Join Producer Darryl Cherney & Earth First! co-founder Mike Roselle for a special Q&A following this riveting and yet musical and wry award-winning documentary about the legendary Earth First! and labor organizer Judi Bari. The event will be opened by singer/songwriters Joules Graves and Dana Lyons.
Bari was car-bombed in Oakland in 1990 while on college tour with Cherney (the film's producer) to save the redwoods. Despite receiving many death threats, the pair was instantly arrested by the FBI and Oakland Police for bombing themselves. They sued the authorities for violations of the constitution. The film is composed entirely of archival footage, including appearances by Bonnie Raitt, Woody Harrelson, Jerry Brown and David Grisman. Stricken by cancer after surviving the bombing, Bari narrates the film herself via her deathbed deposition for the trial she won't live to see. Follow Bari and Cherney through the incredible array of rare footage as they battle to save not only the redwoods, but themselves, as well.
Synopsis:
Stricken by cancer and close to death, Judi Bari--a leader of the movement to save California’s old growth redwoods--gives her testimony about the attempt on her life and her lawsuit against the FBI for trying to frame her and Darryl Cherney.
It’s a story about beating the system and saving the trees; a film that resonates today as we face deteriorating civil rights and the huge ecological problems that bring us closer to catastrophic climate change.
In the mid 1980’s the pace of old growth redwood forest clear-cutting increased dramatically in California and lead to a resistance movement spearheaded by Earth First! Only 5% of the redwoods remained at that time – and the fear was that soon they would all be gone. Local activists called for national help, planning a summer of protests in the style used in Mississippi during the civil rights struggles, called Redwood Summer.
But on May 24 in 1990, a bomb blew up in the car of two of the most prominent Earth First! redwood activists: Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney – while they were driving through Oakland, CA on an organizing tour for Redwood Summer. The FBI and Oakland Police immediately accused the pair of carrying their own bomb and of being environmental terrorists. The story played out for weeks in the press – the victims were the suspects.
To vindicate their work and their names, Bari and Cherney launched a lawsuit against the FBI and Oakland Police for violations of the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution. When their case went to trial in 2002 -- THEY WON! They proved that law enforcement officers intentionally falsified evidence and tried to frame them, and were given one of the largest jury awards of its kind in history, $4.4 million dollars.
The story spans from the mid 1980’s right up to today, uniquely capturing a part of environmental history that is still as relevant as ever. Just this Fall of 2012, Darryl and his legal team are in court again, trying to prevent the FBI from throwing away crucial evidence that was never tested, and could prove who the bomber was.
Judi Bari emerges as an authentic environmental heroine, whose warnings from the past about the dangers of deforestation and global warming hardly seem extreme. Rather they loom large as a dangerous harbinger of the failure to heed their messages.
Admission Prices*:
General: $10.00
Seniors, Students and Active Military: $9.00
Members: $8.00
Children 12 and under: $7.00
Bargain Matinee Prices (all shows before 6:00pm)
General: $8.00
Members: $6.00
Children 12 and under: $5.00
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*All prices include a $1.50 Preservation Fee that goes directly into our capital account for films.
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