Last winter, when Mine Your Own Business came to Washington, Greenpeace joined with 80 other environmental NGOs to try to prevent the film from being shown. Deeply offended that the National Geographic Society had allowed MPI to book its auditorium for the screening, Greenpeace spearheaded the effort to try to shame National Geographic into cancelling the event--and so effectively announced that as an organization it favors suppression of views that don't tally with its own. To National Geographic's credit, the screening went ahead as planned, and audience members were able to see the film and decide for themselves what they thought about its criticisms of the environmental movement.
Now, in an interesting twist, Greenpeace is announcing its own entry into the movies:
Amidst the proliferation of greenhorn green groups clamoring for attention, one of the environmental movement’s oldest and most powerful players, Greenpeace, almost seems to have been left out of the media shuffle.
But the 36-year-old org is learning how to move with the times, establishing a creative arm, Greenpeace Works, and aligning with Golden Globe and Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Dave Stewart (perhaps best known as Annie Lennox’s other half in Eurythmics) and his Weapons of Mass Entertainment venture to produce music and feature films."The bottom line is that these film and music productions are dealing in the big world,"says Greenpeace Works creative director Mark Warford, who stresses that the projects will move beyond straightforward environmental advocacy. "We want to put a really big story out to a really big audience.”
Grenpeace Works' still-untitled inaugural feature – for which they are in negotiations with a major indie – will film in the Amazon, telling the story of Dorothy Stang, an American-born nun whose outspoken opposition to Brazilian deforestation lead to her murder in 2005.
It hardly needs saying--though it is perhaps best said--that MPI will not follow Greenpeace's example and seek to censor the films Greenpeace sponsors. What we need is debate about the issues, and the more views we have out there, the better debate will be.