, if we pull together and if the Legion successfully rises, we will be looking at climate disruption in the rear view mirror and will be able to go on to solve other problems, continuing to work to build a world the works for everyone. We start the film with the cautionary tale of Tuvalu jacking themselves into the metaverse to preserve their culture amidst rising seas…and the whole emergence of CDR and carbon dioxide removal is indeed specifically due to humanity’s effort to keep warming under 1.5 degrees, at which point Tuvalu will survive. Legion 44 and CDR is our collective call to all of humanity that we can face and solve this challenge together as one.
