VIFF Review: The Green Chain

A septet of documentary quasi-interviews and monologues, The Green Chain is a cross-cultural and intriguing look at the business, controversy, politics, and social doctrines surrounding the forestry business. I was expecting a bit more critical thought and analysis, however; considering that it took the film-crew a good year to put this movie together, you'd expect they would have tried to effect more change with it -- given the climate of social awareness out there. Instead, the film didn't capture the tension of the subject matter. The film-maker was largely absent from the film, resulting in a pastiche of views which, in their own ways, entirely missed the seriousness and complexity of the forestry "business" and the brainwash inherent in its persistence.

Depicted from the standpoints of a logger, a protester, forest-fire fighter, actress, environmentalist, businessman, and a logging-town diner owner, it shows the flux and interplay of the discourse and lived experience(s) of the logging business. Each "interview" was really a self-reflective monologue with the camera, largely pontificating the personal biased viewpoints and contradictions of each subject, often in an absurd way.

My "capsule review" is hereby over. For more ramblings click below...

The personal views in this film depict the popular logical leaps and self-fulfilling prophecies of those who not only personally benefit from the industry and hence naturalize and rationalize the forestry business; but also those who are weary and cautious of a business that is so intimately tied to topics of sustainability, climate change, and the survival of our planet. On the whole I see this film contributing only vaguely to the political debate about climate change, as it is so highly inscribed in and dismissive of the discourse of capital which underpins it. As such it is definitely not an anarchist film. Small baby steps indeed, and I'm not sure if they were forward steps.

PICTURE CREDIT: Viff Media Database, by Permission