How to Change the World

Greenpeace may be the world's best-known environmental organization, but as filmmaker Jerry Rothwell's documentary demonstrates, its beginnings were humble and sometimes contentious. Employing a wide spectrum of archival material—including clips from news broadcasts and 16mm footage drawn from the group's own vaults—Rothwell charts the movement's transformation from 1971, when it started as a ragtag collection of Vancouver, B.C., activists gathering to protest a U.S. underground nuclear test on an Alaskan island, up through 1979, when Greenpeace—a name adopted almost accidentally—was reorganized with an elaborate international structure. Present-day interviews with surviving members of the original team center on the late Bob Hunter, a charismatic, guru-like reporter who spearheaded the nuclear protest and then went on to lead the group's publicity-rich encounter with Russian whalers off the California coast (an amusing aside involves consultation of the I Ching about where to concentrate their search). Although successful (mostly due to capturing graphic and appalling footage of the Soviet-era ships slaughtering immature whales), fissures eventually erupted within the leadership over goals and tactics: a major split arose between Hunter and his unofficial second-in-command, Paul Watson, during a save-the-seals campaign (which Brigitte Bardot promoted). Interview clips—with Hunter's daughter and many erstwhile colleagues, including Patrick Moore, whose environmental corporate-consulting firm is considered a sellout by old friends—underscore the fact that the rancor over whether Greenpeace made sensible compromises or actually betrayed its mission continues even today. Serving up a timely profile of a significant environmental institution, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)