Screening: If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Part of Consider the Alternatives: A Documentary Film Series presented by the Burchfield Penney and the Buffalo State Communication Department
Consider the Alternatives asks its audience to consider the alternatives – always. Using an eclectic array of subject matter, the films showcased in Consider the Alternatives explore both alternative responses to social problems and alternative ways of living and organizing families and societies, all while celebrating human triumph over adversity and repression. Consider the Alternatives is curated by documentary filmmaker Meg Knowles and media and social critic Mike Niman, both professors in the Buffalo State College Communication Department
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Marshall Curry, 2011 (P.O.V.) explores two of America’s most pressing issues, environmentalism and terrorism, by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Daniel McGowan, a former member of the Earth Liberation Front, faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front tells the story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of McGowan, one of its members.