The Green Chain Competes for major Green Award

The Green Chain has been selected to compete for the Vancouver International Film Festival's new $25,000 Climate for Change Award -- one of the largest cash awards at any film festival in North America.

The series includes dramatic features and documentaries and The Green Chain is the only Canadian film in competition and one of only two dramatic entries.

The new annual award is and is sponsored by Kyoto Planet, "a new eco-conscious company with three distinct but interrelated parts: a financial vehicle to support and facilitate investment in, and management of, business opportunities in the green sector, a foundation to award grants and manage the non-profit portion of the company's business, and a consumer company grounded by a broad portal to serve as the preeminent marketplace for knowledge, ideas, discussion and goods and services in the environmental space."

VIFF Director Alan Franey says, "This is a major and very important development for our festival. Although it is true that we have featured many films on environmental issues over the years, the generous and enlightened support of Kyoto Planet encourages us to put environmentally themed films front and centre in our program."

Mark Leiren-Young on VIFF Panel

Here's the scoop on a panel Mark's joining at the Vancouver International Film Festival hosted by Cineworks. 2:30PM Saturday October 6th 2:30pm – 3:30pm

Cineworks Studio 1131 Howe Street
FILMMAKING FOR AND ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT

Panelists: Laura Dunn (The Unforeseen), Oliver Hodge (Garbage Warrior), Mark Leiren-Young (The Green Chain) Moderator: Maia Iozova
Join these environmental filmmakers for a dynamic discussion on the challenges of making films with our precious planet in mind -- from leaving a smaller footprint during production, to creating films with integrity that break down boundaries or decide to stay purposefully within them. Learn about the approaches of these three diverse filmmakers as they discuss their experience from pre-production to the release of their films.
Presented by: Documentary Organisation of Canada - BC Chapter

Sprucing up the Green Chain podcast

When I first read John Vaillant’s story about “The Golden Spruce” in The New Yorker I had two simultaneous thoughts… what an incredible story and... who the heck is John Vaillant?
I definitely don’t know the work of every writer in Vancouver, but I couldn’t believe there was someone in my city who wrote this wonderfully, who I’d never heard of. The article is one of the best I’ve ever read. It’s an amazing story, beautifully told.
But the book rocked my world.
It wasn’t just the rich history of the Spruce or the drama and mystery of renegade logger, Grant Hadwin, that impressed me, it was the way John wove in the history of logging and the BC forests.
When The Tyee agreed to let me do a podcast, John was the first person I contacted. He not only agreed to be interviewed, he provided me with a list of other potential interview subjects -- many of whom you’ll hear me talk with soon.
Most interviews with John focus on the man who killed the Golden Spruce, but I wasn’t interested in Grant Hadwin’s story for this. I wanted to know what a writer from the U.S. saw in Haida Gwaii that all the writers in BC had missed. I also wanted his thoughts on our forests, the way they’re run, and the new story he’s doing for National Geographic -- both because it sounds like a fascinating model for land management and because I’m really looking forward to reading it when he’s done.
John and I talked at his kitchen table in his home in Vancouver, BC. So if you hear any squeaks, that would be the sound of wooden chairs shifting on a hardwood floor. And in a podcast about trees, I kind of like the idea of punctuating it with the music of creaking wood.
Here's John...

The Green Chain in Vancouver

Tickets on sale now!
The Green Chain has two shows at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Our Western Canadian premiere is Monday, October 8 at 7 pm at the Empire Granville 7.
Our second show is Wed. Oct. 10th at 12:30 pm at the Empire Granville 7.
The Green Chain is featured in VIFF's new "Climate for Change" series -- "an annual environmental film series and a $25,000 juried environmental award, one of the largest cash prizes at any film festival in North America... sponsored by new festival partner Kyoto Planet."
The Green Chain's Vancouver adventures officially kicked off September 5th when Babz Chula (the protester) and Mark Leiren-Young (writer/director) represented the movie at VIFF's official media launch.
Babz is currently at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as one of the stars of Future Projections -- a new program combining film and visual art.

Our first review... from the Montreal World Film Festival

Finally, an enviro-film premiere I could attend!

by Lise Treutler

The Montreal World Film Festival sees many a film, but this year’s edition was, for me, all about The Green Chain — a new mockumentary making its world premiere here in my fair city. While I would surely have gone to see the film regardless, a few factors made the screening all the more exciting and important for me:

• despite convincing arguments that it could technically be considered a business trip, my boss wouldn’t give me the money to attend the private advance screening of The 11th Hour in Vancouver;
• The Green Chain is entirely Canadian and takes place in an unnamed British Columbia town (and I am perpetually in a love affair with the province); and
• my boss and I were invited to the third of three screenings by the filmmaker himself, Mark Leiren-Young.

Leiren-Young is certainly a busy guy, having written in just about every genre one can… journalism, blogs, screenwriting, stage plays, etc. The Green Chain, however, marks his feature film début. Like its creator, the film is a genre-bending journey that can in all truth fit into any of the following categories: character piece, documentary, dramedy, dark comedy, indie, artsy… Oh, forget it! The list is too long! Let me just state for the record that this film is one worth seeing, unless you don’t like examining your own thoughts or being compelled to recognize your personal (inherited?) bias.

The film takes you deep into the longstanding (so much that it’s almost stereotypical) conflict between loggers and environmentalists and sits you face-to-face with opinions from connected individuals you might not have even thought of. The cast includes some of Canada’s most talented actors, most notably August Schellenberg and “Queen of the Indies” Babz Chula (okay, so she was born in New York).

By now you’re probably wondering where my proclamation of “this film will convert you to environmentalism” is, because that’s what we’ve come to expect from similar films. We expect films with an agenda. We rent Michael Moore documentaries not for anticipated surprises on film, but because we want to learn more about his take on, say, health care or gun control in the States, and we know — unless we’re been living under rocks since the mid-’90s — that the films aim to debunk government statements, greenwashing, or (if we’re particularly angry sorts) the right-wing agenda. I fell for such expectations myself before seeing The Green Chain, sat down for a pro-activist film, and left the theatre after the credits surprised and duly impressed!

The Green Chain is not pro-environmentalist, nor is it pro-industry. It wasn’t until Leiren-Young asked me point-blank after the screening which side I thought the film rooted for that I fully realized what, and how much, I took away. As I described how the film’s narrative put me face-to-face (and even behind the eyes) of all sides of the battle, I realized how just how valuable this is. Yes, the film is about the forests, and like the Lorax, it speaks for the trees. But it speaks through seven distinct voices, some of which I’d been unaware of!

As an ardent environmentalist, I clearly see through a certain pair of eyes more often than not. But I’ve always tried to see everyone in the forest sector, for example, as individual human beings, and look for their needs and motives from that point of view… but a distinct lack of logger friends does make this difficult! Leiren-Young has created seven characters so firmly rooted in their beliefs and so willing to fight for what they hold to be truth that one can’t help but really feel for each one and empathize with their situation. When the credits roll, it’s not a question of who’s right — they all are for their different situations.

When The Green Chain becomes available to you, what will you sit down expecting? Do you recognize your bias now, or are you unsure? If you feel you don’t know enough about the forest industry or the environmentalist/logger battle, where do you think you stand?

If you were lucky enough to attend one of the three screenings at the festival, what did you leave the theatre thinking about?

Technorati Profile

Le Premiere

And the theme of the day from The Green Chain's World Premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival (Festival des Filmes du Monde)... technical difficulties!

Okay... so the Metro line to our location isn't working... the internet at our hotel wasn't working (which is why this is so late)... my beautiful new cell phone wasn't working... our projector at the theatre wasn't working, but the movie...

Worked beautifully...

...as soon as the projector came to life!

The audience response was wonderful. People were silent where I hoped they'd be quiet, they laughed where I hoped they'd chuckle and, best of all, everyone wanted to talk when the movie was over.

The audience included our producer team... Tony Wosk (producer), James DesRoches (co-producer) and Donna Wong-Juliani (executive producer)... Darron Leiren-Young (production coordinator and so much more) got to take time off from her gig at J-Pod to make the trip to Quebec.

And a few of our family members flew out, including seven year-old Emma Jordan Leiren Young (Darron's and my niece) -- who has a special cameo appearance. I was so impressed that Emma didn't scream when she saw herself on-screen, but she couldn't resist saying, "that's me!" when she saw her name in the credits! I felt like cheering when I finally saw the credits too...

John Wiggers (who inspired August Schellenberg's character, The Executive) was there and was delighted by the movie, as was Donna Bisschop, the artist who created the haunting painting in that sequence -- and who told us she hadn't been to a movie theatre in about 15 years!

I got the chance to thank everyone in front of the opening night crowd, but thanks again to everyone who made this happen. Un grand merci beaucoup!

Mark

The Green Chain Podcast: Severn Cullis-Suzuki

Believe it or not... more big Green news. It's the official launch of The Green Chain podcast hosted by The Tyee.

This isn't traditional hype, this is what our movie's all about -- getting people to talk, think and feel something about the issues facing the forests... Yep, I'm interviewing all sorts of people about trees.

First off I talk with Severn Cullis-Suzuki (editor of Notes From Canada's Young Activists: A Generation Stands Up for Change). This is my first time on the other side of a mic for an audio interview in years, my first time trying out my new podcasting gear, and figuring out how to edit in GarageBand was an adventure -- but Severn was an amazing and inspiring interview.

The plan is to post a new podcast every two weeks and I've got some incredible guests lined up to talk trees. Coming up... John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed.

This should be on iTunes soon -- and hopefully other places too -- but home base is The Tyee. The Tyee was the launching pad for the "Hundred Mile Diet," so it has global reach and the chance to make our movie part of a global dialogue on environmental issues. And how cool is that?

The Tyee took a real leap of faith in hosting our podcast -- it's their first ever podcast series -- and it'll definitely make them happy if it gets downloaded, linked to, blogged about, commented on, tagged, digged etc. Subscribing to The Tyee's email headlines or rss feed would also make em happy and it'll be a treat for your inbox. The Tyee features a terrific mix of stories -- one of which was just picked up by my heroes at The Colbert Report.

And for me... Any and all words of wisdom about future podcasts would be most appreciated. Any people you'd love me to talk to? Questions you'd like me to ask? Thoughts on how & where to share the podcast?

Oh, the recording of The Green Chain Song that kicks this off is a new one. It's the first song recorded by Local Anxiety in, um, a very very very long time. And yeah, I'm half of Local Anxiety, so that's me singing the harmony line...