The Human Element

Strengths

One of the strengths of this film is its visual appeals. Every picture that Balog took is appealing to the audience’s emotions. Since the photographs are shown following stories of victims’ experience and lives, the viewers can understand the seriousness of environmental issues and evoke fear and empathy.

Also, the film centers on people who are affected by climate change throughout the scenes even though it has a protagonist James Balog. By depicting victims-centered stories, it can depict reality as it is and make the audience feel much closer to the environmental issues. That is what is different from other documentaries, which develop their story following protagonists.

Weakness

I personally had a difficult time finding the weakness of this film since the contents are all informative. However, if I raise one point, its weakness is that the story is America-centric. All issues shown in this film are happening in America, so the film is mainly aimed towards the American audience. There is a possibility that some viewers in other countries may recognize the issues as someone else’s business. Because of its great content, I thought that it would be more amazing if the directors made it towards not only Americans but also broader audiences.

“The Human Elements” won many awards so far, such as AreDay 2018 Impact Film, EarthXFilm 2018 Catalyst Award, Colorado Film &Video Association 2019 Best Documentary, and so on. It has contributed to increasing many people’s environmental awareness through its effective depictions of reality.

For more information, you can visit the site from this link: https://thehumanelementmovie.com/