Langley Theater to Screen Military Environmental Impact Film With Director Q&A

The documentary places Whidbey Island in the same frame as Gaza when cataloging where U.S. military operations have scarred the environment, and on April 25, residents can watch it and press its director on that claim from the seats of the Clyde Theatre at 217 1st Street in Langley.

The Sound Defense Alliance is hosting a public screening of "Earth's Greatest Enemy," directed by Abby Martin, with co-sponsors Solidarity with Palestine on Whidbey and Kicking Gas. Doors open at 1 p.m.; the film runs from approximately 2 to 4 p.m., followed by a virtual 45-minute Q&A with Martin beginning around 4:15 p.m. Tickets are $10, subtitles will be provided, and proceeds support the Sound Defense Alliance's ongoing advocacy against the impacts of EA-18G Growler operations across Northwest Washington.

Martin's film combines investigative reporting, documentary visuals, and testimony from communities affected by military activity to argue that the global footprint of the U.S. armed forces carries severe and underreported environmental costs. Press materials describe the film as "provocative, urgent and eye-opening."

The Langley screening lands at the intersection of debates Island County residents have been living with for years: jet noise over Coupeville and Oak Harbor, documented wildlife disturbance from low-altitude flight patterns, and persistent questions about contamination from fuel handling and PFAS-class compounds associated with firefighting foam used at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. The Sound Defense Alliance has made those issues central to its mission, and the event is structured explicitly to fund that work.

Residents who want to arrive with something specific to ask Martin during the Q&A will find that the film's scope opens at least three locally grounded lines of inquiry. What does the film's research show about PFAS contamination timelines at military installations, and how do those patterns compare with what groundwater testing has found near NAS Whidbey Island? What evidence does the documentary marshal about cumulative noise and acoustic impacts on marine wildlife, particularly species like Southern Resident orca that depend on the Salish Sea? And what policy tools have communities near other U.S. bases successfully used to compel environmental accountability that Island County advocates might apply here?

Those questions call for a range of perspectives in the room: a veteran who has weighed military readiness against community cost, an environmental advocate tracking local contamination data, a scientist studying how flight corridors affect habitat. That breadth is exactly the kind of structured, fact-based conversation the Sound Defense Alliance says it is trying to support by hosting events like this one.

Ticket and trailer information is available through the Sound Defense Alliance's events page.