Green (Patrick Rouxel, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Lea Encarnacion.  Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

“Green is the story of an Orangutan dying in a hospital and a film telling us how he got there.”  How would you like to stare at a sick and dying orangutan for an hour?  That’s how I felt in the first half of this film.  I was going to leave, but decided to stay just in case it turned out to be a good film.  Luckily, it did. This film is not just about the orangutan, its about the reason why she is sick, because of human causes – deforestation and resource exploitation.  There was no narration, and is similar to what I see on National Geographic – actually this film is better and more fulfilling at the end.

It leads the audience through the problems and consequences of logging and destroying the earth to the point that we  make it so sick it cannot recover anymore.  The results are devastating as rainforest fires drive away all signs of life from the natural habitat.  The effects of mass consumerism and how people live are cleverly and expertly shown as humans are forced with being responsible and accountable for losing what is one of the earth’s greatest treasures – the natural rainforest.

Patrick Rouxel shows us through this self-financed film that everything we do trickles down and affects all branches of life and mother nature.  We have to be careful and take care of the earth, its resources will not last forever and soon, if we don’t change, the earth we inhabit will soon be dead.  I felt this documentary was fulfilling to watch, although the beginning is too slow, and it gives the audience a wake up call to realize the effects of mass consumerism and the death that is currently happening because of it.

Watch it here.