It's trendy to be "green" right now, especially in Hollywood "“or is it? The A-listers of the movie industry seem to be socially conscious and progressive on a variety of issues (think George Clooney and Leonardo Di Caprio). That's why Greenlit is so enlightening. It seems that most people involved in the film industry have no idea just how damaging their work is to the environment. It is, in fact, the third most polluting industry in LA currently (which is saying quite a bit considering LA tops the nation's list of air pollution).
What Leo may or may not know is that Fox paid the Tai Royal Forestry Department $108,000 for permission to bulldoze sand, remove native plants, and bring in the palm trees they wanted for The Beach, causing the dunes to collapse into the ocean in the following rainy season, destroying both plant and animal life. Similarly, after filming Titanic, chlorinated water used for filming was dumped into the sea, killing tons of animals and organisms and affecting other lives and industries. These are just two extreme examples.
For this reason, Miranda Bailey, independent movie producer, sets out to understand exactly what it means to "shoot a film green." Working on the film The River Why in Portland, Oregon, Miranda meets Lauren Selman from Reel Green Media, an environmental consultant for the entertainment industry chosen to make this project green. As Bailey attempts to minimize her ecological footprint on this project, she learns just how easy being green can be yet just how resistant people can be to inconvenience.
She stays in a LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) hotel, visits the Metro Portland Transfer Station to learn about trash and where it goes, and interviews cast and crew highlighting attitudes about environmental conservation.
In a short 50 minutes, we learn about plastic, bio-diesel, recycling, budget challenges, and the entire process of going green. While we witness resistance, we also see the changing consciousness of those who worked on the small production in Oregon. If nothing else, that is the first necessary step to changing an industry.
Easy to watch, informative while entertaining, and fairly objective in painting this particular challenge, Greenlit really hits the mark. I highly recommend this documentary not only for those in the movie industry, but for everyone.
