ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Official synopsis: A metafictional comedy about the intersection of the climate crisis and generative AI.

Director Sarah Lasley collaborated with 30 of her film students at Cal Poly Humboldt to create the short film Climate Control. The result is an absurdist take on both the climate crisis and the pitfalls of generative AI. It should be noted that no generative AI is used in the short, and generative AI is satirized quite humorously. 

Youth activism, filmmaking challenges, karaoke, and AI trying to turn a documentary into a saccharine-sweet rom com are part of the proceedings. There are messages behind the mayhem, and heart behind the humor. Climate Control is a labor of love, a genre film that uses absurdity to point out absurdities, and it entertains as it makes its points.   

Lasley and her students have also made the website www.promptresponsibly.com , which tackles AI literacy through a sustainability lens.

Climate Control screened at Slamdance, which ran February 24–March 6, 2026 in Los Angeles.