The White House Effect

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The White House Effect

2024

1h 36m

Documentary

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Popcornmeter

92%

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13 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Exploring 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.

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Alissa Wilkinson

New York Times

It’s not easy to make an archival documentary... But “The White House Effect” is a good example of why it’s worth it, and why it’s worth preserving our archives, too.

Oct 31, 2025

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Derek Smith

Slant Magazine

The film meticulously yet concisely probes how, why, and when our understanding of the greenhouse effect went from a scientific certainty to it being up for debate.

Rated: 2.5/4

Oct 26, 2025

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Robert Daniels

RogerEbert.com

The closeness of these events, whose repercussions we are living (and will continue to live) through, makes “The White House Effect” an infuriating portrait of how inaction has potentially doomed humanity.

Sep 6, 2024

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Jennifer Green

Common Sense Media

This documentary manages to instill a sense of urgency by fixing the climate crisis in a recent historical period where humanity should have, but failed, to make meaningful changes.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 4, 2025

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Christopher Campbell

Nonfics (Substack)

I’m a sucker for these kinds of films, but its chronicling of the George H.W. Bush administration’s handling of the problem plays like a light gathering of historical material as merely a look back at why we are where we are today on the issue.

Oct 31, 2025

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Marya E. Gates

Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack)

The film takes a wrecking ball to any nostalgia anyone has for the 1980s, laying bare not just the rampant capitalism, but the way ecology and conversation of our natural resources was sacrificed on its alter.

Oct 31, 2025

Full Review

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Bonni Cohen

Director

Pedro Kos

Director

Jon Shenk

Director

Bonni Cohen

Writer

Pedro Kos

Writer

Jon Shenk

Writer

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Synopsis

Exploring 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.

Director: Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk
Producer: Bonni Cohen, Justine Nagan, Josh Penn, Jon Shenk, Noah Stahl
Screenwriter: Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk
Distributor: Netflix
Production Co: Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, Cinereach, Caldwell Fisher Family Foundation, Plot Shift Media, Department of Motion Pictures, Far Star Media, Actual Films, Impact Partners, Walking Softer, 2 Sq Ft
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 31, 2025
Runtime: 1h 36m

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