Green

An ailing orangutan named Green serves as a framing device to lament the deforestation of Indonesia in this documentary, which opens with shots of Green zipped up in a duffle bag and riding in the back of a pickup truck, and later finds her lying in a makeshift hospital bed hooked up to an IV. Filmmaker Patrick Rouxel's Green eschews narration, taking viewers on an intimately photographed journey in which we see the apes sleeping, foraging for food, and swinging from branch to branch. While the simians go about their business, loggers chop down the surrounding trees to be used in the manufacture of paper, furnishings, and other items made from wood pulp, after which the workers burn down the remainder of the forest to grow the palm trees that supply oil for grocery products, cleaning agents, cosmetics, and biodiesel in manufacturing processes that often pollute the environment. Rouxel also films animals in captivity, confined to cages in outdoor markets and behind metal bars and glass walls in zoos, leaving viewers to draw the conclusion that the creatures' cousins in the wild don't have it much better with all of the vegetation disappearing. Despite the lack of narration, dialogue, or subtitles, Green can still be occasionally heavy-handed, such as when a dance-pop song with the chorus “I need more” plays over images of well-dressed urbanites shopping in upscale department stores (shots juxtaposed with those of the sick ape), but overall this is a sobering look at the dangers of deforestation. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)