One Tree at a Time

The New Jersey Film Festival shows ‘Butterfly,’ Doug Wolens’ documentary about environmental activist Julia Hill, Jan. 30-Feb. 2.

By: Ilene Dube

""
Butterfly documents the efforts of Julia "Butterfly" Hill, who spent more than two years living in a 1,000-year-old California redwood tree threatened by logging.


   Once upon a time, there was an oak tree named Grover. From a perch on its branches I looked out at the world. When the tree succumbed to old age, my father called an expert to safely take it down.
   The tree man stared up at the crown of the tree, then walked up and put his arms around its trunk. I was so touched by this gesture of affection. Later, it was explained to me that this is how tree men measure the circumference of a tree in order to determine how much to charge.
   Some kids grow up but don’t outgrow their treehouses. The tree-hugging Earth Firsters were inspired by literary provocateur and rugged individualist Edward Abbey (1927-1989), a free-spirited seeker of solitude and spiritual leader of the radical environmental movement. Sometimes called "vegetarian anarchists," Earth Firsters are known for their tree-sits in old-growth redwoods. Sadly, in October 2002, one tree-sitter fell to his death.
   In Doug Wolens’ documentary, Butterfly, to be screened at the New Jersey Film Festival Jan. 30-Feb. 2, the Earth First people sing songs about nature and gather around a redwood to chant "om." With nicknames like Yarrow, Orange, Shakespeare and Bonka, and clad in fringey hippie clothes, they look like the white, middle- to upper-middle-class children of California’s liberal professionals — a path John Walker Lindh might have taken if the Taliban hadn’t called to him first.
   Sometimes it takes an extremist to draw attention to an issue that an administration focused on weapons of mass destruction and waging war might overlook. In her act of civil disobedience, 20-something Julia "Butterfly" Hill is one such extremist.
   The daughter of an evangelical preacher who grew up in a mobile home, traveling from church to church across the country, Ms. Hill lived 180 feet up in a redwood tree for more than two years in order to protect it from loggers. Located in Humboldt County, Calif., the 1,000-year-old tree Ms. Hill named Luna has its roots in private timber property belonging to the Pacific Lumber Co.
   On a 6-by-8 platform covered with blue plastic tarps, Ms. Hill cooks lentil soup, writes in her journal, washes her hair with rainwater and conducts interviews with the press from a cell phone. She prescribes "love" as the cure-all for the world’s woes — "My one thing I would tell the world is (long pause)…love." To be closer to nature, Ms. Hill doesn’t wear shoes as she climbs from branch to branch like a monkey. Best of all, from her cozy treehouse she can look out over the Pacific Ocean and see majestic stands of old-growth trees.

"Despite
Despite living in the tree for two years, Ms. Hill looks as clean and well-groomed as a college student studying outdoors on a sunny day.


   Filmmaker Doug Wolens, a former lawyer, hauls his 80 pounds of equipment — he shot the film in 16 mm and edited it at home on his PC — up into the tree to capture the young woman’s spirited adventure. "It was really cool being up so high and seeing the world from that vantage point," says Mr. Wolens from his San Francisco home, taking a break from writing a grant application for his next film. "It was cramped on that platform but really comfortable at the same time. Some people may call Julia nuts, but she was so hospitable to me. She’s a vegan, and I need my cheeseburgers and am used to living in a big house with a lot of comfort, but she cooked me hearty food and it was so cool being out in nature. My only worry was that I’d fall out."
   Despite living in the tree for two years, Ms. Hill looks as clean and well-groomed as a college student studying outdoors on a sunny day. Her purple sweater looks like it just came out of the Wool-lite, her skin is smooth and pink and her brown hair gleams. "She even smelled great," says Mr. Wolens, noting that some of the other Earth First people who’d been out in the woods for a week without a shower "did stink."
   Even when she was rattled by logging or conflicts among the Earth First people, or had only an hour sleep because she had to hold her tarps down during a 100-mile-per-hour wind storm, "She always looked great. Her hands were kept clean by washing them with rainwater from the tarps. She ate mostly raw food and was hygienic because she didn’t want to get sick and have to come down," reports the independent filmmaker, who toted coffee for Meg Ryan while getting his start.
   Besides his cheeseburgers and big house, Mr. Wolens doesn’t even consider himself an environmentalist. Although the film thoughtfully shows the perspective of both sides — Earth Firsters, Homboldt County residents who lost their homes to mudslides, Pacific Lumber Company officials and angry loggers who lost their jobs — it is clear where Mr. Wolens’ sympathies lie. Nevertheless, he didn’t accept any funding from environmental organizations because he wanted to paint his own picture.
   "It’s not about sustainability or being in the tree, but about doing what you really think is important for you and from your heart. That’s what ‘Butterfly’ is about — we can have an effect on the world if we do what our heart tells us. All my films are about individuality and freedom." Mr. Wolens’ previous film, Weed, was about a dope-smoking contest in Amsterdam.
   As the weeks grew into months and winter storms raged, Ms. Hill’s resolve grew. Pacific Lumber blasted music up the tree and raided her privacy with floodlights in an attempt to get her down. During one particularly violent storm, Ms. Hill was nearly killed as she clung to the tree. When the storm was over, she tells us, the tree spoke to her for the first time. It told her how to survive, by bending with the wind as a tree does.
   Ms. Hill says at that moment she understood Mother Nature’s unconditional gift to her, and in return she gave herself unconditionally to the tree. She speaks of her commitment to the forests.
   The Earth First support team climbs two miles up the hill to provide her with food and supplies, and Ms. Hill never whines about her own discomfort. In her free time she draws and writes poetry. Then trouble erupts within Earth First. Some members decide Butterfly has become something of a media celebrity, deflecting attention from the true cause, and are adverse to the spiritual experience she seems to be having up there.
   They try to bring her down and let another Earth Firster have a go at it. When she doesn’t come down, they begin circulating flyers denouncing her.
   In the end, Julia Hill’s efforts pay off, and Luna is saved from the sawmill. Pacific Lumber agrees to put a 200-foot buffer around Luna, Ms. Hill is free to come down and, with her new-found celebrity, embark on a career as a lobbyist.
   Mr. Wolens, who went to Seton Hall Law School, will not be returning to the Garden State for the screening of his film. He is at work on two new documentaries, one about drug addicts in San Francisco and one on the future of technology. "Will there be a human race left? Will there be any need for humans? What kind of personal freedom will we have when our brains are on the Internet?" he asks.
   Al Nigrin, director of the New Jersey Film Festival, says he is frustrated by Washington’s policies and has intentionally scheduled more political films for the spring season, which begins Jan. 24 with Jean-Luc Godard’s In Praise of Love, a meditation on love, politics and the human condition. The season also includes Sergei Eisenstein’s classic, Potemkin (March 6), Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine (March 7-9) and investigative-reporting psycho-drama The Trials of Henry Kissinger (March 28-30).
Butterfly by filmmaker Doug Wolens will be screened Jan. 30 in Loree 024 and Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Scott 123, Rutgers University campus, New Brunswick. Tickets cost $6, $5 seniors/students, $4 Rutgers Film Co-op members. For information and directions, call (732) 932-8482. On the Web: www.njfilmfest.com