Gaslight

The majority of Australia’s political leaders think gas is the key to the climate crisis and gas is being sold to the public as “renewable” and a “net-zero technology”.

Hang on a moment … we’ve got to set the record straight.

GASLIGHT is a comedy documentary that follows a fictional young PR recruit, Heidi, as she journeys across Australia through the world of gas sorting out what’s hot air and how it’s playing out for first nations people. In the style of CUNK ON EARTH, we watch her unpack the effective spin campaigns that have wrought havoc on Australia and the US and continue to hold us back from making progress on climate change.

This comedy satire is a weapon for mass-disruption aimed at younger audiences with a focus on the damage that has been done to first nations populations. It’s equipped with an extensive impact campaign to action change encouraging audiences to ask: are we being gaslit?

Are we being gaslit? This comedy documentary empowers audiences to identify spin and use it in their communities to create change, and take the power of democracy back to the people. Working in partnership with the Australian Democracy Network and the Stop Barossa Gas developments, the launch campaign will include screenings and panel conversations, targeted op-eds, social media, media and community advocacy.

In the short term, we would like to encourage audiences to make their voices heard in the next state and federal elections. We want to inspire audiences to actively and publicly ask questions about the large public money subsidies granted to the fossil fuel industry.
In the medium term, we would like to encourage more households to reduce their reliance on gas.
In the long term, we would like to empower a new generation of philanthropists who are about to come into considerable wealth, gender neutral age 25 – 50 years of age, predominantly millennials who have capital to influence power structures to enable decisions that can prioritise our planet over profits.

The impact strategy for GASLIGHT will build on the success and existing trust and networks that were built around comedy feature film BIG DEAL (Madman/ABC), bringing together a targeted and deeply knowledgeable network of civil society who specialise in gas advocacy.
The documentary plans to utilise sector messaging developed by the Climate Compass research (The Sunrise Project) designed for short comedy moments with ideal content for millennial audiences, geared towards social media traction and virtue signaling to encourage digital conversation activation.
Designed in partnership with the highly effective civil society campaigners in the space, a series of community screenings, panel events, targeted op-eds and events will be deployed for an effective advocacy campaign. Audiences will be directed to ongoing movement building.

The call to action needs to be designed with our partners to ensure that it contributes to the movement that will continue to take place well beyond the life of the documentary.
At this stage it is envisioned that audiences will:

1. Take action to make their voices heard in the next state and federal elections – they may join ongoing work coordinated by one of our member organisations, they may write or meet with their member, they may take part in a targeted action coordinated by our partner organisations
2. Switch their household from gas to electric
3. Engage in digital conversation about Iong-term solutions that enable decisions that can prioritise our planet over profits.