A recruitment film of sorts that asks where protest ends and vandalism begins? The elfin Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a group of eco-terrorists, resented the Agriculture Department’s chopping down hundred year old trees to transform into nursery furniture. ELF began by building a drawbridge to block sawmills from gaining access to the land and eventually wound up causing considerable property damage as arsonists. A timber company headquarters, a ski lodge, meat packing plants: you name it ELF torched it to gain media exposure. In their eyes, the group never posed much of a threat, seeing how no humans were harmed. That kind of thinking proved to be as naïve as their politics. Legal maneuvers and personal squabbles eventually took a back seat; the film functions best as an indictment of brutish authority, especially when Eugene, Oregon, cops began to chop down trees with unarmed protesters in them. Directed by Marshall Curry. (2011) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.