In the Media
In the Press
The imagery, music, and storytelling are utterly captivating as Abbott takes viewers on a spellbinding and heartbreaking journey through grief. She shows through grief circles and kitchen-table conversations how accepting and processing loss can lead to personal renewal, which sets the stage for authentic responses.
~Charlie Smith, The Georgia Straight
“Director Jennifer Abbott, however, harnesses a new emotion that films about climate change have yet to experience: grief. The Magnitude of All Things moves with the unshakeable sensation of grief and loss. It’s an unexpected and effective feeling, particularly as it arrives at a time when many audiences grieve for the sense of normalcy that 2020 has stripped from their lives.”
— POV Magazine
“Perhaps the most visceral reasoned call to action for humanity since An Inconvenient Truth.”
- Tammy Bannister, VIFF Programmer
“We have to face it”: Filmmaker Jennifer Abbott on ecological grief. “Abbott reminds us that the world is staggeringly beautiful and in the midst of unprecedented destruction. She introduces us to Elders, teenagers, politicians and a coral scientist (to name a few) who are navigating feelings of hope and loss while doing everything they can to turn the tides.”
— The Narwhal
“The world premiere of Sundance award-winning Vancouver filmmaker Jennifer Abbott’s new feature doc The Magnitude of All Things tops a powerful lineup of National Film Board of Canada (“NFB”) produced and co-produced documentary and animation at the Vancouver International Film Festival (“VIFF”)”
— Miss604.com
“Abbott frames the way our society is dealing with climate change through the lens of her sisters terminal illness, and the grief she felt following her sister’s death. She draws a direct line from that personal grief to the grief of those people whose homes are being threatened, impacted, or even destroyed by climate change.
— Awesome Friday
“The idea of The Magnitude of All Things came to me suddenly in the summer of 2014 when I mistook ash falling from a climate-change-related forest re for snow. Accompanying the ash’s slow descent was a feeling of grief.”
— Playback
“Brave and painful, the film explores our emotional response to situations too vast to grasp.”
— Anne-Marie Hoeve, 5 Media
“Watch it and weep: Jennifer Abbott's remarkable, poetic, and lyrical film about the profound urgency, grief, and gravity of climate change is deeply moving.”
~ Nick Holdsworth, Modern Times
4 stars - “Accept it or not, watch and feel the two storylines play out in this superb film.”
—Volkmar Richter, The National Observer
“There is so much in this film to which we can all connect – we know the pain of grief for losing a loved one – and now we are increasingly understanding the grief that is so deeply connected to increasing environmental loss.”
— Ashlee Cunsolo Dean, School of Arctic and Sub-Arctic Studies at the Labrador Institute featured in The Magnitude of All Things
“You don’t have to push it away. It’s a tremendous relief to turn towards our deepest fears and the climate crisis that we as a species have created. I hope that the film empowers some viewers to do just that.”
— Jennifer Abbott interviewed in Edify
An interview with Jennifer Abbott: Grieving for a world on fire
—Vancouver Sun
Press Kit
Partners
National Film Board of Canada
The NFB is Canada’s public producer of award-winning creative documentaries, auteur animation, interactive stories and participatory experiences. NFB producers are embedded in communities across the country, from St. John’s to Vancouver, working with talented creators on innovative and socially relevant projects. The NFB is a leader in gender equity in film and digital media production, and is working to strengthen Indigenous-led production, guided by the recommendations of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
TELUS Fund
TELUS Fund finances exceptional content that promotes the health and well-being of Canadians. The Fund is made possible thanks to the vision of TELUS Corporation and the incredible success of TELUS TV with more than 1.1 Million customers in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec. The Fund is an independently governed, not-for-profit corporation certified by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as a Canadian Independent Production Fund eligible to administer TELUS Corporation’s financial contributions in support of Canadian programming. Since launching in 2013, The Fund has committed over 25M to more than 100 projects.
Telefilm Canada
A proud champion of Canadian talent and stories, at home and abroad, Telefilm has been at the heart of the Canadian audiovisual industry for more than half a century. Our mandate to foster and promote the development of the audiovisual industry in Canada remains as relevant today as it was when it was first put into place. Our driving goal is to bring Canadian creativity to the world.
Flying Eye Productions
Flying Eye Productions was started by acclaimed director Jennifer Abbott. Most well-known as one of the Directors and Editor of The Corporation, Flying Eye Productions focuses on exploring urgent social, political and environmental issues including the upcoming sequel to The Corporation and her soon to be released NFB documentary The Magnitude of All Things highlighting the current climate crisis.
Cedar Island Films
Cedar Island Films is run by seasoned producers Henrik Meyer and Andrew Williamson to produce meaningful documentaries, feature dramas and scripted series with a focus on international co-productions. Bringing together decades of domestic and international experience, Andrew, Henrik and their team develop, finance and create captivating content for broadcasters, distributors and audiences in Canada and around the world.
Good Pitch
Good Pitch brings together documentary filmmakers with foundations, NGO’s, campaigners, philanthropists, policymakers, brands and media around leading social and environmental issues – to forge coalitions and campaigns that are good for all these partners, good for the films and good for society. It was created by the DocSociety (formerly BritDoc) in the United Kingdom in 2008 and has since been to more than fifteen countries.
David Suzuki Foundation
Through evidence-based research, education and policy analysis, the foundation works to conserve and protect the natural environment and help create a sustainable Canada.
Climate Reality Project Canada
A charity organization that serves as the Canadian component of a global movement of more than 21,000 diverse and dedicated volunteers, from 154 countries around the world.
Labrador Institute
A leading centre of research, education, policy, and outreach by and for the North. As a division of Memorial University, the Labrador Institute is one of the few university-based units in Canada dedicated solely to the needs and priorities of the North.
