Waking the Green Tiger
Synopsis
The rise of a Green Movement in China
Waking the Green Tiger is a feature documentary from Face to Face Media, the award winning team that created Nuclear Dynamite, the story of the environmental movement in America.
Seen through the eyes of activists, farmers, and journalists Waking the Green Tiger follows an extraordinary, unprecedented and successful campaign to stop a huge dam project on the Upper Yangtze river in the high mountains of southwestern China.
Ending Mao’s War Against Nature
Featuring astonishing archival footage never seen outside China, and interviews with a government insider and witnesses, the documentary also tells the story of Chairman Mao’s determination to conquer nature in the name of progress. Millions of people were mobilized in campaigns that reshaped China’s landscape, destroyed lakes, marshes, forests and grasslands, unleashed dust storms, and stifled science. For fifty years the idea was instilled in succeeding generations that nature must serve the people. Critics of this approach were silenced for years.
Awakening a Grass Roots Movement
A new environmental movement, joining activists and farmers and supported by government insiders finally takes root when a new environmental law is passed. For the first time in China’s history, ordinary citizens have the democratic right to speak out and take part in government decisions. The activists set out to test their freedom and save a river. The movement they trigger has the potential to transform China.
The film includes footage shot over a six year period by one of China’s first environmental filmmakers, Shi Lihong, of Wild China Film. She and her husband Xi Zhinong are famous throughout China for an early environmental film about China’s endangered golden monkeys. Shi Lihong then shot and directed a revealing film about the fate of a farming community that was moved to make way for a dam. As we in show in Waking the Green Tiger, her documentary was used by farmers to organize resistance to a massive dam project at Tiger Leaping Gorge that would force 100,000 people to move .
We also had unprecedented access to China’s former director of Environmental Protection, Qu Geping. Honored with many international prizes including the Blue Planet award, Qu has been China’s “father of environmental protection” for more than 40 years. He gives us a candid, no-holds-barred look at the state of the environment in China, from Mao until now. Judith Shapiro, author of Mao’s War Against Nature was a consultant on the project.
Director's Statement
Gary Marcuse, Face to Face Media
This is the third in a series of films that Betsy Carson and I have produced about the origins of environmental movements in North America, Russia and now China. These programs (Nuclear Dynamite, Arktika: the Russian Dream that Failed, Waking the Green Tiger) have been produced in association with CBC’s The Nature of Things.
These films are, each in their own way, celebrations of the rise of grass roots movements on three different continents over a period of fifty years. In North America the environmental movement grew out of a peace movement in the 1950s that was inspired, in part, by environmental concerns. Radioactive strontium from nuclear testing in Nevada and the South Pacific was detected in milk and in children’s teeth and bones. This led to a greater understanding of food chains that allow the concentration of radiation as fallout landing in farm fields was consumed by cows and passed to children through their milk. In Russia the environmental movement was inspired by concerns about toxic Soviet era nuclear waste that was abandoned in the arctic as nuclear submarine bases were closed and the Russian economy collapsed. In China, as shown in Waking the Green Tiger, a movement crystallizes around a campaign to save a wild river in Yunnan province. What all these movements have in common is the passionate desire of ordinary people to protect the environment and their willingness to speak out and to assert their right to do so.
Together these programs trace a transformation in our understanding of the world we live in over the last 60 years. In the past the world seemed larger and more fragmented. Events half a world away had little impact. But gradually, with a better understanding of food chains and ecology it has become clear that we live in a fragile collection of interlocking ecosystems, and the biological systems and species that we destroy may never be see again.
The step from environmental awareness to environmental action is difficult. Activism by its nature disturbs the status quo and triggers a response from vested interests. Without support from the public, the government, and the law, environmental activists are often exposed to pressure, repression or violence, as has happened in many countries. A movement is more than a spontaneous demonstration. It only emerges when the ground has been prepared for it. In our films we have tried to describe both the inciting events that triggered the movement and the broader social context that made a movement possible.
The existence of an environmental crisis in China is well known. For decades public policy was driven by the philosophy that nature must serve the people. During Chariman Mao’s time the philosophy was more explicit: man must conquer nature. The consequences of this neglect are evident. China’s outspoken vice-minister of the environment, Pan Yue, has in the past been very explicit about the extensive air and water pollution that affects up to half of the population. As one step toward addressing these issues, the news media, beginning in the 1990s, have published and broadcast hundreds of thousands of reports about air and water pollution and endangered wildlife. This helps to inform and animate the public, But until quite recently there was little evidence of anything like a grass roots movement that could make a difference. Many green groups were limited to more symbolic efforts like tree planting, litter collection, and nature walks.
But starting in 2004, as described in the documentary, something changed. Green activism evolved into a green movement when local villagers and activists joined forces to oppose a massive dam project on the Upper Yangtze river at Tiger Leaping Gorge. Ordinary people are also speaking out about the problems of pollution with a new sense of conviction. Every week there are hundreds of local demonstrations triggered by concerns about toxic waste. How this happened, and how this green movement supports the evolution of democracy in China is the subject of our film.
We’re pleased to announce that the Hoover Institute Archives at Stanford University have accepted our research materials for this film, which will be available to researchers. Please check back for the activation date, or contact us for more information.
Additional Information
Available in: Hindi, Bengali, Burmese, Kachin, Thai, Vietnamese, Lao Pilipino, Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese, Turkish, English, Chinese.
Film Details
Waking the Green Tiger (Canada, 2011, 78 mins
In English and Chinese with English subtitlesmalso available in 10 additional languages
World Premiere September 2011
Directed By: Gary Marcuse
Awards
Ifeng / Phoenix Television Green China Documentary Film Award 2013
Grantham Prize 2012 Special Award of Merit for Environmental Journalism
Shortlisted: 2012 International Green Film Award, Cinema for Peace, Berlin
Rio de Janeiro filmambiente 2012 International Festival of Environmental Films
• Special Award for films about the importance of learning from mistakes and the power
of society
• Journalistic Relevance Award from the Brazilian Network of Environmental Journalists.
Colorado Environmental Film Festival: Best of Festival 2013
Vancouver International Film Festival Audience Recognition: Top Ten Canadian Films
Planet in Focus (Toronto) Jury Award: Best Canadian Feature Documentary
Writer’s Guild of Canada, 2012 Canadian Screenwriting Awards: Best Documentary
Spokane International FF Jury Award: Silver SpIFFy , Documentary Category
Credits
Directed By: Gary Marcuse
EXEC PROD: Betsy Carson
PROD: Betsy Carson, Gary Marcuse
SCR: Gary Marcuse
CAM: Rolf Cutts
MUS: Henry Heillig, Doug Wilde
Download the credits for Waking the Green Tiger 78 minute version here
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