2038 Here Is How

2038 Here Is How
Director: Christopher Roth
Docu-fiction, Germany, 2021, 108 min.
OV with English subtitles

2038: Humanity has overcome the greatest challenges of its time, living in the age of the "New Serenity". Framed as a documentary from the future, the film looks back on the crises of the 2020s and explores how ecological, social, and political collapse was ultimately averted. Drawing on real-world initiatives, scientific research, and visionary ideas from architecture, climate science, technology, art, and social activism, it presents a future that is far from perfect, yet more just, sustainable, and livable than the world we know today.

Rather than presenting itself as a naïve utopia, the film serves as an invitation to take the steps necessary to make this future possible in the first place. Originally created for New Serenity 2038, an exhibition presented in the German Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, more than four hours of footage have been condensed into a feature-length film that unfolds between reality and fiction.

"One day, this work may become historic: either as a precursor to a new political optimism, or as a reminder of the moment when the right decisions could still have been made." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2021