In Hearts Wake wear their ‘green’ credentials in new climate crisis film: Watch the trailer

Australians can’t catch a break, whether its floods, drought or bushfires, typically in quick succession. 

Now, Australia’s live music scene is pressing for urgent action on the climate crisis by way of a feature-length documentary, Green Is The New Black.

In Hearts Wake are front and center in the new film, which captures the challenges of climate change and the music industry’s place in it.

Formed in Byron Bay and signed to UNFD, the metal band trace the creation of their 100% carbon offset 2020 album Kaliyuga and their journey to become a certified Carbon Neutral Organisation.

“When we first started this band, we just wanted to tour the world and play music, but the further we travelled the more it hit home,” comments In Hearts Wake vocalist Jake Taylor, and Green Is The New Black producer and co-director (with Caleb Graham).

“We were unintentionally endangering our own future,” Taylor adds at the top of a new trailer, which drops today. “The world we knew was changing fast and we realised we had to change with it.”

Australia is ground zero in the climate crisis, a reality that was hammered home by the recent east coast floods.

“The scientists have predicted exactly what’s happening on the planet right now,” Tamara Smith, Greens Member for Parliament, say in the new clip, “and that’s longer and more extreme droughts, less rainfall, and more extreme weather events.”

The new project features conversations with artists and expert, including Damon Gameau (2040, That Sugar Film), the Greens’ Smith, AY Young (United Nations Young Leader), Jessica Ducrou (Splendour in the Grass Festival Co-founder), Heidi Lennfer (FEAT Artists) and Luke Logemann (UNFD Records).

Ducrou shares a war story that unfolded during Falls Festival. “We had 50% of our audience on site and had to cancel festival mid-show, because of the threat of bushfires,” she explains.

“Weather is becoming more of an issue.”

Australia’s music community has a rich, long history for activism and calling out wrong doing, from Midnight Oil to John Butler and Cloud Control’s Lennfer, who masterminded the clean energy project FEAT. Live and its “Solar Slice surcharge,” which can be built into the booking fee of partner events as an industry commitment to prioritising sustainability.

Green Is The New Black was conceived during the wildfires of early 2020 and is set to roll out in theatres this April, to coincide with Earth Week 2022.

The film will screen at Bangalow Film Festival on April 12, with 100% of ticket sales donated to local charities directly assisting the Northern Rivers flood recovery, and will enjoy screenings at Palace Cinemas around Australia, and separate viewings are set for Los Angeles, Toronto and London.

Green Is The New Black screenings:

Tue 12 April – Bangalow Film Festival – Bangalow, Australia – 7.30pm (Fundraiser)
Thu 21 April – Palace Central, Sydney – 6.30pm
Thu 21 April – Los Feliz, Los Angeles USA – 7.45pm
Fri 22 April – Palace James St, Brisbane – 6.30pm
Fri 22 April – The Rec Room, Toronto CAN – 7.00pm
Thu 28 April – Palace Raine Square, Perth – 6.30pm
Fri 29 April – Palace Westgarth, Melbourne – 6.30pm
Sat 30 April – Palace Nova, Adelaide – 6.30pm
Sat 30 April – Prince Charlies Cinema, London UK – 6.00pm

Presented by Heaps Normal, Afends, New World Artists & UNFD