Sundance film examines ‘eco-terrorists’

UTAH – A documentary film shown at the Sundance Film Festival examines the roots of the Earth Liberation Front, a group that has been branded an environmental terrorist group. “If A Tree Falls,” by Oscar-nominated US director Marshall Curry traces how the group, known for setting fires to draw attention to their cause, became a more intense target for the FBI after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
“Obviously 9/11 completely changed the way that the public saw what they were doing, the way that some of themselves saw what they were doing and the way that the government saw what they were doing,” Curry said in an interview. “Suddenly massive amounts of money and resources are devoted to fight terrorism. You know, there’s a saying that if you give a two-year old a hammer, he’ll be able to find out how many things he can hammer with. If you give millions of dollars to fight terrorism, you might be surprised by how many things are qualified as terrorism.”
Curry, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the 2005 documentary “Street Fight” became interested in the ELF when he learned that a colleague of his wife’s, Daniel McGowan, was arrested for his involvement in the ELF, a group that had begun in Britain in the 1990s. The story is told through McGowan, now behind bars in Illinois, who was a member of one of the largest cells of the radical ecologist group.
The ELF, which was made up of numerous autonomous cells around the world, targeted ski resorts, timber companies, sellers of sport utility vehicles and others to draw attention to the environment, while aiming to avoid any harm to humans or animals. “Nobody was getting hurt, but it was people who were using fear and intimidation, dangerous arsons in which easily a fireman could be killed, to promote their political views on people who disagree with,” said Curry.
“I can understand why, for certain people, it can be considered as terrorism.” The public perception of the ELF changed after the September 11 attacks, which prompted government officials including then-attorney general Alberto Gonzales to call the group “domestic terrorists,” according to the filmmaker. “There were probably people who thought, ‘OK, we’ve got this terrorism thing, now let’s see what we can fit into that, what else we can get under that umbrella,'” said Curry.
He said Gonzales was able to hold a televised news conference and say “‘We’ve put a halt to domestic terrorism,’… The attorney general of the US would never hold a press conference to say ‘We’ve put a halt on arsons.'” At the same time, Curry noted that the posture of the government also served to further radicalize the ELF. “It’s a story of frustration,” he said. He said environmental activists had “a feeling of frustration that making protests and writing letters (were) ineffective.”
This led to “a rage at a government which, in some case, uses violence against non-violence protesters. There were a lot of frustrations, which helped radicalize those people.”