Originating as a genre in the 1980s, critical dystopias leave space for the cultivation of utopian desires – so long as the hope for a better future is tempered by the memory of past and present suffering. In this paper, I respond to this charge by focusing on a type of dystopia that productively negotiates the tension between hope and despair: critical dystopias. Despite their current resurgence across different media, dystopias are often suspected of undermining progressive action, due to their militant pessimism and their all-too frequent succumbing to despair. What kind of stories are most effective for envisioning a hopeful future when alternatives to the status quo are sorely needed? Few would turn to dystopian fiction for this specific purpose. These are discussed with regard to creative opportunities and obstacles for filmmakers and writers in moving beyond consumer and industry demands for escapist entertainment to address the complex and controversial need for hopeful narratives of transition to ecologically and socially sustainable futures. The research presented here draws on theories of sustainable transformation in conjunction with ecocinema and ecocritical theory in examining a variety of films and novels set in the near future. More than ever we need social imaginaries of how humanity manages to survive and evolve in overcoming the kinds of threats and inequalities, political quagmires and hopelessness which audiences often go to the cinema and novels to escape. While such imaginative visions and narratives do not yet easily fit into mainstream criteria for marketable fictional products and investments, this should not prevent writers and filmmakers from nevertheless moving beyond current conventions to develop stories exploring the kinds of challenges and possibilities involved in sustainability transitions. Today film and publishing industries present audiences with an on-going stream of libertarian tropes celebrating vigilante heroes and violence in contrast to stories imagining movements and struggles leading to future worlds achieving “a higher quality of life for all”. In contrast to dominant trends toward dystopian, apocalyptic and techno-fantasy themes, to what degree are writers and filmmakers taking up the challenge of producing hopeful and plausible narratives portraying transitions to sustainable societies and communities? Understandably most films and novels today are constrained by commercially risk-averse formulas of audience preference and return on investment as well as consumer culture permeated by neoliberal norms. Considering the global threats and struggles being addressed in international policy discussions on climate change and the goals of sustainable development, the question arises as to the ways in which popular film and literary fiction address these issues, particularly how these struggles and outcomes might play out in imagined futures.
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