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Blog by Don Kennedy

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The Green Chain

The Green Chain is that part of a sawmill where cut lumber is sorted. Here it’s a metaphor for the line-up of arguments on both sides of the green issue regarding forest management in B.C. The drama starts with a soliloquy from Ben (Scott McNeil) a small town logger and ends with a diatribe by Jenni (Jillian Fargey) his waitress wife. In between we get a take on the issue from Dylan and Abigail (Babs Chula and Brendan Fletcher) a couple of radical environmentalists as well as Brett (Tahmoh Penikett) a forest fire fighter, John (August Schellenberg) a first nations industrialist, and Leila (Tricia Helfer) a gas-headed Pam Anderson-like B movie star, deluded enough to think that parachuting in from LA for a cheesy photo op is in no way opportunistic. All sides of the issue are thoughtfully addressed and with donations from the profits of this film being made to the Stanley Park fund, surprisingly the environmental movement comes up on the short side of the sympathy scale here. The performances are convincing but with extensive dialogue basically being dictated from talking heads from a documentary style point of view, like an actual green chain one’s focus is easily distracted. At least with the movie you’ll have a better chance of having kept all your fingers by the end of the day.

 

 

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