ECO-PIRATE: THE STORY OF PAUL WATSON (Trish Dolman). 110 minutes. An eOne release. Opens Friday (July 22) at TIFF Bell Lightbox See listing Rating: NNNN
To some Paul Watson’s a hero. To others he’s an asshole. Eco-Pirate will make them all happy. Trish Dolman’s documentary presents both sides of the controversial eco-activist.
Watson, an influential early member of Greenpeace, pursued his obsession with saving the earth with a vengeance and then was turfed from the organization. He isn’t exactly a team player.
Now head of his own Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, he considers Greenpeace a bunch of wusses and protest an exercise in passivism. Real activists, he says, stop the bad guys.
Using archival footage of early Greenpeace actions, interviews with Watson’s former colleagues at the org, as well as with family members, and some gorgeous cinematography, Dolman creates a complex portrait of someone who’s both egotist and altruist.
