GREENPEACE ANIMAL PROTESTORS
Greenpeace fight against environmental pollution, particularly from airplane fumes, which are one of the largest causes of Global Warming.
This is a self initiated short film that I've written and art directed with a commission in mind.
The idea is that animal actions that we usually pass off, like Geese flying into aeroplane engines, Pigeons messing on us and Foxes tearing open our bins, are actually protests against the damage we’re doing to their environments.
UNFORTUNATE GEESE, OR A TERRORIST NETWORK?
THE SCRIPT
Documentary voiced and presented by Julian Barrett.
We open on a montage of animal footage.
JB: Foxes ripping open our dustbins whilst we sleep at night. Wasps stinging us in unprovoked attacks. Magpies stealing our valuable silver. Animal actions that we pass off without question. But should we?
Cut to Julian strolling besides the River Thames.
JB: I’m Julian Barrett, and in January 2006 I set out on a mission to explain this disruptive animal behaviour.
Cut to archival footage of The Thames Whale, which beached in shallow water.
JB: It was then that a whale swam along the River Thames and apparently became beached in shallow water. Surely this is the easiest depth in which to swim, no?
Cut to Julian in Trafalgar Square.
JB: My search for more unaccountable animal behaviour brought me to Trafalgar Square. Every day thousands of pigeons congregate here, but why in such an un-birdly place? There are no trees to build nests, no lakes in which to wash and drink?
Cut to Julian driving along a country road.
JB: And here on our roads I find yet more inexplicable animal actions. Ferrets, foxes and rabbits, all able to build homes and rear young, yet unable to simply cross a road without being struck down?
JB: I ask you. Are these just animals being animals, or are they…Animal Protestors?
JB: Lets look back to 1956, the year of the first long haul transatlantic flight, and the start of some inexplicable animal behaviour.
Cut to the 1956 Grand National. Out of nowhere horse Devon Loch appears to throw himself to the floor when clear.
JB: Could Devon Loch be the initiator of an Animal Protest organisation, fighting against the biggest source of pollution on the animal’s environment…the aeroplane?
JB: From that point onwards many more examples have followed.
Cut back to Julian besides the River Thames.
JB: This is the position in which the Thames whale finally beached. But with the entire river to choose from, why here? It wasn’t until we followed the line of the final resting point that we realised.
The camera follows the line across London, focusing in on City Airport.
JB: Coincidence, or evidence to suggest this was a high profile stand against binge business flyers? Let's look back to the Trafalgar Square pigeons.
Julian stands in Trafalgar Square.
JB: is it possible that pigeons are part of a Dirty Protest Wing? What else would explain these targeted attacks?
The camera tracks a pigeon flying up from the Square and shitting on a French tourist.
JB: The pigeons seem to target short haul flyers who visit London landmarks on cheap flights rather than taking the more ecological train.
Cut to Julian at the side of the M25
JB: And Road kill. Long thought to be victims, perhaps not victims at all?
Julian walks into a lay-by where a Gatwick Express driver stands besides his van.
Van Driver: At first I didn’t think they were attacks, but the closer you get to the airport, the more they seem to run right into the path of the van.
Julian approaches a dead ferret on the roadside and removes a tiny blooded piece of paper with tweezers.
JB: A suicide note. What else would explain this tiny piece of paper amongst the belongings of a ferret?
JB: And in more recent times the protests have escalated to even more shocking levels.
Cut to clip of birds flying into jumbo jet engines.
JB: The plane that went down into the Hudson in the US was a warning for the future. A group of suicide geese were
responsible for that hit, flying directly into the engine.
Cut to the actual newspaper clipping with the goose headline.
Cut to Julian sitting in front of camera in a dark room. He rips off his own body, revealing himself to be an ostrich.
OSTRICH: I can’t tell you any more about our next hit, but if the Heathrow expansion goes ahead you can expect
something big. Stop taking unnecessary flights and we won't have to go there.
The ostrich stands up and pecks out of the room.
TITLE: Go to www.animalprotest.org to keep up with the latest protests.
TITLE: Greenpeace
