Directed by Jerry Rothwell ∙ 2015 ∙ United Kingdom - Canada ∙ 110'

In 1971, it took a group of rebellious, long-haired friends on a rickety boat to get the topic of the environment on the global agenda. They fell short of their primary goal—to block nuclear weapons testing on the volcanic Aleutian island of Amchitka. But the young Canadian organization Greenpeace discovered plenty of other threats to keep fighting in the name of Planet Earth.

Armed with genuine idealism, a hunger for adventure and a brilliant media strategy, activists left the mothership to explore the seas in small boats: not just to thwart their targets, but also to record and share images of whales being slaughtered and seals being beaten to death with the rest of the world. For this fascinating documentary, Jerry Rothwell selected some of the overwhelming amount of footage taken over a period of nearly 45 years. The written works of one of the founders of Greenpeace, the late Bob Hunter, serve as a narrative thread.

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD is about an organization that acquired superstar status but, like many other social constellations, was faced with clashing ambitions and dividing spirits. Rothwell managed to interview many of the original members of Greenpeace. They reflect upon their collective past in which they transformed from flower children into “a seagoing gang of ecological bikers.”