Doc Review: Tapped (2009)

The documentary Tapped will make you never want to drink a plastic bottle of water again. You think, a bottle of water is pure, clean and safe, when in reality, that water is barely tested for safety and the plastic bottle it comes in poses its own hazards. Truth is that municipal water supplies are often safer than bottled water (municipal supplies are tested many times A DAY. Bottled water asks the company to voluntarily test for safety, and is only 1 person at the FDA oversees billions of bottles of produced water).

Eighty million bottles of water are consumed in America every day….30 million of those end up in landfills (all of them can and should be recycled).Currently (STILL) only 11 states have deposit laws. It remains true that those states recycle more than all other states (in fact Michigan the state with the 10 cent deposit has a  97% return rate). Why aren't bottle deposit laws mandatory in every state? This is another case of allowing companies to not take responsibility for their products. Think the oil crisis is just $4 a gallon for gas? It takes  714 million gallons of oil to make just the BOTTLES we drink from every year. (that's enough to power 100,000 cars).

From extracting and manufacturing; to safety after ingestion; to the waste and health hazards of disposal, this documentary proves that every step of bottled water is an unnecessary excess.

Doc Review: Vanishing of the Bees (2009)

Most people don’t connect the flying furry insect to its pivotal role in food production. No bees, no honey, no beeswax, but no fruits and vegetables. “Vanishing of the Bees” (2009) is an in depth look at the phenomena of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a baffling condition that has been affecting bees worldwide for decades. Beekeepers have been noticing that their bee stocks have been literally disappearing without a trace: from a hive of thousands, they find only a few scattered corpses and even fewer remaining living bees. Two important points: first, scientists actually have discredited the notion that cell phones cause CCD (a notion that the media still seems to believe is true). Secondly, and most importantly, scientists now suspect (but cannot definitively prove) that systemic pesticides are a more likely cause of CCD. Have you heard of systemic pesticides?…Because in all my travels of environmental issues, this is the first instance where I learned of them… Unlike the “traditional” pesticides that are sprayed or otherwise applied directly to the grown plant (think crop dusters), systemic pesticides are applied to the seed and thus the plant repels pests from the inside out. The pesticide becomes part of the plant. With cutesy names like “Gaucho” and “Poncho” (manufactured by Bayer) these pesticides, while regulated by the EPA, are not tested by the EPA, which only requires the manufacturer to prove safety on their own. Currently there are no long-term studies on what the cumulative effects of these systemic pesticides.

Let that sink in. Most likely, every single day we are ingesting food that has been grown through these pesticides, with no warning labels or legal responsibility of the manufacturer to disclose what has been applied. Even if systemic pesticides do not cause instant death or symptoms, why do we blindly accept that there are no long term effects? If bee deaths continue, what will the future hold for food production?

Doc Review: If A Tree Falls (2011)

It’s no secret I’m a doc junkie (I think I’m up to 4 viewings this week alone) and ‘tis awards season, so it’s time to review the candidates for Best Documentary Feature for the 84th Annual Academy Awards. First up “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.” I think this is the first film to take an inside look of the ELF. They interviewed members and victims, showed plans and manifestos, included a lot of never before seen footage and followed one member (Daniel McGowan) as he dealt the repercussions of his actions, awaiting his trial. It’s a bold concept (and a perfect title for the film): if corporate polluters can get away with no jail time for destroying our planet, why are people who try to stop those polluters (mostly with arson) labeled terrorists and threatened with hundreds of years of jail time? We’ve all been there (and no, I will never burn down a ranger station to get attention): believing in something so strongly and feeling like no one is listening. ELF took bold action by targeting (but confirming first) empty structures with spectacular “top-of-the-six-o’clock news” fires. When 2 fires they coordinated for the same night both turned out to be based on incorrect information, McGowan decided to get out of the game. The film follows the investigators as they build a case to bring the perpetrators to justice.

It was an interesting look behind the curtain of the ELF but it felt a little uneven. We only really got McGowan’s story: the epilogue gave little information about “where they are now” only listing McGowan, his ex-girlfriend and the purported ring leader of ELF, nothing about the other 10 involved in the crimes or the victims. (That’s always one of my favorite parts of the documentary: what’s everybody up to after the camera stops rolling) The narrative was a little too non-linear for my tastes and I wish they were able to get a little more emotion and reaction from those on the other side of the issue. I wanted to be sympathetic to the lumber company owner, but he came off as too milquetoast for me to care about him.

I feel great sympathy that they shouldn’t be labeled eco-terrorists (Timothy McVeigh=terrorist, someone who burns down an SUV dealership?=arsonist.) But what we as environmentalists are doing is not enough. Bringing your reusable bags to the grocery store, changing your light bulbs, driving a hybrid. It’s not enough. Civil disobedience is not enough. It’s a very sad state of the world where burning a building to the ground is the only way to get any attention.
Narrative: 7/10
Topic: 9/10
Visual Style: 8/10
Overall: 8

Doc Review: Carbon Nation (2010)

I internalize my anguish over global warming more so than the average American…who am I kidding, if the average American was in anguish about global warming, we would have a lot more regulations in place… It’s hard to stay positive when there are just so many ecological failures lately. Frankly, some days all you want to do is curl up with a White Russian and watch episodes of “Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. So, It took me a full 3 weeks to finally watch the documentary Carbon Nation. I couldn’t psych myself up for yet another documentary that rehashes the same old doomsday prophesies and statistics that make you want to throw yourself off the non-solar-panel covered roof.

Fortunately, Carbon Nation paints a much more positive look at how we can combat the climate crisis. Yes, we’re still in dire straits, but even if you don’t believe in climate change, it presents solutions that just make good economical sense. (“So if you don’t give a damn about the environment, do it because you’re a greedy bastard and you just want cheap power.”—THE BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEER)

So if you’re still thinking there’s no hope and why bother, this documentary offers positive stories from dozens of positive voices who truly believe we can fix this problem. (My favorite of all the “characters” interviewed has to be Michael Dunham, the ex-rock n roll concert promoter who after a near death experience began a company that recycles old and inefficient refrigerators (JACO Environmental)…ironically, his father helped create the technology that helps keeps modern refrigerators cold! It also presents my 2 new favorite eco-enterprises: creating biodiesel from algae and using mycorrhizal fungi for carbon sequestration.

So it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to write about The Cove, the now Oscar-nominated documentary about dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. When first released last August, it didn't make much of a splash (no pun intended), in that it stayed mainly in the art houses and the reviews I read didn't even inspire me to drop the ten bucks to seek it out. But now, hopefully since its release on DVD and the press it will receive from award season, more people will give it a chance. I expected another activist/eco-documentary, but what I didn't expect was how affected I would be by the story. Called “Ocean's Eleven-meets-Flipper”, it follows a team of marine biologists, adrenaline junkies, high-tech filmmakers and animal activists on a journey to expose the horrific slaughter of 23,000 dolphins each year in a small inlet in Japan. The true reason for why this community feels the need to exterminate so many dolphins so brutally is not really made clear (is it because their culture depends on dolphin meat for food? Because the fishing industry fears that dolphins eat too many fish? Is it that protecting dolphins under International Whaling Commission guidelines would call more attention to Japan's whaling industry? And if any of these are actually the reason, why are they treating the cove as such a dirty little secret?)
The cast, with their movie-star good looks and top-of-the-line equipment (courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic, George Lucas' company that most notably created all those Star Wars movies and creatures) lead a covert operation to capture on video what hides behind the stone walls of the cove and expose to the world the truth about the slaughter. The music was beautifully done, the narrative so suspenseful it gave the plight of these animals even more urgency. I would have liked to seen more interviews with Taiji locals, surely more than just the 2 councilmen featured (and the angry fishermen who threaten the filmmakers' and cover their cameras) had some insight into why their community was a part of this practice. There is some highly graphic footage contained in the movie, but by the time you reach this part of the story, you are so drawn in by the suspense of learning the secret of the cove that can't look away. And hopefully, the world won't turn away until the slaughter stops.

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 Buy the DVD at amazon.com

Doc Review: Garbage Warrior (2007)

All I can say is-wow what a week. Working on the “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon was truly both the most surreal and the most rewarding experience of my alter ego's career. (I mean it's not every day one gets to work side-by-side with George Clooney) And to top it all off, we were able to raise a lot of money for relief and recovery. Spent the weekend recovering from the emotional and exhausting roller coaster ride of live production and finally had the chance to finish watching Garbage Warrior, the 2007 documentary about Michael Reynolds, the New Mexican architect who has been creating “Earthship Biotechture” (Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills. Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture.)-otherwise known as houses made of cement, used tires, and empty beverage containers. Reynolds found much resistance to his creative solution for home building from the NM legislature, but in 2004 after the Southeastern Asian tsunami, he and his crew headed to the devastated Andaman Islands where he taught locals a quick, cheap and sturdy way to build new homes. One can only hope he's already bought his ticket to Haiti and is plotting how his skills can help create new homes there as well.

Simple Pleasures: The National Parks

Yes, it’s true, I’m a big old National Parks dork. I read all of Nevada Barr’s Ranger Anna Pidgeon mystery novels. I’ve got the handy-dandy little passport book that I can have stamped at every park I visit. I’m kinda proud of this fact, which probably makes me an even bigger dork. So imagine my glee for the premiere of Ken Burns’ 6 part documentary series: The National Parks: America’s Best Idea on PBS this week (all episodes are also available online as well). Oh how excited a NPS dork like myself is. Say what you want about Burns’ style (that it never changes, that he only seems to interview old white male writers for their opinions, that he’s a narcissist for having his name attached to the title of all his documentaries), he does spin a damn good narrative. And there’s something about his technique of taking photographs that are well over a century old and making them more beautiful than anything the most current and most expensive equipment could take.

Doc Review: FLOW: For Love of Water

FLOW is a riveting documentary that covers all aspects of the global water crisis—from chemical pollution that is causing fish and frogs to spontaneously change sexes, to the corporate take over of water supplies, to large scale dams redirecting the natural flow of rivers for greed of the rich, to lack of access to clean and safe drinking water in the world’s poorest communities (where contaminated water kills more people than war or AIDS). “Water=money=power” is evidenced by the fact that only 3 major corporations (Suez, Vivendi and Thames Water) control not only the global water supply, but also created and control the World Water Council, an organization that has taken upon itself to be voice of authority on global water supply. We as Americans rarely think about where our water comes from and where it goes to, but in less than 10 years many American aquifers are in serious danger of being completely drained. Could you imagine having to wait in line for hours with a bucket for the mere possibility of clean water? It may be a reality if drastic changes are not made to our consumption habits. Another staggering statistic: Nestle owns SEVENTY percent of the bottled water brands (such names as Poland Spring, Ozarka, Deerfield Park, and Arrowhead) and supplies these brands by setting up in local communities, extracting the water from the ground and then selling back to consumers. I hope this documentary widens the discussion of who really owns water and how we all need to change our habits to keep it clean and plentiful.
Sign the petition for “the right for water”.

Doc Review: "An Unreasonable Man" (2006)

While it may be overstating a bit to say that without Ralph Nader, seatbelts, airbags, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and NIOSH would cease to exist, the truth is that without him, none of these campaigns (or the dozens of other consumer advocate campaigns he was actively involved in jumpstarting) would have left the starting gate. Unreasonable Man is an inside look at the man once revered for his "fighting for the little guy" but now known only as a pariah. The first half of the doc shows the viewer how Nader came to become disenfranchised with the two-party system—from campaigning vigorously for clean air and water to safety on the job, in the market and at home. The second half of the doc takes the turn onto the 2000 election Blvd. where in just days following the election Nader became the whipping boy for a campaign that really had no one to blame but itself. If only Nader had pulled out of the race before the election and told his followers to vote for Gore! There would be no Iraq War! There would be no global warming! 9-11 probably wouldn't have happened! Each a huge burden for any one man to carry on his shoulders or to follow him around for the rest of his life. (In reality, the 537 vote difference between Gore and Bush in Florida could have been made up by any one of the 3rd party candidates dropping their race and asking supporters to vote Gore). But the most notable point that the doc makes is that Nader could never drop out of the race, it would have gone against the very core of his being: he ran as an alternative to the 2 party system, he is not influenced by special interests, he is one of the few people to stand behind the convictions of his soul. What makes it an interesting documentary is that we do see an inside look at the person (much more so than with Gore in An Inconvenient Truth): we see former allies struggle with their personal relationships yet continue to distance themselves from him (or in the case of Michael Moore: completely flip flop on their convictions. That footage will stain my opinion of him indelibly.) Or in the case of The Nation reporter who practically compares Nader to Hitler for his 2000 Presidential run, come off as completely illogical. It's just odd how when you look at a list of Nader's beliefs (and thus his campaign promises) how much sense they make and when you look at his track record, you see a man who will not back down—isn't this what we all wish our politicians could truly be like?

Doc Review: Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke"

Checked out part I & II of Spike Lee's latest the other night, a documentary that's often described as the "Hurricane Katrina story" but watching it makes you realize that the title is more apt—the situation was influenced by Katrina, but it was really the breaching of the levees that caused the flooding and the chain of events that the government failed to react to. The story was new to me, since I was unaware of the full magnitude of the situation because I was recovering from my "tree incident" which occured on the same weekend. I was shocked to see what was happening and how long it took our country to get in gear and begin the clean up. 40,000 people sleeping in filth inside the Superdome for 4 days. Dead bodies on the freeway. People trapped in their homes with water up to the roofs. No organization, no leader, no plan of escape for 4 days. What is even more frightening watching this at a distance of a year and a half later, is the fact that as global warming continues out of control, polar ice caps melt, sea levels will rise. When this happens, the world's coastal cities will face the same situation as New Orleans. We're talking cities such as Manhattan, Beijing, Boston, all of Florida, the lowland European countries, underwater. In today's Washington Post, Marc Kaufman writes: "Last year was the warmest in the continental United States in the past 112 years -- capping a nine-year warming streak "unprecedented in the historical record" that was driven in part by the burning of fossil fuels, the government reported yesterday. According to the government's National Climatic Data Center, the record-breaking warmth -- which caused daffodils and cherry trees to bloom throughout the East on New Year's Day -- was the result of both unusual regional weather patterns and the long-term effects of the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." Is anyone else freaking out about this?

Doc Review: "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

I had heard about "Who Killed the Electric Car?" back when it first came out but didn't think too much about it beyond remembering to put it on my Netflix queue. What makes this such an amazing story for me is that it was simply not talked about publicly until now. Despite the extensive research I have done concerning alternative vehicles, the fact that I was so quick to jump on the Gas/Electric hybrid bandwagon, and the fact that I lived less than a half mile from the GM Training Center that is heavily featured in the film and passed the EV-1 protestors dozens of times as they sat on the sidewalk, even I was unaware of the magnitude of what their protest represented. The documentary is the story of the brief existence of a few models of cars that operated solely by plug in electric power, most notably, the American designed and manufactured EV-1. GM’s EV-1 was literally not for sale in its brief existence, the only cars produced were offered for lease and were then all recovered by the manufacturer at the end of lease terms. Many of the lesees were celebrities—Ed Begley Jr., Tom Hanks, and Peter Horton, who was shown as the last person to have his EV-1 taken away. (The appearance of EV-1 supporter Mel Gibson pre-drunken arrest but in full wild man of Apocalypto beard is odd in itself, but maybe he wouldnÂ’t have been stopped on the PCH had he been driving his old EV-1 instead…) What the documentary shows is that while car companies claim that they did “massive” campaigns to advertise their models of electric vehicles, they repeatedly claim that consumer demand was almost non-existent. Though ask almost anyone, and none of them could tell you what the EV-1 was or who made it. Car companies could easily cite that no one wanted their electric cars but left out the reason being no one had heard of them. And even in this fascinating look at alternative vehicles, the most interesting interviewee was Stanford Ovshinsky (and his cute little wife Iris), who essentially invented the battery that made the EV-1 go and now is found in every hybrid car on the road. (Even more interesting was the glimpse he provided of solar roofing shingles that if implemented would probably change the world as we know it.)

On March 15, 2005, when the final 78 EV-1s that were being stored at the GM Training Center lot were loaded on trucks to be taken away to be destroyed, I was sitting in my apartment down the street unaware that this was the death of the electric car and thus the end of a viable solution to the oil crisis, to the pollution problem and to move the United States into the automotive future.

Doc Review: An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Okay, let's start this review with the admission that I am entirely biased in favor of Al Gore and I fully realize that the those who see it will be members of the "preaching to the converted" crowd. I haven't seen the documentary yet, but I sat in the audience for the taping last fall in Los Angeles and listened with shock and awe as Al talked for 2 hours about climate change and global warming. (we'll overlook the fact that we were in a Hollywood studio airconditioned to the point of approximately 55º, that's me in the corner, teeth chattering.)

I have done extensive research on climate change and the photographs and information he presented absolutely floored me. Glaciers that have disappeared. Lakes that have dried up. Species that are now extinct. Picture after picture after picture of what global warming has done to the precious balance of our ecology.

One thing I will be looking for when I do see it is that he has added some more solutions to help you and me get back on the path to controlling the amount of carbon dioxide we produce. During the taping he was about 1:50 "what's wrong with the world"/10 minutes "here's what we can do to make it better". The filmmakers have already pledged $100,000 to climate neutral charities and have promised more if the film makes more money than expected.

I hope that schools will show this to children and foster a dialogue. I hope at least a few people who would never have considered seeing this documentary will go and think twice about some of their destructive actions. I hope the converted will be motivated to take their conserving actions even just one step further.

For the lighter side of Al, check out Al's appearance on SNLthis weekend.

Doc Review: Go Further (2004)

With almost 300 movies in my Netflix queue, it takes awhile to get to some of them...with that said...Go Further is the documentary of actor/activist Woody Harrelson's journey by bike and biodiesel-fueled bus from Seattle to Santa Barbara, CA following the Pacific Coast Highway (and the path of the 1960's Merry Pranksters), stopping along the way to educate college students and ordinary citizens about the state of a planet in crises. The doc was a little light on actual information, (other than the repeated fact that milk contains blood and pus, yum!) but it was interesting to watch Steve, a young production assistant that Woody plucked from his stint on Will & Grace along for the ride, but who still sneaks candy bars. But he's trying and seems smitten by Woody's lifestyle of raw food, yoga and natural fibers. Also interesting was Linda (the college student that Steve "kidnaps") as a wide-eyed easily influenced, but willing participant. Overall, it was a little flimsy—no one topic was covered comprehensibly (and how did they get those three teens on crystal meth to sign releases?) but Woody is true to his convictions and it's nice to see an actor walking the walk. "Make small transformations within all of us, then ... go further."