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Dom Rotheroe (Director). The Coconut Revolution. Stampede Productions, 2000. 50 minutes.
DOI: 10.1177/1086026602238176
"We have seen our valleys, we have seen our forests, we have seen our riversbeautiful valleys, beautiful forests, beautiful rivers turned into dust. And we will not allow that to happen," says Joseph Kabui, a political leader of the armed insurrection on Bougainville, the South Pacific island, recently part of Papua New Guinea (PNG). In this environmental film, there are no scientists predicting doom and gloom, no activists demanding action from others, no spokespeople for companies promising improved performance, no condemnation of direct activists undermining a broadbased popular movement. Instead, it is a film that tells an amazing story of uncompromising islanders pushed into armed revolution by the ecological consequences of the massive, Western-owned Panguna copper mine on Bougainville.
The Coconut Revolution is beautifully photographed, and it features captivating island music played on bamboo instruments. It will certainly inspire discussion if not wonder in almost any audience. Unlike most environmental films, this documentary is infectiously optimistic and deals with fierce and creative grassroots resistance of a kind rarely represented in Western societies. To be actively Green is often presented in the mainstream U.K. media as a middle-class indulgence, a wealthy Luddism that undermines the global growth needed to feed the poor. Yet here we have a poor people destroying machinery and throwing out developersbecause they want their land back.
As the film opens, the camera crew are embarking in an open boat, along with intense guerilla fighters carrying supplies to the island illegally across seas blockaded by the PNG military. As they arrive, a patrol boat is spotted. Everyone scrambles to the land to hide-but the crew is friendly. This moment of tension is one of several as the filmmakers seek and win the trust of local leaders. Expertly interviewed, the...