Daniel McGowan is serving seven years in Federal Prison for his involvement with the Oregon cell of Earth Liberation Front, an international underground movement dedicated to protecting the environment. Over the last fifteen years, ELF has destroyed millions of dollars of property belonging to individuals and corporations that in its view profit from the destruction of the planet. What makes people turn from non-violent disobedience to more aggressive forms of protest? As director Marshall Curry notes, “In one night they accomplished what years of letter writing and picketing were unable to do.” Combining astonishing archival footage of clashes between protestors and police, and illuminating interviews with participants on both sides, If a Tree Falls traces the dramatic history of ELF’s most active American cell and the path of one frustrated activist emboldened to take more extreme measures. Although not a single person was killed in a cited 1,200 ELF incidents, the government still classifies members of the movement as domestic terrorists, a term with profound social and political implications for all future budding revolutionaries.  RM