HEAT (2026) Visions du Réel

HEAT is a look at how rising temperatures and climate change are affecting the populations of the world. Focusing on people in places where climate changes are rapidly altering how people survive, the film is a wake-up call and an alarm bell about the dangers that now facing the world.

If you ask me what I remember about HEAT, I’m going to tell you it’s the physical sensation of watching the film. Sitting and watching the film in a cold room I began to sweat.  I was not sitting in room that was around 60° F, but I was in some sunbaked desert where it was hot and dusty and really unpleasant to be. I found that I was drinking my water at a much faster rate then in a normal film. I was not safe at home but somewhere where my life was in danger.

That is a rave.

It is a rave because films like this, films that want to change our minds and thus change the world, too often five us all the facts, and thus fill our minds with thoughts and ideas that we ponder, but don’t always act on. HEAT instead goes for the emotions and gives us a visceral response. We don’t just get information, we are put in a place, even if its only in our heads, where that information means something. What is it like to be in a place where it is over 120° F every day and we have to do jobs that will probably give us heat stroke? Through sound and image HEAT makes us feel that. Me don’t understand just with our head, but we understand it with our gut so we are much more likely to actually take what we learn from the film and do something with it.

HEAT knocked my socks off from the first frame to the last. It’s one of the great surprises of 2026 and highly recommended.