WAGING WAR ON BEAVERS IN BAVARIA (2009, Holger Riedel, A+)

I love this documentary, because this documentary presents a dilemma. It's the conflict between the farmers and the environmentalists. Most films present the conflicts between the farmers and the capitalists, or the environmentalists and the capitalists. The capitalists are easy to be portrayed as the wicked ones or the villains in most films.

As for what happens in this film, I don't know who I should side with. I'm just glad I'm not the one who must decide in this case. It's the responsibility of the Bavarian politicians.

In my heart, I side with the environmentalists. I think what the environmentalists do will yield good results in the long term, but it will cause disasters for the farmers. And I can't help putting myself in the farmers' shoes, trying to imagine what they would feel in this case.

What I like very much in AGRARIAN UTOPIA (2009, Uruphong Raksasad, A+) and FARMER FIELD SCHOOL (2007, Supong Jitmuang, A+) concerns with this problem, too. However, in the case of these two Thai films, it's easy for me to side with the environmentalists, because what the environmentalists do in these two films doesn't cause disaster for the opposite group of farmers. It's just different ways of farming, different ways of thinking. Some farmers love to use chemicals. Some don't want to use chemicals. And the ones who don't want to use chemicals don't harm the opposite group. So it's easy for me to decide who I side with in the conflicts between the farmers and the environmentalists in these two Thai films.

Apart from WAGING WAR ON BEAVERS IN BAVARIA, other enviromentalist documentaries I like include:

1.CHAD: THE DISAPPEARING LAKE (2009, Morad Äit-Habbouche + Hervé Corbière)

2.HOME (2009, Yann Arthus-Bertrand)

3.LE MYSTÈRE DE LA DISPARITION DES ABEILLES (2010, Mark Daniels)

4.A NARMADA DIARY (1995, Anand Patwardhan, India)

5.OCEANS (2009, Jacques Perrin + Jacques Cluzaud)