Imagine for a moment the foul smell of garbage rotting in the summer sun, waiting to be picked up to be sent to the landfill site. Could you then consider that they are ultimately never collected by garbage collectors? That those days when our garbage, recycling and compost magically disappear are well and truly over? An eco-terrorist group taking matters into their own hands rather than our leaders? What would our cities, our neighborhoods, and our dwellings look like now impregnated with a fetid stench, surrounded by mountains of rubbish? The beginnings of the web series Oil changes are nothing fancy. And yet…
“We wanted to find a very visual way to show how much we spend and consume,” explains Arianne Maynard-Turcotte, co-writer of Oil changes with Maryse Paradis, Véronique Isabel Filion and Guillaume Lacelle. To do so, the writing team crafted a dystopian-looking — but come to think of it, not so improbable — story in which the metropolis is at the mercy of the menacing eco-terrorist group REVERT. [l’autrice de ces lignes tient à préciser qu’elle n’est aucunement affiliée à l’organisation internationale, fictive qui plus est].
Trapped in a Montreal reeking of rot, the consequence of simultaneous terrorist actions on landfills and sorting centers around the world that prevent garbage collection, Judith (Alexa-Jeanne Dubé) does everything possible to save her asthmatic son (Iani Bédard), whose health is deteriorating visibly. While she hopes to move to Saint-Jérôme, the only municipality in Quebec that is not contaminated and where clean air blows, she improvises herself as a “moveer”. This new illegal “service” promises to get rid of your waste for you, in exchange, of course, for a hefty sum.
According to Arianne Maynard-Turcotte, if this scenario seems so excessive, even apocalyptic, it is because we forget the quantity of everything we throw away so easily when we take out our garbage cans on the side of the road in an almost religious way each week. .
The author also believes that, whether they are sent to a landfill in China or whether they are recycled here (or not, ultimately), it does not change anything for the individual who keeps his habits of overconsumption what let it happen. “On the other hand, if I have a dozen boxes delivered after having ordered too much online during Black Friday and, as in Oil changes, I can’t get rid of it, maybe next time I’ll think before buying something I don’t need,” she explains. The web series therefore wants to make an impression.
Shock to challenge
Pierre-Luc Miville, director of Oil changes, considers that, to captivate the audience, it is necessary today to employ the great means. “Nothing seems to work and we can’t change things. Governments are rhetoric, but they certainly have no intention of intervening,” he laments.
The use of environmental terrorism to challenge inaction, “a somewhat far-fetched process at first sight”, was, according to him, inevitable to get the message across. “Obviously, we do not encourage terrorism, which is in the web series a kind of extrapolation of the eco-anxiety that awaits us! he warns. However, we wanted to prove that we can all act intelligently in favor of environmentalism. »
Nothing seems to work and we can’t change things. Governments are rhetoric, but they certainly have no intention of intervening.
And Arianne Maynard-Turcotte to clarify: “If we went so far, as far as inventing the terrorists of REVERT, it is probably because it is the only way to have an impact on people’s imagination. We got there. »
Although at present no eco-terrorist attack has been perpetrated in the world, the screenwriter thinks that one day, perhaps, reality will exceed fiction. “No one has ever planted a bomb in the name of the climate, we remain in activism. But for how much longer? she asks.
Arianne Maynard-Turcotte does not lose hope, however. Despite a weariness with generalized environmental immobility, she subscribes to the power of persuasion of fiction, in this case her web series, worthy of the most unexpected post-apocalyptic stories. “I have the impression that people are fed up enough that Oil changes talk to them. “Whether we like it or not, the world is going to change. Can we decide instead of letting capitalism lead it in another direction? finally concludes Pierre-Luc Miville.