As an ageing yet indefatigable Nan Goldin reflects on a lifetime spent fighting the power in All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, another film prepares to take up the rabblerouser’s torch. The daring How to Blow Up a Pipeline ensconces the principles of ethical ecoterrorism as detailed in the 2021 non-fiction book of the same name by Andreas Malm within a Hollywood-style heist thriller, combining a radical political outlook with blood-pumping entertainment value. So who better than the team behind this provocative powder keg – director/producer/writer Daniel Goldhaber, star/producer/writer Ariela Barer, producer/writer Jordan Sjol, and editor Daniel Garber – to discuss the multifarious ins-and-outs of activist cinema, whatever that term might mean. Note: The film, as we understand it, has yet to secure UK distribution, but we’re sure it will so watch this space.
LWLies: To get everyone on the same page – how would you start to define activist cinema, a term that’s so porous and loaded?
Daniel Goldhaber: Marvel. What Marvel’s doing right now.
