Short film: Debrief

Short film: Debrief

As part of the EU Horizon project CIDAPE, PhD researcher Christina Klubert conducts the research project ‘The Role of Emotions for Climate Politics: Redramatizing Democratic Practices’. She explores what happens when we take emotions seriously in our efforts to revitalise democratic life. As part of the project, Christina Klubert and filmmaker Robert Glas created the short film Debrief that will be screened throughout Europe in fall 2026. Debrief was commissioned by the Urban Futures Studio and CIDAPE.

Debrief is a short film about the theatre of democratic participation. The film blends ethnography with artistic research to take audiences inside a debrief of a citizen engagement evening, revealing the subtle choreography through which democracy is enacted, and emotions are orchestrated.

Across Europe, disenchantment with climate politics is growing as trust in public institutions erodes. As governments face pressure to deliver ambitious climate action, citizens increasingly express anger, frustration and disillusionment. In response, governments are turning to citizen participation as a way to bridge growing divides. But what happens backstage after citizens, policymakers, and participation professionals have met? And what if democracy is less spontaneous than we like to believe? In Debrief, Robert Glas and Christina Klubert pull back the curtain on the theatre of democratic participation.

Debrief is a synthesis of two years of immersive fieldwork by Klubert, who observed participation processes around energy policy across the Netherlands, shadowed policymakers at the ministerial level, and spoke with aldermen, participation professionals, activists and citizens. Through the constructive use of speculation and imagination, Robert and Christina transform these experiences into a synthesised enactment of a debrief. Rather than offering easy answers, this short film invites us to look more closely: at what participation feels like, what democracy asks of those who practise it, and whether the encounters we call citizen participation are as open as they seem. Ultimately, it asks how the script might be rewritten.

Credits

Robert Glas (production, direction & editing), Christina Klubert (research), Tom Enzler (camera), Radek Piskorz (electrician), Andrés García Vidal (sound), Victor Bontje (audio mix and music), Freerk Bos (actor), Elisah Geertman (actor), Bram Gerrits (actor), and Wieger Windhorst (actor).

Debrief is produced by the Horizon Europe-funded project “Climate, Inequality, and Democratic Action: The Force of Political Emotions (CIDAPE)”. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Research and Innovation Action program under Grant Agreement no.101132327.

Screening Debrief

Debrief was made to spark conversations about democratic participation, emotions, and the encounters between citizens and policymakers. Would you like to host a public or private screening of the film? We’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch with Sacha Roche (s.c.roche@uu.nl) to discuss the possibilities.

Where to watch

29 October 2026: Screening Debrief in collaboration with People In Need @Langhans Centre, Prague, Czech Republic
18 November 2026: Screening Debrief in collaboration with Top van Onderop, Bussum, the Netherlands
26 November 2026: Dutch premiere: Debrief. More information to be announced
3 December 2026: Screening Debrief in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Tartu