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...

The Green Chain Podcast: Tzeporah Berman Part 2

Powersuit Power, Eco-Politics

Berman: ForestEthics crusader.

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.

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Mark Leiren-Young talks to Tzeporah Berman (part two). (mp3 file)

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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

The Williams Lake Podcast

One of the most rewarding moments in making The Green Chain came just after we'd wrapped post-production and I interviewed Wade Fisher for The Tyee podcast series.

Every scene in the movie kicks off with a response to the question, "how do you feel about trees." And every character starts their story with the same three words: "I love trees."

Wade Fisher spent more than two decades representing BC forest workers. When I was visiting friends in Williams Lake I met Wade to do my first interview for the podcast series and at the end of our conversation I decided I'd try out the question from the film and ask him, "how do you feel about trees?"

There was a pause and then he gave an answer that took my breath away. "I think I love trees."

As he continued to answer the question he echoed so many of the sentiments from our logger, Ben Holm, that I think... Wade is entirely based on our logger... So if I sound a little stunned at the end of this interview it's only because I was a little stunned.

One reason this interview is so free flowing is that I was meeting Wade to talk about his role with the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coaltion, but as soon as we started talking he told me he'd just left the group. So I wasn't sure where the interview was going to go -- or if I was going to use it for the series -- until we'd already been talking for a few minutes.

I think Wade offers a glimpse into a world that most people seldom see. It's the world we visit in The Green Chain. And I hope you'll visit it now. And when the movie opens at a theatre near you...

Here's the podcast.

News on when we'll be where next coming soon.

Happy Chanukah,

Mark

Tricia Helfer Whips Up Excitement and The Green Chain Storms the Weather Network

Tricia Helfer's (other) new movie Walk All Over Me hits (and whips) Vancouver theatres next week and it's the cover story of this week's Georgia Straight.
The Green Chain is also creating a storm on Canada's Weather Network in a new story about the west coast enviro scene featuring Mark Leiren-Young and The 11th Hour's Canadian eco-idol, Tzeporah Berman.
Also... be sure to pick up the latest issue of The Vancouver Review for a fascinating, in-depth review of The Green Chain (which we'll be posting here soon).
And now here's a bit about Tricia and The Green Chain from this week's Straight story by Mike Usinger...
With major roles in two feature films this year, Helfer has given every indication that she isn't going to be another Cindy Crawford when it comes to leaving the catwalk for the screen. Georgia Straight contributor and Vancouver native Mark Leiren-Young directed Helfer in his 2007 movie, The Green Chain, which looks at the issue of logging old-growth forests from various sides. Helfer, who plays a celebrity jumping on the green bandwagon, blew his mind when she showed up for filming and proceeded to rattle off a 13-minute monologue in one perfect take.
"I kept asking her, 'So, no theatre experience at all?' 'No,'" Leiren-Young tells the Straight by phone. "I had trouble believing she wasn't a theatre-trained actor. She was just astonishing."

The Green Chain Meets Garbage Warrior!

Here's the scoop on the latest Green Chain podcast on The Tyee.

Building Treeless Houses

Doc director OIiver Hodge

A Trees and Us podcast with 'Garbage Warriors' director Oliver Hodge.

By Mark Leiren-Young
Published: November 2, 2007

TheTyee.ca

Imagine building your house out of garbage.

American architect Michael Reynolds turns old tires, beer cans and plastic bottles into "earthships."

Oliver Hodge was a movie props maker who helped design and create the stuff you find on spaceships -- including the light sabers for The Phantom Menace. But Hodge left the Oompa Loompas at Charlie's Chocolate Factory and suspended his license to create killer weapons for James Bond to chronicle Reynold's adventures for his first feature film, Garbage Warrior.

Hodge spent three years following Reynolds as he fought to change the laws in New Mexico to create a self-sustaining community and flew into disaster areas to build -- and teach locals to build -- homes that require no heating, no outside sewage or water systems and redefine the meaning and possibilities of "living off the grid."

Garbage Warrior just finished a run at the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival where it won the inaugural People's Choice Award for the Most Popular International Nonfiction Film. Last week Hodge won the award for Best Debut Director at the British Independent Film Awards. And Dorothy Woodend at The Tyee wrote, "This is perhaps my favorite film in the entire festival, simply because it says, "You want to do something? Okay, do this!""

In the latest "Trees and Us" podcast, Mark Leiren-Young talks trash with Hodge as he explains how to build houses without trees.

Click Mark Leiren-Young talks with Oliver Hodge to hear Oliver Hodge talk about recycled houses, the stories the movie doesn't tell about visiting the Andaman Islands after a tsunami and making the ultimate light sabre.

Or listen and subscribe to Tyee podcasts on iTunes.

The Green Chain featured at Citizenshift

The Green Chain now has a featured blog at -- The National Film Board of Canada's social networking site, Citizenshift. And we're the only fictional film that's part of the NFB site.

Other featured Rebels With a Cause include Nettie Wilde -- whose movie Blockade was helped inspire me in making this film. Both our cinematographer Kirk Tougas (seen above) and our sound designer, Gael MacLean, worked with Nettie to bring Blockade to life and were able to share their knowledge of that experience to create the world of The Green Chain.
Another featured filmmaker is Velcrow Ripper who offered to loan us footage when we were searching for transition images. We didn't end up needing the footage, but the offer was most appreciated and I'll be interviewing Velcrow for one of my upcoming podcasts. Velcrow took his own non-fiction look at trees with his film, Bones of the Forest.
The Citizenshift site also features filmmakers Mark Achbar, Avi Lewis and Alanis Obomsawin and the leader of Canada's Green Party, Elizabeth May.