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If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front cover image

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front 2011

Recommended

Distributed by Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 800-543-FROG (3764)
Produced by Marshall Curry Productions. LLC
Directed by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
DVD , color and b&w, 85 min.



Sr. High - General Adult
Activism, American Studies, Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Environment, Ethics, Forestry, History, Nature, National Security, Protest, Sociology, Terrorism, Wildlife

Date Entered: 02/27/2013

Reviewed by Linda Kelly Alkana, Department of History, California State University Long Beach

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front presents a chronological account of the growth and disintegration of an Earth Liberation Front (ELF) cell, by investigating the experiences and radicalization of one particular member. It features Daniel McGowan, a young man first shown wearing an ankle restraint and living at his sister’s house as he awaits sentencing for his involvement with ELF. McGowan was born in New York in 1974, attended college, and got a job in public relations, when he became exposed to the budding environmental movement. The film shows documentary images of such things as the destruction of old growth forests, strip-mining and whaling that helped politicize McGowan. He became committed to opposing the corporations that profited from such destruction, and became further radicalized after witnessing the opposition that environmental activists faced by police. McGowan then became an anonymous part of ELF, an organization, the film tells us, that the FBI labeled as America’s number one domestic terrorist threat.

If a Tree Falls shows footage of specific incidences in environmental activism, from the Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization, to ELF arsons against a Ranger Station, a slaughterhouse, a lumber company and a ski lodge. Although the film focuses on McGowan, it even-handedly gives voice to those affected by the arsons and those prosecuting him. In addition to the story of McGowan and ELF, the filmmakers also reveal the extent to which the authorities went to get ELF members to name names and spy on each other in the wake of additional concerns after 9/11, which created new definitions of terrorism and new tools to deal with it. If a Tree Falls, thus deals with civil liberty concerns as well as environmental issues.

Winner of multiple awards, this film effectively uses interviews, television and documentary clips, and narration to tell the story of one man in a larger political, historical and environmental context. The DVD features a number of extras including interviews with the principles and updates.

Awards

  • Academy Award ® Nominee, Best Documentary Feature
  • Documentary Editing Award, Sundance Film Festival
  • Best Documentary, Nashville Film Festival
  • Environmental Visions Award, Dallas Film Festival
  • EarthVision Environmental Jury Prize, Santa Cruz Film Festival
  • Founders Award, Best Documentary, Traverse City Film Festival
  • Best Feature, Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival
  • Best in Festival, Princeton Environmental Film Festival