If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front directed by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman (2011)
For the past few years Michael Moore has added a few very intriguing documentaries to the Traverse City Film Festival lineup that have to do with some sort of environmental rights. This years big entry appeared to be If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. The name pretty much sums up what you get in this doc. But what I assumed would be just a standard film about how what we are doing to our world is destroying it, instead we get quite an emotional piece about human life, the choices made, and the power, or lack thereof, of a group. The Earth Liberation Front (ELO) were a group of teenagers and young adults who fought the logging companies who they said were cutting down too many trees. Things start off peacefully but soon get serious as fires and bombs are set. These young kids get caught up in things they aren’t quite ready for and the story follows one young man who ends up facing serious jail time. If a Tree Falls is a pretty standard documentary, it never gets flashy or strays from the main story and the audience is left with some questions about what is the right thing to do. There are some pretty obvious enemies in this film, but is everyone bad? I was left thinking about this long after the film ended.
