How to Change the World is a solid documentary. Some people are put off by a documentary because, well, they’re often really goddamned boring. Those “some people” are me. I was fully down with anti-documentary sentiment, because I myself was forced to watch them prematurely. No child expecting to watch the Tigger movie should be surprised by a documentary about global policy. All this said, through editing, How to Change the World crafted a really great narrative that twisted and turned and played with my emotions just as any fictional film would.
How to Change the World tells the origin story of Greenpeace International, which started with a boat full of hippies, scientists, and regular dudes looking to protest nuclear tests being done on a small Canadian island. This group of misfits became what Greenpeace is today through a well-crafted media persona. Under the leadership of Bob Hunter, the group set up campaigns that were sensational and managed to grip a mostly apathetic public. The idea of saving whales is far from interesting when not given the context of the brutality that they face. In televising their ecological revolution, they made themselves ecological rockstars.
As is the way with rockstars, ecological or not, drugs and ego become a major hindrance to the progression of their cause, and so the foundation they inadvertently created crumbles as their group fumbles. Thankfully for Greenpeace’s future, many thought that the movement was rad, and so Greenpeace offices popped up all over the world without anything to do with this group of egomaniacal dudes comparing the size of each other’s boners.
The editing on this puppy was amazing. Included in the film was original footage from the first campaigns done by Greenpeace, including really raw and brutal footage which had the theatre gasping. There was also a lot of nifty hippie footage which depicted topless women dancing. So if sexy hippies and crying about clubbed baby seals is your thing, then you’d be really into this movie.
Beyond that I’d say that it was a really great piece of film. It gave some perspective to me on the importance of media in subversive action. This same idea can be looked at through today’s lense of internet activism, but also in the importance social media has played for awareness towards causes such as “Black Lives Matter”.
There were laughs, there were cries, and I left the theatre thinking about modern activism. So I’m going to go ahead and say I was pleased with that outcome. And so my undue prejudice of documentaries slowly simmers the F down.
