YouTube Premiere: On the 7th anniversary of the April 15th Rebellion, Leap Productions and Extinction Rebellion present Conscientious Protectors: A Story of Rebellion Against Extinction, feature documentary from award-winning director Leigh Bloomfield — premiering on YouTube for the first time.
What does it take to bring a city to a standstill?
Conscientious Protectors takes you inside the birth of Extinction Rebellion, from its first meetings in October 2018 to the moment it shut down London in April 2019.
A former farmer, a mother, a student, and a growing network of ordinary people, come together with an extraordinary plan: to sound the alarm on the climate crisis, transforming small meetings into one of the most disruptive protests in UK history.
The film follows Roger Hallam and fellow co-founders as the movement gathers momentum.
In April 2019, they occupied five sites across London for ten days, bringing the city to a standstill while demanding urgent action.
As their tactics push the limits of non-violent civil disobedience, they face arrest, public backlash, and mounting internal pressure.
Vilified by some, celebrated by others, this is the inside story of the people behind the headlines.
As the climate crisis intensifies, Conscientious Protectors asks:
Can ordinary people still force real change in a world on the brink?
📅 Release Date: Around 15 April (7th anniversary of the April 15th Rebellion)
📍 Platform: YouTube (via Leap Productions’ YouTube channel)
Whether you’re reconnecting with the movement or discovering this pivotal moment for the first time, this premiere will bring the story of those who risked arrest and disruption to highlight the climate crisis to a global audience.
Leigh Bloomfield is an award-winning director and cinematographer and co-founder of Leap Productions, working across documentary film and series. Based in London, he has built a career spanning film and television productions for Disney, Sky and Amazon, with credits including Elton John: Never Too Late.
Alongside documentaries and series featuring global artists, athletes and cultural figures, his work is urgent and socially and environmentally focused, closely attuned to the cultural moment. He brings a strong sensitivity to building trust with subjects ranging from activists and police officers to celebrities. This experience, from large-scale international productions to intimate storytelling, shapes a cinematic style that is both instinctively human and grounded in reality.
His debut feature documentary Conscientious Protectors won Best Director (Feature Documentary) at the London Director Awards, received a four-star review from The Guardian, and had a limited international theatrical release, establishing him as a distinctive voice in contemporary documentary filmmaking.
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