UK • Documentary • Year: 2025 • Running time: 110 mins
Audience Response: 13 slips returned
- ‘Excellent’ – 9 responses
- ‘Very Good’ – 4 responses
- ‘Good’ – 0 responses
- ‘Satisfactory’ – 0 responses
- ‘Poor’ – 0 responses
Read the comments here or visit the “The Line We Crossed” discussion page to join in the conversation.
Synopsis:
A nonviolent civil resistance group is demanding the UK government stop licensing new oil, gas and coal projects in the face of the climate emergency. The more they resist, the more the government clamps down on their right to protest and subjects them to arrests and harsh prison sentences. This film exposes the chilling effect of draconian laws being passed that affect the democratic rights of all British citizens. Are we at a tipping point of no return for our democratic rights as well as for the climate crisis?
Director: Liz Smith
The Conspiracists (2024) / I Am Gen Z (2021)
Film Notes:
A new documentary released earlier this year provides the chance to enter into the debate about the rights of pressure groups, and the public in general, to protest about issues which affect the whole of society. In Liz Smith’s film a ‘non-violent civil resistance’ group is demanding the UK government stop licensing new oil, gas and coal projects in the face of the perceived ‘climate emergency’. The more they resist and protest, the more the government clamps down on their rights to protest and subjects them to arrest and harsh prison sentences.
The film will undoubtedly provide its audiences with much food for thought: is some civil disobedience and protest ‘crossing the line’ and where should that line be drawn? Is stopping traffic on the Queen Elizabeth bridge or gluing hands to the roadway just such a line?
We hope the film will stimulate and provoke, as well as informing, as it challenges audiences to question what makes dissent effective and where the line of acceptability is crossed, if at all. Hence the Q & A session at the end of the film, probably not lasting longer than 30 minutes, will be just such an opportunity to express your reactions.