Three decades ago, the world was poised to stop global warming. Using exclusively archival material, The White House Effect tells the dramatic origin story of the climate crisis and how a political battle in the George H.W. Bush administration changed the course of history. This Archival vérité demonstrates how a crucial opportunity to take real action on global warming was not just squandered but deliberately undermined. Woven entirely of archival material, the documentary focuses on the pivotal years of the George H.W. Bush administration—1988 to 1992—when the entire country was waking up to the reality of global warming and Bush had pledged to use “the White House effect” to tackle it. Infuriating and irrefutable, The White House Effect tracks cause and effect with devastating precision to reveal just how hollow that promise became as Bush finds himself increasingly caught between his chief of staff John Sununu and industry power brokers on one side and his EPA chief Bill Reilly and climatologists on the other. As the world prepares for the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, Bush faces mounting pressure to make a decision that will change the course of history—culminating with the U.S. undermining a global agreement to set hard limits on emissions, setting the stage for the increasingly hot, dangerous, and polarized future we all now face.
Awards and Festivals:
Telluride Film Festival (2024) – world premiere; IDFA (2024); Camden International Film Festival (2024); Hamptons Film Festival (2024); Festival do Rio (2024); CPH:DOX (2025); Dokfest Munchen (2025); One World (2025)
Bonni Cohen is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker and creative producer, and co-founder of Actual Films and Catapult Film Fund.
Pedro Kos is a director and editor, most recently co-directing the Oscar-nominated documentary short Lead Me Home (2021) with Jon Shenk.
Jon Shenk is an Oscar-nominated director and cinematographer, and co-founder of Actual Films.
