Cape Spin: An American Power Struggle

I saw this documentary as a part of the Miami and the Beaches Environmental Film Festival, and I am so glad it was included in the festival. I previously knew nothing about this topic, and I felt a learned a lot by watching the movie. Cape Spin delivers a poignant look at a very topical issue and does it in a very humorous and entertaining way. The film presents both sides of this intense debate, and shows how the answers to environmental problems are not so easily found. The issue presented here may have local significance in Miami someday, and for this reason it is very sobering--it makes the audience consider where we would stand in a situation like this. It is hard to choose a side because both sides present rational arguments. I think a mark of a truly good documentary is a lack of bias. Most of time, I watch a documentary to be educated and not indoctrinated, and Cape Spin did a great job of that. I think it is incredibly difficult to remain neutral while filming a documentary about a issue so polarizing, and I give the filmmakers a lot of credit for the delicate balance achieved in Cape Spin. Overall, a very interesting and well-done film.

Cape Spin is an extraordinary documentary about two threats to the survival of all species, including ours. On the one hand, it's about the crucial fight to find alternatives to fossil fuels—in this case, wind power, which just might help us save the Earth from fatal warming, toxic oceans and ground water, and the other poison fruits of oil-and-gas dependency.

And yet Cape Spin is also a brilliant study of another, subtler kind of pollution, which is every bit as dangerous as all the evils that it urges on us: propaganda. The war between those for and those against the windmills off Cape Cod is an excellent example of a mammoth propaganda match between two different wealthy interests —just like the Democrats v. the Republicans, and other huge, expensive and utterly undemocratic struggles for the hearts and minds of the majority.

This film is a must-see, as trenchant as it is hilarious, which is really saying something.

(This was originally published on ReelFilmNews.com.) The first time I heard of a phenomenon called NIMBY – "Not In My Back Yard!" – was in a routine delivered by one of my personal heroes, George Carlin, at Comic Relief '90. The Comic Relief charity and concerts were put together to battle homelessness, which is where Carlin's monologue about NIMBY fit in. He decried the fact that "people don't want anything near them. Especially if it might help somebody else… even if it's something they believe in, something society needs." And if you want to see a classic case of NIMBY, there's a documentary called Cape Spin! An American Power Struggle starting in select theaters today (for all you Washingtonians, it's at the West End Cinema) that you might want to check out.

There's nothing more fun to me than to see people pushed out of their comfort zones, as this causes great drama, often resulting in hilarity. The thing about Cape Spin! is that the cameras are focused on real people, not characters in some weirdly-written meta-fiction. These are people protesting or backing a certain cause, with lines drawn between families and lifelong friends. The issue that's sticking in everyone's craw? The proposal of an offshore wind farm called Cape Wind to be based five miles out in the waters of the Nantucket Sound. The towns that surround the Nantucket Sound? Cape Cod, Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, which are mostly filled with the upper echelon of the 1% you hear about so much these days: extremely rich people. And do people want this possibly-visible eyesore near their haven? Cape Spin! lets us know exactly who the key players are in these proceedings, including Jim Gordon, the developer of the Cape Wind project whose sudden call for renewable energy is tempered by the fact that he's responsible for having built a diesel-fueled power plant in Chelsea, MA during his time spent promoting Cape Wind. On the other side of the coin, you have Audra Parker and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, who have made it their life's work to prevent Gordon from succeeding at any cost. From muckraking to trying to scientifically prove that Cape Wind is a bad idea, we see that they're smart, hardworking people whose way of life is at what they perceive to be a major risk. Throughout it all, everyone is rather genteel and polite to each other, comporting themselves with dignity and respect for the most part – it's actually refreshing to see that not everyone subscribes to acting like the idiots on reality television shows. However, what's off-putting is how shielded and sheltered some of these people are; for instance, when someone brings up the fact that their power is currently being brought to them by coal being mined by mountaintop removal and causing towns to be utterly destroyed and condemned for public usage, one person in the Alliance's camp denies it outright. The movie isn't full of these kinds of people, but there are enough of them to make you wonder how blind some of them are to the rest of the country.

Here's where Cape Spin! does such a great job: the filmmakers show you both sides of the argument, neither one less valid than the other. The relentless political game that is played and spun before our eyes actually serves to expose truths and untruths that these people have to put up with during this fight. While our modern "go green" sensibilities will cause us to side with the folks supporting the wind farm, our sympathies are also given to those folks who don't want their habitat changed by these turbines (pronounced as "turbans" for most of the movie, providing an interestingly humorous, albeit unintended, subtext). Cape Cod and the surrounding areas are, indeed, beautiful, and we can see the point of some of the folks who say that they're from the old school and they don't want anything changed. There are definite ecological worries to be concerned about, and we get a chance to see them thought about and mulled over. It's a very fairly balanced, unintentionally funny, and informative documentary about what America needs and what we're willing to do to get it done. It may be a case of NIMBY, but it's one worth looking into.

FINAL GRADE: A Reel Film News Movie Review by Eddie Pasa

This film gives a mesmerizing look at the heated political battle between the advocates of renewable green energy and the preservationists of the New England coastline. An energy company proposes to build 130 tall wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. Both sides, aided by carefully spun well-funded informational campaigns - and the media reacts. Local reporting is fast and furious and the battle turns national - to the Daily Show with great behind-the-scenes material. The information campaigns spin half-truths and don't allow for intelligent discussion. Local media, lost between the salvos of the two camps cannot seem to dissect the truth. This film is a sad but funny reflection at political discourse in America. Highly recommend.

This documentary provides an excellent objective and insightful exploration into the power of the campaign in America. Educational and entertaining, funny and fascinating, this film should be seen by every American interested in advocacy and affecting change in this country. Educators, grassroots organizers, students and anyone interested in politics, media and creating a persuasive campaign should see this film. The film also flows well from scene to scene, and avoids the typical slow and long phases that so often make documentary films boring. The music is a delight and the editing is fantastic. Also, the movie features beautiful photography which pushes the plot ad point along--deeply engaging and informative!