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Film Screening: Duty of Care Directed by Nic Balthazar
16 November @ 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
‘Duty of Care’ tells the exclusive inside story of Roger Cox, the Dutch lawyer who initiated the ground breaking climate trials against the (Dutch) government, and against the oil and gas giant Shell, two landmark rulings, that sent shockwaves through political and corporate boardrooms around the world and led to an international wave of successful climate cases.
With echoes of the lawsuits against Big Tobacco this is an energizing court room drama about the pioneers of climate litigation, as one of the final resorts to break through the stalemate in global climate action. But also, a personal journey of an ambitious real-estate lawyer with a wife from a Shell family who goes from climate-apathy to activism after he stumbles upon Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient truth’. Or how a documentary eventually gives birth to a new kind of unexpected climate champion, listed as one of the 100 most influential people of 2021, by Time Magazine.
Director Bio
Nic Balthazar
Nic Balthazar took the stage at a very young age, even playing on Broadway at the age of 14.
After studying literature at Ghent University, he started out as a film journalist, a radio-host and then became a popular face on Belgian TV.
His debut novel ‘Nothing was all he said.’ was translated in seven languages, became a successful play and then his debut film. ‘Ben X’ was the Belgian entry for the Oscars, and won over 14 International Prizes.
His second feature ‘Time of My Life’ not only won the Ensor (Belgian Oscar) for best film, it was also the first Carbon-Neutral feature film in Europe.
As a longtime environmental activist Nic Balthazar was one of the founders of the climate movement in Belgium.
He also produced and directed several social- and environmental documentaries, clips and interactive mass-projects, such as ‘The Big Ask’ ‘Dance for the Climate’ ‘Clap for the Climate’ ‘Sing for the climate’ (almost half a million participants in over 40 countries).
He is one of the initiators of the Belgian Climate Case ‘Klimaatzaak’, and with environmental documentaries like ‘Plannen voor Plaats’ (Plans for Space) or TV-programmes like ‘Klimaatbetoog’ (The Climate Plea) he tries to further environmental and climate awareness.
Documentaries such as ‘I am a Normal Person’ or ‘Like any other human’ center around the refugee crisis. Nic is a popular Key-Note speaker who speaks seven languages (fluent in Dutch, English, French, German, Swedish, with good notions of Spanish and Italian.)