FilmAnnotation2

Movie: The Forest for the Trees Released: 2006 This film, by Bernadine Mellis, circles around a group of activists who are going to court to represent Judi Bari in her case against the United States Government. The film switches between the case and the activists in 2005 and the work of Judi Bari in the 1990s. In 1990 Judi’s car was bombed and then three years later she was later arrested on terrorist charges. She later died from breast cancer. Judi Bari was an environmentalist and activist against logging companies. Unlike other activists Judi understood that the workers needed their job and worked to work together with them. It wasn’t until 12 years later that her case was able to make it to court. And even then the case was only given a six week time frame.

The movie brings out how the legal system can be a hindrance to sustainability. The fact that the case took 12 years to get to court means that they were 12 years behind the issues on environmental conservation. Also the judge is able to and did exclude information from the case that could have affected the outcome of the ruling. The way that the government favors big business was also brought up in the film. In cases of environmentalists against big business the government almost always listens to big business first. Even when environmentalists like Judi take a less radical, more rational approach to dealing with the corporations they are still shunned by both the company and persecuted by the government for trespassing and other crimes.

The involvement of the FBI has to be questioned when one sees this movie. The film makes it seem as though the FBI were hiding evidence and therefore making them look guilty. Unfortunately we will never know. Even if the FBI hadn’t planted the bomb they still are a sustainability problem. They purposely disrupted Judi’s peaceful work with logging companies. If they had planted the bomb the repercussions would have been huge. They would have been swarmed upon by activist groups as well as the media. The most convincing matrix problem that the film showed was the interaction between Judi Bari and the foresting company. When one hears about environmentalists it is in a negative context. Judi was one of the few that took a more peaceful and accepted stance.

The rate at which our trees are being destroyed I thought was one of the film’s better arguments. I really didn’t care much for the presentation of the film. It seemed to have been made for a smaller audience. It would be way too liberal for some people. The fact that Judi was making “rules of engagement” for the conflict between the companies and the environmentalist protesters gave me the most hope for the situation.

What I thought weakened the movie was how liberal and leftist the movie was. When it comes to being a documentary about an environmental activist it is understandable that it is leftish, but with the “hippie radical lawyer” and the very informal style of the movie I felt that it catered to a very specific audience.

I feel that the film focused more on a more environmentally aware group of people as it did not address the mainstream environmental issues. I feel that it is catered to an older audience that would be interested in this one woman and her life battle as well as her supporters’ quest for justice. Many high school students and those younger would not have the patience to sit through a documentary that contains no action or extreme deed.

The film hinted at ways to intervene with the logging companies. They mostly agreed with what Judi had been working for. Communication between the environmentalists and the workers and well as with the companies is the key to success. Getting in the company’s way and sitting in trees should be a last ditched attempt, not the first step. Address the company and raise press awareness in other ways that are seen as less radical. Although organizing planting trees does not stop the problem of deforestation it does help to replace what was destroyed.

I feel that the movie could have been more environmentally educational if it had included ways that the earth is affected by the deforestation around the world. It could have included information on how landslides and the changing CO2 levels affect the earth. If it had been focused more on the issues that Judi Bari fought and not so much on Judi Bari it would not only have catered to a larger audience but would have been able to include a lot more about the effects on the planet.

Because of the nature of the film I felt obliged to research if her work had achieved anything in the long run. Were any laws instated after her time that led to more regulations against logging companies? What I found was that there has not been much logging improvement. [|In fact Bush actually eased the restrictions on logging old trees.] This makes it so that loggers do not need to survey the area for endangered plants and animals. There is still a slow and ongoing effort to push for sustainable logging but nonetheless there are [|some successes] by environmentalists in making logging companies seek more sustainable ways of logging.

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