Documentary warms up controversy

Christopher Curry

The Signal Staff

Environmentalism has always had its fair share of supporters, but a new documentary “Not Evil Just Wrong” attempts to reveal a darker side of the movement that is making some viewers take a second look at the costs of going green.

This documentary, directed by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, explores the history of the environmental movement focusing on Al Gore and the affect his film “An Inconvenient Truth” has had on society.

The directors mark the origins of environmentalism with the successful campaign started by Rachel Carson to ban the use of DDT, a pesticide she labeled as environmentally irresponsible in the 1960s.

Several pro-DDT advocates were interviewed including Roy Innis, chairman of Congress of Racial Equality. The film claims that banning DDT allowed mosquito populations to flourish in developing continents such as Africa, causing millions of lives to be needlessly lost from malaria.

Innis’ son, Niger Innis, national spokesman for CORE, attended the film’s premier at the River Oaks Theater in Houston Oct. 19, as a guest speaker.

“My father and I are very proud of what Ann and Phelim have produced,” Niger Innis said. “We got them interviews with members of the African government who have been wrestling with the issue of malaria and how to overcome the ban on DDT, which is the most effective way of dealing with this disease.”

Catherine Engelbrecht, organizer for the Houston premier of “Not Evil Just Wrong,” thinks that this film will help build awareness about cap and trade legislation. She feels cap and trade will devastate the community if it passes because it may prohibit certain companies from operating at their full potential in order to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, which may lead to massive job losses.

The film claims that carbon dioxide is not harmful to the environment and harmful pollutants from burning fossil fuels are already being kept out of the atmosphere by strict regulations of American and European companies.

“When we found out about this film we thought what better place than River Oaks Theater in the heart of Houston to show the premier,” Engelbrecht said. “This movie is not about politics. The directors could care less about politics. They want people to know the human cost of falling into the global warming hysteria.”

The documentary focuses on the effect that legislation based on regulating supposed man-made climate change will have on working-class Americans, citing Gore as a key figure influencing the drafting of such legislation.

In the film, McAleer interviews a diverse body of experts from many different backgrounds and knowledge on both sides of the issue, but his method of interviewing does have an affect on the way the audience views certain speakers.

For example, when supporters of man-made climate change speak, McAleer includes all the pauses in conversation when the speakers were thinking of words to say, which makes them seem uninformed on the issue. The speakers against man-made climate change had no such pauses included in their interviews.

After interviews with experts, McAleer cuts to an animation or a clip from an old silent film relevant to the topic being discussed, effectively recapturing the audience’s attention.

Adherents of man-made climate change may naturally be skeptical of “Not Evil Just Wrong,” but it is one of those films everyone should see at least once because it provides an opportunity to take a look at both sides of the climate change debate.

Visit noteviljustwrong.com to find out more information on the experts involved with the film and on how to get a copy of the DVD, which is available now only through the Web site.