Journey to Planet Earth

An interview with filmmakers Marilyn and Hal Weiner
Edited by Mary Eileen O'Connor

The new three-part series Journey to Planet Earth, which premieres Wednesday, March 26 at 8 p.m. on WHYY TV12, has been a decade-long passion of documentary and feature filmmakers Marilyn and Hal Weiner.

Their vision behind the acclaimed series has taken them on a journey of over 300,000 miles to some of the most remote parts of the world. The filmmaking team, along with their production crews, crossed wind-swept deserts in China and Argentina, got lost in the middle of the Amazon River, were threatened with imprisonment in Uzbekistan and narrowly escaped a deadly terrorist attack in Bangladesh.

In this interview, the filmmakers discuss what lies behind the making of the series.

What was the original inspiration for Journey to Planet Earth?

Hal Weiner: In 1992, Marilyn and I were asked to produce the opening film for the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro. After the screening, Maurice Strong, the UN Secretary-General of the summit convinced us that our work had only just begun. Maurice felt strongly that what was really needed now was a television film series that could do three things: motivate public attention about important environmental issues; bring awareness to the concept of sustainable development; and keep the spirit of the Earth Summit alive.

Marilyn Weiner: Obviously that was an enormous challenge, but we were tremendously encouraged when Earth Summit Pledge received an Emmy Award. In addition, we had just finished our third feature film, K2, and were eager to return to documentary filmmaking.

We spent the next year traveling around the world, talking with scientists, government officials, and ordinary people. Our goal was to find the best way to communicate important environmental concepts to the general public and we felt people wanted to hear and be stimulated by these ideas.

How were you able to bring your vision to life?

HW: We first decided that to make the series interesting to a wide audience we needed to borrow some dramatic editing techniques from the feature film world and blend them with elements of cinema verite and the latest computer visualization effects.

To make the series both meaningful and global in scope, we also agreed to film each episode on at least four continents. This of course meant that we had to raise significant funds. We were lucky -- it took us only about a year to find underwriting partners who shared our vision.

MW: We wanted to make the environment accessible to as many people as possible by presenting global issues that had a local significance. We also wanted to tell stories that would be fun to watch. Therefore each episode goes beyond science and touches upon anthropology, culture, politics, economics and history. We also felt strongly that the series could not take an "advocacy" stance.

Instead, we wanted to present information in such a way that viewers would decide for themselves what further action they needed to take to help improve environmental conditions both locally and globally.

During the filming of "On the Brink," you and your film crew narrowly escaped being killed. What happened?

HW: We understood that in order to make the series compelling and realistic we would have to travel to locations that were tinderboxes -- those places that showed the link between poverty, political instability, conflict and increasing acts of terrorism and violence. We were in Bangladesh in April 2001 and planned to film a secular New Year's celebration that was to be attended by as many as one hundred thousand people. We had scouted a location the day before the celebration that would give us an ideal vantage point to film various cultural events.

MW: That next day, when we got to within 50 yards of our location, I just had a feeling that the situation wasn't safe. The crew dismissed my suggestion that we move but I insisted that "something doesn't feel right." We finally moved to an overpass about 50 yards away. Within a minute a pipe bomb exploded and then another one. What is seen in the episode "On The Brink" is the aftermath of those two bombings -- 10 were dead -- 30 injured. We also got our story -- it just takes a spark for violence to erupt. When people are at their wits' and hope's end, extreme acts follow.

HW: It was only when we got to Calcutta a few days later that we saw in a newspaper a map of the bomb site. The location we originally chose to film from was ground zero. After that, whenever we were in dangerous locations we hired armed guards, particularly in Nairobi and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Who are some of the people you met while shooting the series?

MW: On the steppes of Inner Mongolia we spent some time with a herding family that just learned that their only daughter was moving to a distant city in search of work. We joined them in their tent that night for a farewell dinner. It wasn't a happy occasion; she was the first in the family to ever leave the grasslands. Actually, the loss of cultural identity is a common and poignant theme that runs throughout the series.

HW: Along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya we spent time in a fishing village where they were experiencing a serious outbreak of malaria. It was killing about 20 percent of the children under the age of five. Doctors told us that it was completely preventable -- it's just that they couldn't afford medicine or the chemicals to kill the mosquitoes. It's one of the most moving sequences in the series.

MW: But we also saw examples of people overcoming adversity. Alexandra is a poor township in South Africa that still suffers from post-apartheid poverty. It was once called the most dangerous city in the world. But when we visited the city, we found a place that was in the process of being rebuilt. The citizens of the city, with the help of government aid, were successfully solving problems of crime, severe environmental degradation and serious health problems.

Having filmed your second season, has your concept of what the series can accomplish changed?

HW: From the very beginning we wanted people to understand why environmental problems in places like Bangladesh, the Amazon, South Africa, Haiti and India have a direct connection to the health and well being of people living in the more developed world.

MW: In purely economic terms, if a crop fails in China or Zimbabwe, it could affect farmers in the United States. But West Nile virus is an example of a lethal disease that popped up in one part of the world and later showed up in New York City. Only now are government officials slowly beginning to realize that the environment is one of the most important foreign policy issues of the 21st century. We tried to make this point in each episode of Journey to Planet Earth.

By the way, how did you get Matt Damon to be your host/narrator?

MW: We asked, and he said yes. Matt is committed to the themes of the show, and is a strong collaborative partner.