Cindy Lang

Rachel Caplan, founder of the Green Film Festival

A few days before the launch of the inaugural San Francisco Green Film Festival, the Bay Citizen caught up with its founder, Rachel Caplan. Her experience in the film world stretches the globe: she has a master’s degree in cinema and television studies from the British Film Institute and has worked for the Edinburgh, London and San Francisco International film festivals, L.A. studios, and U.K. independent film organizations. From 2007–09, she directed the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.

The San Francisco Green Film Festival, which runs from March 3-6, will showcase films that address myriad pressing issues: climate change, plastics pollution, food distribution and pollution, e-waste, renewable energy, Alberta’s tar sands, ocean acidification, biodiversity, habitat conservation, and much more. This conversation has been edited for length.

The Bay Citizen: How do you think film lends itself to education and inspiration about environmental issues in a way that other media do not?

Rachel Caplan: I think film can take powerful messages and wrap them into a format that is very immediate and accessible to people. Film also allows us to have this window into other cultures, whether we’re looking at recyclers in a favela in São Paulo or e-waste recyclers in China or farmers in the Sahel, reversing desertification. And I think that being able to present these to audiences here and create that kind of global empathy is really important.

TBC: Documentaries, by their very nature, have a point of view. Are there tones you find more or less persuasive? What do you think is the most effective type of entry point for filmmakers to tell environmental stories?

RC: I think what’s not effective are a lot of talking heads and scientific information and the sort of doom-and-gloom and going to hell in a hand-basket: the films that are just sort of overpowering, and at the end of it, you feel miserable. I believe audiences respond to what I call personal passion: stories of individuals overcoming terrible obstacles, people who have bright hearts and their own passions and integrity and, really, a call. Definitely for our festival, we want to put humans at the center of the picture and say that these are human problems and we can find human solutions.

For example, our opening night film "Bag It" looks at the issue of single-use plastic bags, but it’s incredibly uplifting and entertaining in the way that it’s presented. And he goes on this whole odyssey into the realm of plastics and our cultural love affair with plastic. You come out of the film and you walk home and go into your house, and you will never see the things that you own and the things that you buy in the same light after seeing this film.

TBC: I don’t know if you were managing the Ocean Film Festival at the time, but several years ago I saw a short film there on shark finning. And it was actually pretty horrifying; it didn’t have any of the uplifting aspects that you’ve described. But that was my first introduction to that subject, and it did have a marked impression on me.

RC: We do have a few films that are very hard to take. But we are presenting those with a discussion afterward, so that audiences aren’t just left feeling bereft or overwhelmed, but actually have the opportunity to really discuss what they’ve seen and learn what can be done. We’re screening a film called "Green," which is about the palm oil industry and deforestation in Indonesia the eradication of the orangutan species. It’s just heartbreaking. But we’ve got Rainforest Action Network who’s going to come in and do an extended Q&A session after the film. So people can feel positive and find out what actions or steps they can take.

And we have another film, which is a real downer, called "Heavy Metal" from China. So we’re going to lead a panel afterward on e-waste and green design to focus on cradle-to-cradle thinking and trying to create that buildup of positive momentum.

TBC: I was interested in "Home" because it seems like a much more subtle film, where it doesn’t have an overt issue or an agenda. How does a film like that contribute to your festival?

RC: The environmental movement really came out of the writings of Muir and Thoreau, Brower and Carson — beautiful and poetic works. Somewhere in the last 50 years, we lost sight of that, and the scientists took over with their charts and measurements. I think what Home can offer is a return to that poetic language (albeit a visual, rather than written, one) and sense of awe and inspiration in nature and ultimately a deeper connection to all life on this planet.

TBC: Environmental activists and filmmakers often encounter powerful opponents. Can you give an example of a film for which the filmmaker had to overcome serious obstacles to get the story?

RC: The one that immediately springs to mind is "BANANAS!*", the film by Fredrik Gertten, who is Sweden’s pre-eminent documentarian and investigative journalist. He made this film about the plight of banana workers in Nicaragua and the court case they brought against Dole because Dole had been using a banned pesticide and caused horrible public health issues for the workers.

And the story of what has happened since the filmmaker has completed the film really is in parallel with what happened with Joe Berlinger and "Crude" last year, and the case that Chevron brought against him. Except that has had more coverage in the U.S. because Joe is an American filmmaker and Fredrik is Swedish. But he’s been involved in this terrible legal battle with Dole Corporation and has been in and out of court. They tried to get an injunction against the film screening in Berlin last year, and they’ve sued him for defamation and for fraud. The unfolding legal drama is as interesting as the film itself, which is essentially a courtroom drama to begin with.

If you Google his film "Bananas!*," an advert comes up for Dole. There’s a lot of corporate power and muscle there, and he is just this independent filmmaker, and it’s important to honor his freedom of speech. These films should not be censored.