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'If a Tree Falls: A Story about the
Earth Liberation Front' - Trailer

Powered By YouTube Daniel McGowan, DHS, Earth Liberation Front, ELF, fbi, Marshall Curry, PBS, POV, Sam Cullman

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'If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front' 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. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Marshall Curry (Oscar®-nominated 'Street Fight,' POV 2005) provides a nuanced and provocative account that is part coming-of-age story, part cautionary tale and part cops-and-robbers thriller.

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Film Description

In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by four federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front, or ELF. For years, the ELF had launched spectacular acts of arson against dozens of businesses it accused of destroying the environment, including timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses and a $12 million ski lodge in Vail, Colorado. No one had ever been hurt in any of the fires, but the FBI considered the group the "No. 1 domestic terrorism threat" in the United States, and soon after his arrest, McGowan discovered that the arson carried a sentence of life in prison.

Winner of the U.S. Documentary Editing Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front is a layered narrative that carefully weaves together a variety of clashing points of view using vérité footage, surprisingly candid interviews and a trove of archival material (much of it never before seen). The result is a nuanced story that asks its audience to wrestle with questions intentionally left unresolved.

The film begins with McGowan in his sister Lisa's Manhattan apartment, where he has been placed on house arrest as he awaits trial for two arsons that he committed against Oregon timber facilities. With an ankle bracelet monitoring his movement, he contemplates his future and reflects on his past.

On the surface, McGowan is an unlikely revolutionary. He went to Catholic school in Queens, was the son of a New York police officer and was a business major in college. "Growing up, he wasn't the political kid fighting for anything," his sister says. "He was just a regular kid."

That was part of his appeal to director Marshall Curry and cinematographer/co-director Sam Cullman. Curry explains, "I'm always intrigued when reality cuts against my expectations or stereotypes. How did this guy — who could be anyone's little brother, or employee, or next-door neighbor — wind up facing life in prison for 'eco-terrorism'?"

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About the Filmmakers

Marshall Curry, Director

Marshall Curry got his start by shooting, directing, and editing the documentary, 'Street Fight,' which followed Cory Booker’s first run for mayor of Newark, NJ and was nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy. After 'Street Fight,' Curry was the director and producer, as well as one of the cinematographers and editors of the feature documentary 'Racing Dreams,' which follows two boys and a girl who dream of one day racing in NASCAR. Dreamworks is currently adapting it for a fictional remake.

In 2005, Marshall was selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of "25 New Faces of Independent Film," and he was awarded the International Documentary Association (IDA) Jacqueline Donnet Filmmaker Award. He has appeared as a guest on television and radio numerous times, including NPR’s Morning Edition, ABC’s Nightline, PBS’s The Tavis Smiley Show, and others. He has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Duke, NYU, and other colleges, and he has served on juries for several film festivals. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College where he studied Comparative Religion and was a Eugene Lang Scholar. Curry lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Sam Cullman - Cinematographer and Co-Director

Sam Cullman is currently producing and shooting a documentary about the War on Drugs in America, directed by Eugene Jarecki, and is starting post-production on 'Black Cherokee,' a short he co-directed with Benjamin Rosen about a self-taught New York City street artist. Cullman's camera credits have included Eugene Jarecki's 'Why We Fight' (2005), which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in documentary; director Rob VanAlkemade and producer Morgan Spurlock's 'What Would Jesus Buy?' (2007); directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's 'Kamp Katrina' (2007); Jonathan Stack's 'Lockup: Inside Angola' (2008) and 'The Farm: 10 Down' (2009), both follow-ups to Stacks' 'The Farm: Angola,' USA (1998). Cullman has also produced and directed a number of short films in collaboration with non-profits and governmental agencies like the New York City Housing Authority and the Ford Foundation. Cullman graduated from Brown University with honors (1999), where he majored in Urban Studies and the Visual Arts, and founded Yellow Cake Films in 2006. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Matthew Hamachek - Editor

Matthew Hamachek's work has aired on HBO, IFC, PBS, BBC and the Discovery Channel. He began his career working on the Oscar-nominated documentary 'Street Fight' with Marshall Curry, and went on to collaborate with Curry again on 'Racing Dreams,' which won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival. He has worked on a number of other projects including the non-fiction series 'Film School' with Nanette Burstein and 'The One Percent' with Jamie Johnson. Hamachek recently traveled to Morocco as part of the State Department's American Documentary Showcase to screen 'Racing Dreams' at universities and cinemas around the country. He is currently editing Geeta and Ravi Patel's movie, 'One in a Billion.'

http://www.ifatreefallsfilm.com/