This past weekend I watched a few movies that were part of the Green Film Festival in Seoul (GFFIS). I was thrilled when I heard about the festival and was even more excited when I saw the list of some of the films that would be featured. It was a pretty rainy weekend here in Seoul so it made for a perfect day (and night) sitting inside a cozy theatre watching some green movies.
During the afternoon we saw 'Greenlit' and a collection of shorts: Ice Blossoms, Let`s Pollute, How to Destroy the World - Rubbish -Transport, Skylight, and The Bill. All in all I really enjoyed all of the shorts, especially the 'How to Destroy the World' clips; however, I cannot say the same for 'Greenlit'. This movie solidified my belief that Hollywood is run by a bunch of nitwits, whose only concern is the almighty dollar as well as creating a false sense of security and pacifism within its target audience, which in most cases I believe to be ALL of North America. At some points during the film I got so angry at the frustratingly oblivious narrator, Miranda Bailey (executive producer of The SQUID AND THE WHALE) that I found myself talking to the screen in the crowded theatre.
Here is the synopsis of the movie that is offered on the GIFFS website: Movie people are legendarily liberal and left leaning, particularly when it comes to the environment. GREENLIT puts their commitment to the test as filmmaker Miranda Bailey (executive producer of The SQUID AND THE WHALE) follows the production of THE RIVER WHY, starring Zach Gilford (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) as it attempts to keep an environmentally friendly set thanks to the supervision of a "green" consultant. What starts off with great enthusiasm quickly devolves in this insightful and hilarious film.
I would like to know who wrote this synopsis and at what point did they think this movie was hilarious. And the only insightful part of this film is that it shows us how arrogant and ignorant these movie companies (and the people that work for them) really are.
At the end this movie I felt the defeat and frustration of the 'environmental consultant', who's love for the environment had her knee deep in a compost dumpster after a crew member mixed in packing peanuts with the bag of compost... not quite hilarious.
The second movie that we saw was 'Sweet Crude', which was a really powerful and insightful film. The focus of the film is the Niger Delta and the environmental and economic destruction of its surroundings due to the oil extraction that has been taking place over the past 50 years. This film feels very intimate because it is made up of the personal stories of struggle of the villagers from Oporoza and their determination to have their voices heard. We are presented with the greed and corruption of the government that has tried to silence the voice of its people, which has only made them fight back with more force. This is an important film, especially in the wake of the BP disaster that has taken place in the Gulf of Mexico. As North Americans we could not believe that the BP disaster was allowed to take place and that the company should be responsible for the cleaning - now think about living alongside a waterway that has had the same amount of oil pollution, but for 50 consecutive years with no one taking responsibility and the government allowing it to continue. Scary.
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