Earth Days slammed

Dororthy Woodend, resident movie critic at The Tyee, is someone whose opinion I value, so it was interesting to see she really didn't like Earth Days, unlike me.

"Earth Day, rather unexpectedly, galvanized the U.S. people, who took to the streets in droves, carrying hand-lettered signs and rag-tag posters, and when it was over, they went back to doing exactly what they'd done before," Woodend writes in her review.

Fair enough.

She goes on to say that the film is "dangerously myopic" in its American focus, has a "heavy-handedness that is almost oppressive," and that all the interviewees "are pretty damn old."

It's definitely American focused. It's aimed at an American market, which is not an excuse in itself, but that's tellywood for you.

Heavy-handed? I didn't find it overly manipulative in the way she suggests. But I may not have been watching as an atypical audience member would. I found it interesting to see how the movie's editor had used some of the same stock Fifties footage I'd used in my own movie.

As for age, for me that was something of a plus. I'm not old enough to remember this era of green shoots in the green movement, so it was good to hear about it from the horse's mouth so-to-speak.

I can see why Woodend, who was clearly expecting more from a film that closed Sundance earlier this year, attacked the self-congratulatory tone. This was not a film that will have people taking to the streets to fix any or all multitude of environmental ills, even if it did try and paint itself as such. However, it was well made with good production values, it should find television slots easily, and so importantly it will be seen by more people from the "mainstream." In that sense its influence will be subtle.