No Way Charlie Brown (1990)

Overview

This documentary portrait of environmental activist Lou Figurelli was produced by a workshop group at Staten Island Community TV, with John Greyson facillitating. Figurelli recounts his twenty-year fight to clean up the Island's waterways and reduce the size of the landfill dump, the largest in the world. In particular, he speaks about how his struggles with chronic spina bifida helped him discover his passion for clean water, since he gained mobility and independence as a teenager by exercising in water. His stories of environmental activism, battling city government to enforce existing clean water laws, are illustrated with humorous computer graphics created with Amiga software by the workshop participants. His charismatic humor and blunt speaking make him an engaging and eloquent champion of environmental issues.