Review of the film 'just do it', which will be coming to cinemas next week. The film documents the environmental protest movement over the last three years. Its revealing and exciting, with lots of live footage of direct action and action planning not available in any mainstream media. It does, however, focus more on actions than the politics and organisation behind these actions, which are ignored or simplified. definitely watch it.

 

Just Do It is the product of three years spent by producer, Emily James, embedded within environmental direct action movements Climate Camp and Plane Stupid. It follows the lives of a small number of activists, through the planning and execution of different direct actions and protests, and some of their lives in between. Produced independently, through crowd funding rather than corporate sponsorship, the film is unashamedly supportive of the activists it follows. It is unique in telling the story from their perspective, and provides a refreshing counterweight to the mainstream media's 'balanced' reportage which often seems copied directly from police press releases.

Emily James presents large amounts of footage from a wide range of actions over the last three years – the G20, Climate Camp Blackheath, Vestas, Ratcliffe on Soar, Grow Heathrow, and especially impressive footage of the Copenhagen Climate Summit protests. This includes footage of the direct actions themselves, but also of the planning and preparation for these actions. Moreover, she manages to do this while sustaining the narrative and pace of the film. The best thing about this film is its presentation of the emotional and physical realities of taking direct action, so often grossly misrepresented by the short and sensationalists reports of mainstream media.

However, as the title suggests, this film is overwhelmingly about people 'doing it', rather than why, when, or how they choose to do it. One of the most pivotal moments in the film is when an activist, Marina, is asked 'will this really make any difference?'. There is a long silence, and eventually she answers to the effect of, well, probably no. But you have to do it anyway, and hope. This and similar questions are repeatedly asked by the presenter, but Marina's is the only answer which is given. The political motivations of the activists is only touched upon. While the audience is repeatedly encouraged to 'just do it', exactly what they should do, and why, is left unsaid and assumed. Indeed, it is often implied that the activists themselves aren't quite sure.

This seems part of an intentional media strategy, trying to gain the sympathy and support of the expected audience by presenting activists as well educated, eloquent, middle class and largely depoliticised 'bright young things'. With the admirable exception of Marina, all of the other main characters fit this model. This is, of course, not an entirely untrue representation of the social make-up of the environmental movement. However, it is interesting to note that the only main character whose background the film explores is the Cambridge student (complete with shots of the old colleges) The squats where a number of other, non-Oxbridge, main characters live are never shown or mentioned.

Nevertheless, those parts of the film which do show the family and background of the activists are very interesting, and the parts showing interaction and co-operation between activists and locals at Vestas and Grow Heathrow even more engaging. Both of these open gripping snapshots on other aspects of activism. They are touched upon rather than fully explored, but in one two hour film it would have been impossible to do much more. Indeed, the scope of the task Emily James has taken on is massive, and it would not be fair to expect her to fully represent every aspect of a diverse movement, over three years, in one film. In Just Do It, she has chosen to focus specifically on the realities and experiences of direct action. And judged according to that she has certainly succeeded.

Ben