CLIMATE CULTURES made in Germany II
Dieselgate - FILM with Discussion
D 2021, D: Johan von Mirbach, 53 min, (Eng. subs)
Discussion: Johan von Mirbach/ Germany, Winfried Wolf/ Berlin, Anna Baatz/ Berlin
Moderation: Tobias Gralke/ Berlin
Languages: German, English
Johan von Mirbach's documentary #Dieselgate depicts a corrupted male society within the German car industry that refuses to expose ongoing fraud and knows no sense of guilt. There are victims but no perpetrators; responsibility is pushed down and blame is placed on a few wild-eyed engineers.
Politics failed to do anything either. While at the time the film was made, $23 billion in damages were paid in the U.S., only $3 billion were paid in Germany, and the film ends with the line: “6 years after the diesel scandal, no one has yet to be convicted of fraud in Germany”.
Where do we stand today? Has the “car system” hit the brakes as a result of the diesel scandal? Has it brought us any closer to a traffic turnaround? Are electric cars the more sustainable solution? What could activism from below achieve if the subject of this misguided climate culture is the car?
The panel will show excerpts from Johan von Mirbach's documentary film. This will be followed by a conversation with the director and a discussion with Winfried Wolf and the activist Anna Baatz from “Berlin autofrei”.
On the Podium
Johan von Mirbach, author and documentary filmmaker produces documentaries and reports for the public broadcasters ARTE, WDR and Deutsche Welle, among others. His work is often devoted to the scandalous stories of our CO2 culture. The WDR documentary “Smoke and Fumes: The Climate Change Cover-Up“ and “#Dieselgate — How the car industry lied to us all” show how business and corporations put profits above people and the environment and deliberately lie to the public.
• 2021 #Dieselgate — How the car industry lied to us all (52 min)
• 2018 Smoke and Fumes: The Climate Change Cover-Up (52 min)
Winfried Wolf is an expert on transportation, author of numerous non-fiction books and editor-in-chief of Lunapark magazine. He is a scientific advisor to attac and has been writing critically on the complex of mobility, environment and climate for 30 years. Some of his more recent titles encompass his range of topics: “Departed: Why We Need a New Rail Policy”, “With the Electric Car into the Dead End” and “Speed Mania: From the Fetish of Speed to the Necessity of Deceleration“.
• 2021 Tempowahn (Speed Mania)
• 2020 Mit dem Elektroauto in die Sackgasse (With the Electric Car into the Dead End)
↗Zeitschrift LunaPark21
Anna Baatz is an activist with the initiative “Volksentscheid Berlin Autofrei” (Referendum for a carfree Berlin). The initiative collected more than 50,000 signatures for their bill which advocates for common good-oriented road use. Currently the constitutional conformity of the bill is being examined. The initiative is convinced that a reduction in use and number of cars is not only fair but also urgently needed in the face of the climate crisis. Anna is part of the initiative's press and social media team. In addition to being an activist, she works as a researcher and investigates the (transformative) dynamics of everyday practices and spaces.