Directed by Marshall Curry • Documentary • 2011 • 85 minutes
In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front — 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, directed by Marshall Curry, 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 verite 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. Drawing from striking archival footage — much of it never before seen — and intimate interviews with ELF members, and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them, IF A TREE FALLS explores the tumultuous period from 1995 until early 2001 when environmentalists were clashing with timber companies and law enforcement, and the word 'terrorism' had not yet been altered by 9/11. 'One of the best documentaries of the year.' Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times 'An...
Directed by Judith Helfand • Documentary • 2020 • 82 minutes
Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history in 1995, when 739 residents--mostly elderly and black-died over the course of one week. As COOKED links the deadly heat wave's devastation back to the underlying manmade disaster ...
Directed by Stephen R. Kellert & Bill Finnegan • Documentary • 2012 • 62 minutes
Come on a journey from our evolutionary past and the origins of architecture to the world's most celebrated buildings in a search for the architecture of life. Together, we will encounter buildings that connect ...
Directed by Caroline Bacle • Documentary • 2012 • 72 minutes
Nearly every major city was built near the convergence of many rivers. As cities grew with the Industrial Revolution, these rivers became conduits for disease and pollution. The 19th-century solution was to bury them underground and me...