If A Tree Falls: A Story of The Earth Liberation Front (0+)
USA, 2011, colour, 84 min.
Directors: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
Directors: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a group the FBI has called America's "number one domestic terrorism threat."
For years, the ELF—operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership—had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado.
With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country.
If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a vérité chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.
For years, the ELF—operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership—had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado.
With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country.
If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a vérité chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.
AWARDS
Winner, Best Documentary, Nashville Film Festival, Winner, EarthVision Environmental Jury Prize, Santa Cruz Film Festival; Winner, Environmental Visions Award, Dallas Film Festival; Winner, Documentary Editing Award, Sundance Film Festival; Winner, Founders Award Best Documentary, Traverse City Film Festival.
Marshall Curry
Marshall Curry
got his start shooting, directing, and editing the documentary Street Fight, which followed Cory Booker’s first run for mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and was nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy Award. After Street Fight, Curry was the director, producer, cinematographer and editor of the feature documentary Racing Dreams, which follows two boys and a girl who dream of one day racing in NASCAR. The film won numerous awards, including the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best Documentary. Dreamworks is currently adapting Racing Dreams for a fictional remake. In 2005 Curry was selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of "25 New Faces of Independent Film," and he was awarded the International Documentary Association (IDA) Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award. In 2007 he received the International Trailblazer Award at MIPDOC in Cannes. Curry is a graduate of Swarthmore College, where he studied comparative religion and was a Eugene Lang Scholar. He was also a Jane Addams Fellow at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, where he wrote about the history, philosophy and economics of nonprofits.
Sam Cullman
Sam Cullman
is currently producing and shooting a documentary about the War on Drugs in America, directed by Eugene Jarecki, and is starting post-production on Black Cherokee, a short he co-directed with Benjamin Rosen about a self-taught New York City street artist. Cullman's camera credits have included Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight (2005), which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in documentary; director Rob VanAlkemade and producer Morgan Spurlock's What Would Jesus Buy? (2007); directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's Kamp Katrina (2007); Jonathan Stack’s Lockup: Inside Angola (2008) and The Farm: 10 Down (2009), both follow-ups to Stacks' The Farm: Angola, USA (1998). Cullman has also produced and directed a number of short films in collaboration with nonprofits and governmental agencies like the New York City Housing Authority and the Ford Foundation. Cullman graduated from Brown University with honors (1999), where he majored in urban studies and the visual arts, and founded Yellow Cake Films in 2006. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
USA, 2011, colour, 84 min.
Directors: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
Directors: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a group the FBI has called America's "number one domestic terrorism threat."
For years, the ELF—operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership—had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado.
With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country.
If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a vérité chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.
For years, the ELF—operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership—had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado.
With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country.
If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a vérité chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.
AWARDS
Winner, Best Documentary, Nashville Film Festival, Winner, EarthVision Environmental Jury Prize, Santa Cruz Film Festival; Winner, Environmental Visions Award, Dallas Film Festival; Winner, Documentary Editing Award, Sundance Film Festival; Winner, Founders Award Best Documentary, Traverse City Film Festival.