''Elemental'' is a 2012

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee and Gayatri Roshan. The film was premiered at the

Mill Valley Film Festival The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual American film festival founded in 1977. History In October 1977, Mark Fishkin, Rita Cahill and Lois Cole organized a three-day film festival. It featured three film tributes, Francis Ford Coppola's ''Th ...

on October 9, 2012, in

Mill Valley Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

.Mill Valley Film Festival 2012: Official Selections
/ref>

Synopsis

''Elemental'' tells the story of three individuals united by their deep connection with nature and driven to confront some of the most pressing

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their biophysical environment, physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosy ...

challenges of our time. The film follows

Rajendra Singh Rajendra Singh (born 6 August 1959) is an Indian water conservationist and environmentalist from Alwar district, Rajasthan in India. Also known as "waterman of India", he won the Magsaysay Award in 2001 and Stockholm Water Prize in 2015. He r ...

, an Indian government official gone rogue, on a 40-day

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

down India's once pristine

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

river, now polluted and dying. Facing community opposition and personal doubts, Singh works to shut down factories, halt construction of dams, and rouse the Indian public to treat their sacred "Mother Ganga" with respect. Across the globe in northern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, Eriel Deranger mounts her own "David and Goliath" struggle against the world's largest industrial development, the

Tar Sands Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...

, an oil deposit larger than the state of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. A young mother and native Denè, Deranger struggles with family challenges while campaigning tirelessly against the Tar Sands and its proposed 2,000-mile

Keystone XL Pipeline The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albe ...

, which are destroying Indigenous communities and threatening an entire continent. And in Australia, inventor and entrepreneur Jay Harman searches for investors willing to risk millions on his conviction that nature's own systems hold the key to our world's ecological problems. Harman finds his inspiration in the natural world's profound architecture and creates a revolutionary device that he believes can slow down

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in a broader sense also includes ...

. Separated by continents yet sharing an unwavering commitment to protecting nature, the characters in this story are complex, flawed,

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...

heroes for whom stemming the tide of environmental destruction fades in and out of view.

Release

The film was premiered at the 2012

. In 2012, it was screened at the International Film Festival of India, Wildscreen Festival in the United Kingdom,Wildscreen Festival: Elemental
/ref>

St. Louis International Film Festival The St. Louis International Film Festival (also known as SLIFF or Cinema St. Louis) is an annual film festival in St. Louis, Missouri, which has been running since 1992. The coordinating organization changed its name to "Cinema St. Louis" in 2003 ...

Red Rock Film Festival Red Rock Film Festival is an international film festival in Southern Utah in the United States. Held annually in November, in St. George, Ivins, and Springdale by Zion National Park, the festival introduces the area to new international and US i ...

,Red Rock Film Festival: Elemental
/ref> Social Change Film Festival2012 Film Selections
/ref> and

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

.Austin Film Festival: Elemental
/ref>

Reception

During its festival run, ''Elemental'' was reviewed by online and local publications including ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', ''The Film Stage'', ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is owned by Gannett. The paper prints Associated Press, ''New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times'' internation ...

'', ''Off to the Films'', ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, serving the Greater St. Louis, St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpass ...

'' and ''Lost in Reviews''. Dennis Harvey wrote in ''Variety'' that the film is "an interesting...view of eco-warriors at work" and "their efforts are duly inspiring and the related issues imposing".Harvey, Dennis
"Elemental."
''Variety'' October 29, 2012. ''The Film Stage'' noted the film's "alarming intimacy" and stated, "Elemental is a rare, fresh look at environmental issues and sustainability that does not shy away from the personal impact the decisions to dedicate one's life to a cause entails."Fink, John
"Elemental: Austin Film Festival 2012 Review", ''The Film Stage'', October 22, 2012.
/ref> ''Off to the Films'' called the documentary "beautifully shot", "heartbreaking, informative, and compelling".Horan, Joey
"AFF: Elemental"
''Off to the Films.'' October 23, 2012. ''Lost in Reviews'' called the film "truly moving and engaging" and "one of the better environmental documentaries out there".Guzman, Nick
"Movie Review: Elemental"
, ''Lost in Reviews'', October 30, 2012. The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' listed Elemental as one of the highlights of the 21st St. Louis International Film Festival, and called the film "inspirational", concluding, "The pro-active protagonists lift it from the muck of feel-bad documentaries."Williams, Joe

''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', November 7, 2012. ''

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

'' magazine highlighted the film as one of the best five documentaries at Mill Valley Film Festival, and the ''Austin American-Statesman'' called it one of the top documentaries at Austin Film Festival.Sumner, Jane
"AFF capsule: 'Elemental'"
''Austin American-Statesman'', October 19, 2012.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, 2089674, Elemental 2012 films 2012 in the environment American documentary films Documentary films about environmental issues 2012 documentary films 2010s Hindi-language films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2012 multilingual films American multilingual films