James R | On 09, Nov 2021

Director: Josh Tickell
Cast: Michelle Rodriguez, Shailene Woodley
Certificate: TBC
Where to watch The Revolution Generation online in the UK: Raindance 2021

This film is streaming at the 2021 Raindance Film Festival. For more information on what’s playing online at the festival and how it works, click here.

Millennials. The term has become a pejorative used as lazy shorthand for a group of young people viewed as lazy, narcissistic and entitled. Josh Tickell’s documentary does something much more interesting than punch down at an upcoming generation: it takes them seriously.

The Revolution Generation, as its title suggests, pitches a more accurate view of Millennials: a group of people who don’t accept the world the way it is and, moreover, are working to change. They’re the first generation to really grow up in an online age and the first to acknowledge the need to tackle climate change. But at the same time, they’ve also been hamstrung by the global financial crisis and credit crunch, impacting job opportunities, the feasibility of university education and their personal debt levels – only for the Covid-19 pandemic to once again hit their financial stability 10 years later. And they’ve grown up in a climate of global fear, in the aftermath of 9/11.

But thanks to social media and a flexible mindset, they’re also a generation of direct action and of co-ordinated protest. Tickell turns to the Strauss–Howe generational theory as a framework to attempt to nail down the slippery definition of “Millennial”, categorising them as a “Hero” generation (out of four archetypes – Hero, Artist, Prophet, and Nomad). While that theory doesn’t hold much scientific basis, and means the documentary loses some focus as it attempts to explain its terminology, Tickell does well to back up the general idea with footage and interviews that assert more concrete evidence.

Narrated by Michelle Rodriguez, the result is an upbeat and inspiring film that benefits from its wide-reaching scope, diverse array of participants and succeeds in not punching down at a generation, but punches up alongside them.

 

The Revolution Generation is available to rent on Curzon Home Cinema until 11.59pm on 9th November

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