The story of the so-called eco-warriors' campaign to save trees in the Glen O' The Downs, Co Wicklow, has been made into two documentaries, both of which are to be screened shortly.
The first film, Tunnel Vision, made by local man Mike Casey's Big Yes Production company for RTE and the Irish Film Board, is due to be screened by RTE on June 6th. Casey lived at the camp in the glen for the last six months of the protest and his documentary includes interviews with some of the campaigners as well as footage of their everyday difficulties with wind, rain and washing.
Some of the camera work is a bit shaky and the film lacks the participation of Wicklow County Council but it is an invaluable record of one of the State's longest-running environmental campaigns.
The second documentary was put together by Peter Heacock and Matt Ruskin, of the Institute of Film and Television at New York University (NYU). It benefits from an input by the council. It also includes subtitles on some of the more exotic eco-warriors whose accents might be difficult to fathom. This documentary, called The Warriors, also includes comments from observers, the media, locals and politicians. Prof George C. Stoney, Goddard professor of cinema at NYU, said Heacock and Ruskin were among the most talented film-makers he met in three decades at NYU and describes their efforts as combining great skill and persistence, including the "excitement, heartbreak and positive consequences" of the struggle. Both productions chart the final three years of the full 11year campaign as the legal battle ensued and the protesters literally dug in. The protesters lost their Supreme Court appeal, 15 of them were jailed for contempt of court and when the chainsaws came the eco-warriors' tree houses and rope-ways were found to be protecting the wrong trees.
However, both documentaries insist that lessons were there to be learned. The campaign highlighted environmental concerns which led to the requirement that all major road projects should have on-site archaeologists.
The campaign also led to complaints to the EU that the State was failing in its obligations to carry out environmental impact assessments (EIAs). The EU subsequently initiated action against the State for its failure to insist on EIAs. The Warriors has already been screened at European and US film festivals and will be shown at the Galway Film Festival on July 12th.
