Engrossing documentary traces Greenpeace’s origins
Dreaming up a cause is not enough. You actually have to summon up the energy and go out there and do something, as a bunch of hippies once did
There’s a cause for just about everything these days.
If people feel strongly enough about a certain topic, it literally is as easy as creating a social media page to get others interested in what they have to say.
Some causes are more powerful than others, of course. The #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements have generated worldwide support for change, and the impact has been immense.
But for every success, there are at least 10 failures, mainly because armchair activism or "slacktivism" will never hold much water. It is hard to take people seriously when their bravery takes the form of a hashtag, and nothing besides.
Back in the late1960s and early 70s, there was no social media, at least not as we know it today. If you felt an injustice was being done, it was take to the streets and put your neck on the line, or stay home.
One of the great stories to emerge from that period was Greenpeace, the environmental lobby group that remains a major player in the global ecology movement.
A bunch of Canadian hippies taking on the entire whaling industry in a ramshackle fishing boat is something straight out of a movie, which just so happens is what writer-director Jerry Rothwell thought when he decided to shoot the 2015 documentary How to Change the World.
The film, now streaming on Netflix, has won numerous international awards and with good reason.
Aside from the narrative being its own drawcard, the 16mm colour footage shot during Greenpeace’s first outings presents a raw and unfiltered view of just how audacious — and often disorganised — the crew was.
Chain-smoking journalist Bob Hunter had a dream, and the team he assembled around him were dreamers too, but they were hardly adept in the art of organised labour.
Theirs was a bull-in-a-china-shop approach, but often they were not even sure where the china shop was to begin with.
Greenpeace did not start out as an antiwhaling group.
Rather, this shaggy band wanted to put a stop to US president Richard Nixon’s atomic test in Amchitka, Alaska.
Their efforts did not have the desired outcome, but instead of being greeted as failures on their return to Canada, they were heralded as pot-smoking Davids sticking it to a heartless Goliath.
Hunter never saw himself as a leader, but no-one was in any doubt as to his role. His skill was understanding the power of imagery in convincing people to care about issues, whether it was nuclear bombs or the plight of sea creatures.
He knew from the outset that the image of a few ragtags speeding alongside a huge whaling ship would resonate, particularly among television audiences.
That Russian whalers would fire their harpoons despite Greenpeace’s presence made the message even stronger.
What is interesting are the dynamics that play out as the organisation becomes more famous, attracting millions of dollars in donations.
The lines became drawn between those deemed “sell-outs” and more hardline members like Paul Watson, who later founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
As is very often the case with ground-up movements, they did lose their way as infighting and egos took over.
Fortunately the internal struggles were not enough to prevent Greenpeace from flourishing again.
‘How to Change the World’ is streaming on Netflix. Directed by Jerry Rothwell and narrated by Barry Pepper, it stars Bob Hunter, Paul Watson, Patrick Moore and Rex Weyler. Running time: 110 minutes