Beach Bummed

Ever wondered what a tropical paradise looks like? Rupert Murder’s new 20th Century Fox film ‘The Beach’, directed by Andrew Macdonald and Danny Boyle, obviously didn't. They were slightly confused as far as the word ‘paradise’ was concerned, and thought it meant bulldozing beaches, pulling up indigenous trees and single-handedly helping to destroy an ecosystem. MacDonald then had the audacity to state "everything is tip-top on Phi Phi Leh" even though the last monsoon washed his make shift beach away.

The usual fee for filming in a Thai National park is 1,000 baht, about $26, but as Fox films handed over $108,000 which they termed a donation and an additional deposit of 5 million baht, it was hardly a surprise they received the go-ahead.

Local people are now asking people to boycott the film, and on Wednesday at the film premier in Leicester Square, activists from the Campaign for Ethical Filmmaking gatecrashed proceedings. Donning Leonardo Di Caprio masks, they were waved through police lines, under the cover of a stretched limo and alighted to the screams of thousands of waiting fans! Screams turned to laughter, though, as one penguin-suited activist held aloft a Golden Bulldozer Award. To add insult to injury, Leonardo Di Caprio is hosting the Earth day celebrations in April on... sustainable living!

On Friday 11th February more than a dozen protesters brought the remains of the beach to Warner Village Cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Sand, trees and the sea were deposited by the entrance by environmentalists in swimwear and ‘Leonardo di Craprio’ himself, in order to highlight the environmental destruction caused to Maya Bay, Thailand, during filming of ‘The Beach’ which began its general release that day.

The activists entered the cinema to hand the manager a letter of protest and a dead tree as a symbol of the destruction they were to profit from. Once inside the cinema complex protesters also enlisted the help of Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Tweety Pie, who all willingly held banners demanding a boycott of ‘The Beach’, some of the public also joined in.

The protesters encouraged cinema goers to boycott the film by distributing flyers, talking to those queuing and creating their own Beach scenes outside and inside the cinema.

Despite a police presence, and agitation around the building of a sand castle there were no arrests.

For further information: see www.uq.edu.au/ ~pggredde, or contact Boycott ‘The Beach’, PO Box 1TA, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE99 1TA.