Merry Everything.
The Green Chain blog has moved to Word Press to accommodate our new hosts at thegreenpages.ca
To stay tuned to all things Green Chain, click here.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Green Chain Wins Big in Spain
Hola. And wow!The headline: The Green Chain just won "El Prat De Llobregat Award" (the Award of the City El Prat de Llobregat") at the 15th Annual Festival Internacional de Cinema de Medi Ambient (FICMA 2008) in Barcelona.
This is me (Mark Leiren-Young) looking stunned next to the award's presenter, Lluís Tejedor, the Mayor of El Prat, the suburb of Barcelona that hosts FICMA.
I'm still waiting for the official translation for all the details of the award, but the explanation that I got after being handed the trophy is that the City of El Prat honours a film that deals with themes they feel are important and need to be discussed. The award is a very cool, very heavy metal sculpture that is going to cost a fortune to Fed Ex from Barcelona, but it'll be worth it...
The entire day of our premiere was a surreal one, which seems fitting since this is Salvador Dali's hometown and the signature buildings are by Antoni Gaudi.
The film screened at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning and the festival was thrilled with the turnout. The subtitles for the movie are in catalán. And I quickly discovered that the catalán translation of "I love trees" is "Jo estimo el arbres."
Following the screening there was a lengthy q&a session where the audience asked about the movie and about the Canadian environmental scene. My translator for the Q&A was Carmen Estevez, who told me at lunch that she got involved with the festival through her brother. I asked what her brother did with the festival. She said, "he's an actor." Then she told me that he's an actor who starred in one of my favourite TV series of all time, The West Wing, and a few little films like... ya know... Apocalypse Now... Yep, her brother is Martin Sheen.
Following the q&a the festival presented a mini-conference with four heavy hitters from the Spanish environmental scene, including Fundacion Mas Arboles -- which appears to be the group in the country for people who love trees and Maderas Nobles de la Sierra de Segura ("an agro-forestry company specializing in native tree plantation management with the aims of forest restoration and the ecological production of high-value timber.") The "administrador de Maderas Nobles" Juan Valero told me after the movie that he's hosting a conference next year about forestry issues and he'd like to arrange bring back the movie... and me... So just to cover all bases I'm planning to take a sip out of the Canaletes fountain which, according to legend, insures visitors will return to Barcelona.
A few hours later it was time for the awards ceremony. I didn't think we were eligible for anything, so I sat at the back. But just before the presentation started, one of the organizers suggested I sit up front with the other filmmakers since the director of the festival might want to introduce us.
After cheering for several other winners I heard the man at the microphone mention "The Green Chain" and I figured he was introducing the filmmakers. Then he said my name and I looked for someone who spoke english to tell me whether I was supposed to stand or... and that's when everyone started applauding and as I sat still in my seat the Argentinian filmmaker a few seats over began waving for me to move. Then the organizers started waving for me to move. I finally got the hint, ran to the stage and gave one of the shortest acceptance speeches on record...
I thanked FICMA for inviting our movie, said "muchos gracias" and hugged the Mayor of El Prat. After the ceremony was over I ran into another ceremony... The night before a woman gets married here she celebrates by dancing in the streets. As I was watching the dance, the bride to be waved for me to join her. So I celebrated the award by dancing something sort of Flamenco-like in the square just in front of the theatre. According to a friend from Buenos Aires whatever I was doing was as close to the Flamenco as whatever the bride-to-be was doing...
So that's the story from Barcelona...
And I guess this is the official victory dance!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Jillian Fargey Cleans up at Leo Awards
And the Leo Award for "Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Feature Length Drama" goes to...Jillian Fargey for her performance in The Green Chain.
Congratulations to Jillian and Green Chain co-star Babz Chula who won the Leo for "Best Guest Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series" for her role in jPod.
The Green Chain also received major kudos from Mockfest in Los Angeles where it was one of only three nominees for "Best Feature."
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Leos Celebrate The Women of The Green Chain
Tonight's a big night at the Leo Awards for The Green Chain's three leading ladies.Jillian Fargey is nominated for "Best Supporting Performance by a Female
in a Feature Length Drama" for her amazing performance as Jenni Holm in The Green Chain. Jillian received an honourable mention from Women in Film & Television's for their Artistic Merit Award for her "riveting" performance as Jenni Holm in The Green Chain.
Tricia Helfer is nominated for her dominating "Lead Performance by a Female in a Feature Length Drama" for her role in "Walk All Over Me." Tricia was previously nominated for a Leo for her performance in an episode of "The Collector" written by The Green Chain's Mark Leiren-Young
And Babz Chula is nominated for "Best Guest Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series" for her work in the much mourned CBC series, J-Pod.
Let's hope for a hat trick!
Monday, May 19, 2008
The Green Chain Goes Beachcombing With Jackson Davies
The Beachcombers is so iconic, that even if you never saw CBC’s long-running made-in-BC family drama you probably remember it anyway.
In 1990 I was lucky enough to interview actor Robert Clothier (aka the ever cranky Relic) about the final season of The Beachcombers – which wasn’t just Canada’s longest running series, but was challenging Bonanza for the title of longest running drama series ever. And even though I’d never been a fan of the show, his passion for it was so genuine that I found myself missing it desperately and furious at the Torontonians at CBC head office who’d taken a chainsaw to part of BC’s culture.
Jackson Davies (who played RCMP officer Constable Constable on The Beachcombers) has fought to revive the series ever since it left the airwaves and he helped produce two highly rated TV movies that reunited the surviving cast members – and introduced a new generation of stars, and viewers, to one of Canada's most mythic meeting places, Molly’s Reach and the not so mythical land of Gibsons, B.C.
When we launched The Green Chain podcast the idea was to get different perspectives on BC’s forests and it hit me that for a lot of people around the world, the image they have of our forests, our loggers and our trees comes from watching Nick, Relic, Jessie and Constable Constable fight their weekly battles over those drifting logs.
These days Jackson is teaching film at Capilano College and starring in The Producers at the Arts Club’s Stanley Theatre. I met Jackson at Listel O’Douls in downtown Vancouver to talk about the death of The Beachcombers, the death of real-life beachcombing and how the whole world came to Molly’s Reach.
Click here to check out the latest Green Chain podcast. Coming up on future episodes I'll be talking trees, faith and getting scared sacred with Velcrow Ripper.
- MLY
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The Green Chain's LA Premiere! Sunday (May 18th)!
Okay, so I've avoided the word "mockumentary" in interviews about The Green Chain -- but please don't tell the lovely people at Mockfest in Los Angeles where the movie makes its LA premiere this Sunday at 3 pm at the Hollywood Vine Theatre -- 6321 Hollywood Blvd.So why have I avoided the "m" word? Because The Green Chain is a lot of things, but This Ain't Spinal Tap... What's exciting about Mockfest is they get that doc style films don't have to be comedies to work.
If you're in Los Angeles be sure to check out our LA premiere.
And if you know someone in Los Angeles, be sure to send this their way!
Here's the scoop on Mockfest:
MOCKFEST 2008 FESTIVAL INFORMATION
MISSION & OBJECTIVE
Our mission is to showcase the best mockumentaries from around the world, gathering fans and filmmakers together to celebrate the beauty and brilliance of the mockumentary genre at the center of it all, Hollywood, California.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
MOCKFEST is the first film festival solely devoted to the mockumentary, a groundbreaking film style capable of bending reality and shaping human perceptions. MOCKFEST features mockumentaries of all types and lengths, comedic, dramatic, and experimental, and will showcase works from the past, present and future. The festival's most highly prized characteristic in filmmaking is innovation. All films that are selected to appear at the 2008 festival will have that in common.
Mark
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The bloom of the enviro film.
If you're looking for an enviro-themed film, Katherine Monk at CanWest/Canada.com recommends The Green Chain -- along with eco-classics like An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car?, The Lorax and Blockade (which features the same cinematographer (Kirk Tougas) and sound designer (Gael MacLean) as The Green Chain).The story includes an interview with The Green Chain's Mark Leiren-Young.
``The idea isn't to lecture people, but to have people identify with the characters and . . . open their eyes to the larger issues,'' said Mark Leiren-Young, the director of The Green Chain, a 2007 movie about the many facets of the forestry industry.
``The whole point of this movie is to get people talking about the real issues from an educated position. The dialogue goes nowhere when it devolves into ignorant blanket statements about which side is right and which side is wrong,'' said Leiren-Young.
``The best way to effect change is to bring all areas of the debate to the stage, and let the audience make their own decision. That way it's real because the viewer has internalized the argument and made it his or her own.''
Here's the full list of recommended eco-films...The Lorax (1972): There's no doubt Dr. Seuss moulded the minds of young people with his book, and later this TV adaptation, about a community that cut down all its valuable trees for profit, and later paid the environmental price.
If You Love This Planet (1982): Dr. Helen Caldicott's lecture to a group of college students about the dangers of nuclear war set the tone for most of the films that would follow by laying out in clinical terms our capacity for self- destruction. In this landmark award-winner from the NFB's Terre Nash, nuclear war is the trigger for environmental catastrophe, but its sheer sobriety in the face of a real threat seemed to permeate the popular psyche, and readjust our notions of public responsibility. A wave of anti-nuke sentiment followed.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006): Davis Guggenheim proved the power of a lecture captured on screen once more with this surprisingly dramatic examination of climate change via Al Gore. Thanks to Al Gore's recent Nobel Prize co-win, this Oscar-winning film will forever be seen as the tipping point in the environmental movement, as well as a genre hallmark.
Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006): Chris Paine's little movie is about the little car that could: the General Motors all-electric EV1, a zero-emissions vehicle that was introduced into California as an experiment in the late 1990s, and later destroyed by GM when it appeared the car - if mass-produced - had the potential of eliminating every service station in the state because it needed no gas or maintenance. The film is raw but it's personal, and proves what one person with an idea, some passion, and a camera can accomplish.
Manufactured Landscapes (2007): Jennifer Baichwal records Edward Burtynsky's photographic landscapes as they're being created, and shows us industrial ugliness in a different light. By revealing the poetry in the pictures, she proves how mankind has the capacity to redeem itself - even in the face of industrial horrors.
The Unforeseen (2007): Laura Dunn takes on a familiar story of developers vs. environmentalists and turns it into a meditative study on how we live, and how we choose to house ourselves.
Rivers and Tides (2001): Though not an environmental movie on its surface, this documentary about environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy redefines the way we perceive the natural world by making it into physical art objects.
Garbage Warrior
Blockade
Flow: For Love of Water
Fields of Fuel
The 11th Hour
Planet in Peril
The Future of Food
Everything's Cool
Idiocracy
The Simpsons Movie
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Darwin's Nightmare
The Green Chain
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Green Chain "Heralded" for Earth Day
You know Earth Day has gone mainstream when The Calgary Herald is covering it. Yes, that would the same Calgary where they keep all the oil money...Sure, the headline is about "cashing in" on the environmental movement but still... The story's on the cover of today's entertainment section, complete with a photo of Alberta's own Tricia Helfer. Calgary Herald writer (and author of The White Guy) Stephen Hunt wrote an extensive Earth Day feature for today's paper that covers everything from a green-washing James Bond villain to ecorazzi.com, the Environmental Media Association and... The Green Chain.
Here's Hunt's take on The Green Chain and Local Anxiety...
For Vancouver-based writer and director and longtime environmentalist Mark Leiren-Young, whose film The Green Chain explores the issue of logging in B.C., the shift in the overall public attitude towards the environment has been pleasantly surprising: touring with his comedy group Local Anxiety across Canada in the early 1990s with a show that included political satire and environmentally-themed sketches, Leiren-Young discovered the rest of the country didn't share Local Anxiety's interest in the environment.
"As soon as we went out of Vancouver, we pretty much had to lose the environmental stuff," Leiren-Young says. "When we played Toronto, I remember our producer saying, 'Lose the stuff about the dolphins and the whales.' So we'd lose all the stuff about dolphins, whales and trees. It just didn't play there."
Leiren-Young and the rest of Local Anxiety taped a television special featuring their political satire in Toronto. Then they went back to B.C. and taped a TV special featuring their environmental material that they were (politely) asked not to perform in Toronto. The result was Greenpieces: An Eco-Comedy, which was broadcast on TV in parts of in Canada and a PBS station in San Diego, where it won an EarthVision award for excellence in environmental filmmaking.
Cut to 15 years later, and the stuff Leiren-Young and his merry band of B.C. satirists couldn't perform elsewhere has become part of the everyday lexicon of the nation.
"Literally, all the stuff we were doing in 1993 in Vancouver is suddenly relevant in 2008 in the rest of Canada," Leiren-Young says.
The greening of pop culture resulted in The Green Chain, (which features, among other's, Alberta's Tricia Helfer), receiving development funding from Telefilm. According to Telefilm's John Dippong, a film such as The Green Chain, which deals with logging by showing both sides of the debate in fictionalized monologues, demonstrates the sort of maturation in the approach filmmakers have made in films discussing environmental themes.
"It basically looks at the whole issue of logging from all sorts of different perspectives," says Dippong of the film, which reaped a best canadian screenwriting nomination from the Writers Guild of Canada for Leiren-Young. "It's really nicely done, because there's no obvious right, wrong or single point of view, which of course is the whole deal with environmental films: it's complicated. Which is interesting."
Dippong sees the increased interest in environmental themes as a logical extension of western Canadian-based filmmakers' sense of place.
"It's kind of dangerous to generalize, but I think western Canadian filmmakers have a pretty distinctive sense of place and environment," Dippong says. "Whether it's the vast open prairies, the mountains, (or) the West Coast here, I think we're starting to see that the environment we live in is starting to influence the stories we tell."
Monday, April 14, 2008
Mr. Leiren-Young Goes to Ottawa
My Joust with Senators over Free Speech in Film
Jitters, the F word, and what I told the Bill C-10 hearings.
Published: April 14, 2008
TheTyee.ca
[Editor's note: To read the full transcript of the Senate panel discussion during the session Mark Leiren-Young spoke in, click here. His comments begin about half way down.]
The nice people at the Book and Periodical Council wanted me to be as well behaved as possible. The nice woman from the CBC really wanted me to say "fuck" on TV. And what the f*** were the senators going to say?
For the rest of the story... visit The Tyee...Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Green Chain Filmmaker to Talk Censorship With The Senate
Mark Leiren-Young is "briefing" the Senate today (Wednesday, April 9 at 5 pm Eastern Time) on a provision in Bill C-10 that could lead to the censorship of Canadian film and television.
Mark's speaking to the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce on behalf of the Freedom of Expression Committee of the Book and Periodical Council of Canada.
This controversial clause in Bill C-10 won't affect The Green Chain, but it could affect the next movie or TV show that you try to make, so if you'd like to know what it's all about, here's the Facebook site Keep your censoring hands off of Canadian film and TV! No to Bill C-10! -- which now has over 38,000 members.
And if you're concerned about free speech in Canada, please join the Facebook group, send a letter to the Senate or call, write or email your MP.
Mark is presenting his brief between 5 and 6 pm (Eastern Time) and the Senate hearings are being streamed live on-line, so you can click here to watch. Other groups speaking today include REAL Women of Canada and Canadians Concerned about Violence in Entertainment (from 4-5 pm). The Canadian Conference of the Arts and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association will be speaking during the same session as the BPC, from 5-6.
Thursday's speakers include Sarah Polley and Wendy Crewson, who are speaking on behalf of ACTRA, and Rebecca Schechter and Maureen Parker from the Writer's Guild of Canada.
The Book and Periodical Council is the umbrella organization for Canadian associations involved in the writing, editing, publishing, manufacturing, distribution, selling and lending of books and periodicals in Canada. The members represent approximately 6,000 individuals and 5,500 firms and institutions. Associate members represent an additional several thousand individuals, firms and institutions.
The Freedom of Expression Committee monitors censorship issues in Canada, organizes Freedom to Read Week and produces an information kit each year on issues of intellectual freedom.
Mark first got involved with the FOE committee in 1992 when his comedy troupe, Local Anxiety, wrote the anthem for Freedom to Read Week, "Dirty Books."
He has represented the Playwrights Guild of Canada on FOE (and been part of their "issues" subcommittee) for so long that no one's quite sure when he officially joined.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Link to The Babz Chula Lifeline
Babz Chula is a national treasure and right now she needs your help -- so please share this post (or at least these links) with everyone you know.
Babz is currently fighting two different types of cancer and she’s using alternative therapies that aren’t covered by the Canadian Health Care system. So the Babz Chula Lifeline for Artists Society is raising money to help cover her treatments.
The Green Chain was Babz’ first gig after recovering from her last bout with cancer and I know everyone on the movie was honoured that she was willing to play with us.
So now I’m going to drop the names of some of the stars who are donating their time and/or memorabilia to the cause because I want everyone to visit eBay to bid early, often and extravagantly... David Duchovny (The X-Files), Nick Lea (Men in Trees), Chris Carter (Harsh Realm – okay, The X-Files too, but Harsh Realm was amazing and you should check it out on DVD), Gabrielle Miller (Corner Gas), Callum Keith Rennie (almost every cool Canadian movie you've ever seen), Jewel Staite (Firefly & Stargate Atlantis), Kandyse McClure (Battlestar Galactica) and The Green Chain’s Tahmoh Penikett.
Babz is a joy to work with and to be with and I know she’s got hundreds of great roles left to play – both on and off stage.
So bid early, bid often and if you can’t find anything to buy, and even if you can, make a donation anyway for all the times you’ve seen her on stage or screen -- or off stage and screen -- and she’s made you laugh or cry or feel happy to be alive.
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Green Chain Podcast: Antony Marcil, Forest Stewardship Council of Canada
The Forest Stewardship Council of Canada was an early supporter of The Green Chain. They helped with our research, wrote a letter to support us when we applied for a grant (which we didn't get, but still...) and former FSC Canada board member, John Wiggers, played a major supporting role in the making of the movie.So when I started The Green Chain podcast series, I knew I had to interview the head of the FSC, Antony Marcil. I met him when I was in Toronto interviewing movie stars for The Georgia Straight at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. And this was definitely one of my favourites interviews during the festival. Okay, Sir Richard Attenborough, Paul Schrader, Kevin Bacon, Gabriel Byrne, Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Michael Caine, Marjane Satrapi and Sidney Lumet weren't too dull either, but they didn't talk trees.
Here's the link to listen on iTunes.
Here's the intro from The Tyee podcast and the link to the story and audio options posted there.
One of Harry Potter's biggest magic tricks was letting the world know about the Forest Stewardship Council. When J.K. Rowling announced that the final installment of her beyond bestselling saga was going to be released on FSC certified paper, it was hard to miss the existence of an international organization that was founded in Toronto back in 1993 to look for better ways to manage the world's forests.
And when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made switching government papers to FSC certified paper part of his recent reelection campaign, it was a major triumph for Antony Marcil, president and CEO of FSC Canada since 2005.
Before taking over FSC Canada, Marcil spent 10 years as president and CEO of the World Environment Center. In 1997, he was included in the first worldwide listing of "The Top 100 Figures in Environment, Sustainable Development and Social Issues" by The Earth Times. He did a two year stint as "planner-in-residence" at the School of Planning, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo after devoting five years of his life to an unexpected way to save the planet: tax reform.
I met Marcil at the FSC office in downtown Toronto to talk about the history and future of the FSC, how tax reform could save the world and why he'd trash Canada's Ministry of the Environment.
And when I checked in just before posting this he was thrilled to tell me that there's so much demand for FSC-certified paper that FSC certified mills can't produce it fast enough. Fortunately, we don't need to worry about that since you're reading this online. . .
Monday, March 17, 2008
The Green Chain Script Scores a Canadian Screenwriting Award Nomination
Tony Wosk here with a special guest blog for The Green Chain. Usually I prefer to let Mark handle the blogging, but today is really a special circumstance. On behalf of the producers of the film, I wanted to congratulate our esteemed (and way too busy) writer/director Mark Leiren-Young on being named a finalist for the Writer's Guild of Canada’s 2008 Canadian Screenwriting Awards. Knowing all the wonderful films produced in Canada this past year, I find this peer voted award pretty darn cool.From my first reading of The Green Chain, I always thought it was wonderfully written; and the script is actually why I got involved in the film in the first place, so it’s great to see that Mark’s being recognized for it and that others found the screenplay as compelling as I did.
Last year Sarah Polley won the award with her screenplay for Away From Her, which went on to garner an Oscar nomination.
This year the competition is just as fierce with screenwriters including Travis Macdonald (Normal), Clement Virgo & Chaz Thorne (Poor Boy’s Game) and Kari Skogland (The Stone Angel). Congrats to all of them as well.
Looking forward to the awards ceremony on April 14th, and not just because of the open bar.
(photo of Mark Leiren-Young by Tim Safranek, courtesy of The 2008 Cleveland International Film Festival.)
T
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The Green Chain Storms Cleveland
The airport just reopened after a blizzard and the city's still cold, but the audience at The Green Chain's American premiere couldn't have been warmer.Writer/director Mark Leiren-Young and producer, Tony Wosk, both flew to Cleveland for the premiere and the response was fantastic.
Mark (that'd be me) joked before the movie about Ohio being a big forestry state. And that kicked the night off with a big laugh. The thrill for Mark and Tony was how many laughs there were - and how lovely the response was - from an audience that isn't necessarily raised on the politics of trees.
The movie was followed by a half hour "Question and Answer" session covering everything from the movie's shooting location, to Tricia Helfer's fearless performance as Leila Cole. And some members of the audience were surprised when the final credits started to roll and they realized our actors were actors and that this isn't a documentary -- a comment the movie has received after almost every screening we've done so far.
The Q&A continued at The Hard Rock Cafe when several audience members visited Mark and Tony with more questions and comments.
The Green Chain is part of the Cleveland International Film Festival's special "It's Easy Being Green" environmental program and is also featured as part of the festival's spotlight on new Canadian films. The movie was invited to Cleveland after festival director, Bill Guentzler, screened it at the Vancouver International Film Festival and decided to bring it home.
Mark's looking forward to meeting the audience at The Green Chain's second and final screening at the Festival, this Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. Okay, he's not looking forward to being awake at 9:30 a.m. but... he is looking forward to meeting anyone passionate enough about their movies to see them so early!
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Big Ohio Primary News -- The Green Chain is Elected to Play Cleveland
The Green Chain's American premiere is set to rock the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The 32nd Cleveland International Film Festival is featuring The Green Chain in their newly launched "It's Not Easy Being Green" section and also in their special slate of Canadian films, "Oh Canada."
The American premiere is Tuesday, March 11 at 7:00 pm, with a second showing Thursday, March 13 at 9:30 am. Currently only Festival members can purchase tickets, but general admission tickets will be on sale soon.
Founded in 1977, the Cleveland Film Society has presented the Cleveland International Film Festival every spring for over three decades. Ohio’s premier film event features over 240 films originating from close to 60 countries.
To buy tickets click here.
Here's the official synopsis from their program.
Who doesn’t love trees? Surely the logger loves trees, even the firefighter, and especially the environmentalist protester. But so does the movie star, the logging executive, the tree-sitter living 100 feet high, and the waitress in a small British Columbian town. This film is compromised of a series of monologues by all of the above and more. What these interlocking stories tell us is that there are multiple sides to the environmentalist issue. Each of these individuals has different reasons to love trees. To some, trees are their livelihood; to others, trees are a reason to fight. What’s more is that all of these reasons to love trees inadvertently affect other people’s lives. In exposing the different viewpoints of the logging industry, which is currently dividing and destroying communities in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, Mark Leiren-Young creates a film-- a sort of staged documentary-- based on true tales. While not as laugh-out-loud funny as Christopher Guest, but much more biting and hard hitting, this film will make everyone question where their tree devotion falls along THE GREEN CHAIN.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Kingston Checks out The Green Chain March 1 & 2nd
Kingston is the world's largest all-Canadian Film Festival, so start humming "O Canada" and tell all your friends in Ontario to check out the show.
For ticket information click here.
And here's the official program synopsis by Elan Mastai...
The battle between loggers and environmentalists is defining and dividing communities across Canada, and this thought-provoking, unexpectedly funny, and wonderfully acted film explores both sides of an issue that’s never clear cut. Writer-director Mark Leiren-Young tackles a challenging subject with an innovative approach — seven characters deliver seven monologues arguing their perspectives and quietly revealing their intriguing personal connections. The film’s strong environmental core is elevated by incredible performances; many delivered in a single stunning take, from a knock-out ensemble cast including Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer and Tahmoh Penikett, and multiple Genie and Gemini winners Babz Chula, Brendan Fletcher, and August Schellenberg.
Stay tuned for news about The Green Chain's American premiere!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Green Chain Crowned by Kingston
Some groovy green news...
The Green Chain is one of the six initial selections for the world's largest all-Canadian film festival -- The Kingston Canadian Film Festival.The other five early selections are some of this year's most acclaimed Canadian features -- Up the Yangtze, Breakfast with Scot, The Tracey Fragments (featuring Oscar nominee, Ellen Page), Shake Hands with the Devil and Green Chain star, Tricia Helfer's "other movie" the S&M comedy, Walk All Over Me.
The Kingston Canadian Film Festival is held February 27 to March 2, 2008.
We'll share our dates as soon as we know them...
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The Green Chain Podcast: Tzeporah Berman Part 2
Powersuit Power, Eco-Politics
Tzeporah Berman: Part two of a 'Trees & Us' podcast.
"Green is the new black," says ForestEthics founder, Tzeporah Berman, with a laugh as she tells The Tyee about the rest of the world finally starting to catch up to British Columbians on environmental issues.
In 2007, the former Greenpeace organizer talked politics in Hollywood with Paris Hilton and played politics in Bali with Canada's environment minister, John Baird.
Last week's interview covered Berman's role in Leonardo DiCaprio's cinematic plea to save the planet, The 11th Hour, the upcoming battle of Athabasca and her life under the media microscope.
This week, in the conclusion of our special two-part podcast, Berman deals with the founding of ForestEthics and catalogues some of their major victories . . . including their war against environmentally dirty underwear.
The uncompromising activist also talks about with the challenges of making compromises, the power of powersuits, staying hopeful and discussing lingerie with Gloria Steinem.
Mark Leiren-Young talks to Tzeporah Berman (part two). (mp3 file)
subscribe: iTunes | Odeo | More Tyee podcasts
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The Green Chain Podcast: Tzeporah Berman
From starring in The 11th Hour for Leonardo DiCaprio to fighting to survive the 11th hour in Bali, last year Tzeporah Berman was everywhere.
At a party in Vancouver a few months ago celebrating ForestEthics' astonishing victory in convincing the BC government to preserve 2.2 million hectares of habitat for the world’s only mountain caribou the key players in the group were introduced to the audience and applauded. Everyone else in the organization was identified by their official title. Berman was introduced as, “our rock star.”A former star with Greenpeace and one of the founders of ForestEthics, the woman BC Premier Glen Clark once called an enemy of the state has been on the frontlines of the Canadian environmental movement for over a decade. But in 2007 she became… a rock star… achieving Suzukisque status when she was chosen as one of the featured players (along with Dr. David) in Hollywood’s cinematic plea to save the planet, The 11th Hour and scored an official audience with the media icon of our age, Paris Hilton.
She ended her amazing year facing off against Canada’s Minister of the Environment, John Baird at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali-- a story she chronicled for The Tyee.
I met Berman at the Forest Ethics office in downtown Vancouver not long before she left to Bali. Here's part one of a special two part podcast about spinning celebrity, Berman's biggest battles, sticky fights in the tar sands and how we’ll always have Paris.
- MLY
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
