http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFRdy7o3DPE
Doug Wolens film opens with stunning images of nature most New Yorkers might not know exists....breath taking and with Ani DeFranco sing Up, Up, Up, Up an edgy haunting original piece of music homage to Butterfly....
Luna is an ancient redwood tree extending close to 200 feet towards Heaven rooted deeply and lovingly in Mother Earth. Julia Butterfly Hill mystically finds her way to this tree and there is footage of her so shocking standing on the very top of the tree as if invisible supports suspended her there but there is nothing but pure spirit, perhaps angels and faith that keep her from being blown off the tree.
http://www.earthfirst.org/ Earth First is integral to Julia's unique and far reaching success. She just wandered in to the movement so to speak without actually signing up but they built the platform and started the tree sit in Luna. They supported her sometime with trepidation. Without their support it is not clear she could have achieved her goal. She gets major support from activists....The book and the film complement each other beautifully.
The film gives you rich visuals that I could not have imagined and long to see in real life and breath in the beauty....touch...
Through out the film you hear these sounds that is the wind blowing thru Luna's branches and in her book which is deeply moving and inspirational she tells you how she survives and endures major storms and even the lumbering companies high powered helicopters.
Of course Butterfly the film briefly touches on junk bonds, money.... Charles Horwitz had money from Savings and Loan ---laundering via Michael Milken back to Charles Hurwitz to finance taking over Pacific Lumber Company. which was a responsible family owned business and from tear down the forests at a rapid and reckless pace that creates landslides and destructions of entire communities as well as the death to the local eco-system effecting a lack of water and the drop in salmon population and so much destruction that people take for granted.
As you have heard me say countless times on my blogs and in my YouTubes which I consider my on going hand made documentary on YouTube I have referred to what has gone down here in NYC as a reckless tsunami of community crushing development. There is nothing green about it except the money made by greedy developers. Putting up solar panels after tearing down trees and eating up our green spaces doesn't erase misdeeds but back to Butterfly.
See this documentary and read the book!
Julia believes Mother Nature loves us unconditionally but she has another book on action we can take in our daily lives to be green and responsible along with so many green minded organizations all worth checking out!
Bottom line too many of us has been thoughtless, reckless or plain ignorant when it comes to waste and consumption and the toll it takes on Mother Earth. The bizarre weather and perhaps the tsunamis are a wake call we may not be heeding.
After reading Julia's book you will look at trees differently and with more love than you ever imagined. You will want to be more earth conscious....
I met some big time tree lovers fighting to save trees that Mike Bloomberg , NYU and those calling for "progress" insisted had to be ripped out for yet another unwanted and wasteful renovation at Washington Square Park that is sure to benefit NYU's real estate values. NYU turns the public out of the park for their graduation. How do you turn the public out of a public park and how do you rip out trees out of their home in Washington Square Park. The same way you displace the middle class and low income for greedy developers and their reckless vision that has no conscious and respect for humanity.
The Bloomberg administration's community crushing development radically changed my life and I fought the tear down of St. Ann's at 120 East 12th. I asked Mayor Bloomberg for help. I saw nothing green about this community crushing development....just more concrete, glass and smoke and mirrors. Reckless and dangerous pushes to make developers even richer and the loss of more green spaces and the push out of middle class, low income and small businesses.
