Butterfly is a documentary by Doug Wolens featuring around Julia Butterfly Hill who is an activist & environmentalist. The theme of the film revolves around when on:

“December 10, 1997 Julia Hill climbed an ancient redwood tree in Northern California, preventing it & the surrounding hillside from being clear-cut by Pacific Lumber.”

“She vowed not to come down until the tree was saved.”

Luna is180 feet high & about a1000 years old & thus becomes the symbol for the movement. Julia lived in Luna for two years (coming down on December 18, 1999 after an agreement which secured the buffer area around Luna), in a six by eight platform constructed by the team of the organization Earth First. Climbing up Luna started off as an individual’s act but it turned into a civil disobedience movement.

Earth First’s three core principles include being bio-centric, no compromise in the defense of mother earth & taking action in its defense. There is no formal hierarchy in the organization & everyone plays an equal contributive role. The documentary features how all these volunteers worked around the clock to keep alive the cause they believed in, even though supporting it & managing it was not a piece of cake either from a managerial perspective or that of economics.

Logging is harmful for the environment, resulting in landslides, loss of natural life (forest animals, life in water etc). Argument given in support of logging is that the wood is used in production of materials that are used by everyone, books, pencils, furniture, you name it. However, if a cost-benefit analysis be done it has more harmful effects than the benefits we get which are going to be short-lived if logging is continued with the same intensity. The fact is well appreciated that timber harvesting is an essential part of our lives now, but the thing that makes this ugly is the lack of responsible management of the process. Ignoring & mismanaging the system of re-plantation which will make sure that in the coming years we don’t lose are natural resources which are essential for maintaining our standard of living but also for our mere survival.

The documentary also touches an aspect of Julia’s spirituality & inner voice. We get to hear her firsthand account of her experience of this self discovery.

No way can this film be labeled as only portraying a one sided story as the opposing view point has been well covered; of the company, the people in general who thought that all this movement was a useless exercise & hampering the lives of people who were trying to make ends meet.

There sure are two opinions about this mode of activism, where by some will be supporting it while others will be pointing at its extremeness & high level of intensity, however the main message in my view point that will penetrate everyone who sees it will be that commitment to a cause that you believe in & collectivism to achieve a goal are two most important ingredients. One individual will always have his/her limitations to how far the process can be taken but with the spirit of collective volunteerism a huge difference can be made.