Thanks to our many supporters, Headwaters Action Video
Collective (HAVC) has been able to continue its
important work documenting forest defense issues on
the North Coast, as well as globalization issues that
affect the whole planet. We collaborated with many
other collectives and video activists under the common
name Independent Media Center at the WTO protests in
November 1999, again in Washington DC on April 16,
2000, for the IMF/World Bank protest, and then in Los
Angeles for the Democratic Convention protests last
summer. HAVC helped produce television programs ?
?Showdown in Seattle? and ?Breaking the Bank? ? that
were satellite-cast across North America both during
and immediately after these historic events.
We have also been very busy working on our
feature-length film ?Tree-Sit: The Art of Resistance.?
We are lining up a road show in the fall of 2001 to
take ?Tree-Sit? to colleges, film festivals and
grassroots events, and we are starting to book dates
for sneak previews and premieres. Please visit our
website www.treesit.org to find out more.
?Tree-Sit: The Art of Resistance? is a feature-length,
grassroots documentary that shows an inside view of
the radical environmental movement and the young
activists who risk their lives by sitting in ancient
trees. The phenomenon called tree-sitting has reached
new heights. With the creation of tree-villages and
extended marathon tree-sits, a subculture of activism
has emerged.
This film attempts to break the typical stereotypes of
?hippie tree-huggers vs. redneck loggers? by showing
both viewpoints and efforts to find common ground.
This film also explores the complex ecological and
economic issues intertwined with forest protection.
Starting off with a brief narrated ecology lesson of
the ancient redwood rainforest set to modern trance
drum and bass music and beautiful nature shots, the
story goes back in history to the coming of the white
settlers, the subsequent genocide of Native Americans,
and ecocide of native plants and animals in Northern
California. Black and white historical footage shows
the logging of giant redwoods and trains hauling them
away, then statistics are given about how little of
the ancient forest remains today.
Next we are introduced to Judi Bari of Earth First! at
a mass demonstration to save the forest, with hundreds
of people getting arrested in a non-violent act of
civil disobedience. A narrated history follows of the
modern movement to save the forests in Northern
California: the Headwaters forest issue, the Maxxam
takeover of Pacific Lumber, Redwood Summer, and the
car-bomb assasination attempt on Judi Bari. FBI
?Cointelpro? activities are described and the
Bari/Cherney lawsuit against the FBI for civil rights
violations.
The film then switches to a contemporary narrative
that takes us high into the canopy to interview a
variety of tree-sitters about both the joys and
sorrows of their experiences. These intimate
discussions take place through a montage of images of
high-canopy nature shots, lichen, fog, and gorgeous
scenery interspersed with images of logging,
chainsaws, bulldozers, and giant trees falling.
Includes personal accounts of not only tree-sitters
but those who build and design tree-sit villages and
those who support them.
The issues of clearcutting, mudslides, flooding,
herbicide spraying, salmon recovery, Indigenous
rights, and government and corporate corruption are
discussed through interviews with rural landowners,
workers, scientists, bureaucrats, activists, and local
residents who are directly affected.
What emerges from the whirlwind of facts,
testimonials, nature shots, and images of mudslide
debris is a connected web of ideas and emotions that
translates to a sadness over the environmental and
economic tragedy unfolding. There is also an
understanding that it?s not an issue of jobs (or
loggers) vs. the environment (or environmentalists).
Rather, it?s really an issue of Big Business (or
greed) at odds with everyone and everything else,
including both jobs and the environment!
Cameo appearances by celebrities who come to visit
Julia Butterfly while she sits in a tree for two years
include: Woody Harrelson, Mickey Hart, Bonnie Raitt
and Joan Baez, plus support of the United Steelworkers
of America. By the end you see labor and
environmental movements joining together in the
streets of Seattle to protest the World Trade
Organization?a non-democratic institution that is seen
as undermining both labor and environmental
protections worldwide. Julia Butterfly provides
impassioned commentary tying things together. Native
Americans get the final words, encouraging grassroots
activists to look for and connect with those spiritual
places in nature wherever they may live.
Alternative Media
We are constantly trying to get the word out about the
ongoing destruction of our temperate rainforest
ecosystems and the socio-political injustices that
drive it. We continue to do media for the
environmental movement and are increasingly working
with our new website, www.earthfilms.org, to help us
get information out to the press and public as quickly
and economically as possible. ?Fire in the Eyes? won
Best Activist Video at the Earth Visions Film Festival
in Santa Cruz, November 2000. This film also won an
Honorable Mention at the 1999 Black Maria Film and
Video Festival, one of only 10 films in 900 to receive
an honorable mention.
?Fire in the Eyes? and ?LUNA: The Stafford Giant
Tree-Sit? were part of a film festival planned by
Okomedia Institute in Beijing, China, in March 2001
and are also scheduled to be broadcast on Chinese
national TV. The Okomedia Institute actively promotes
and places its winning films in eco-TV markets around
the world. While the Chinese broadcast will not bring
in any funds, it will be seen by millions; there is
also a plan to try to distribute LUNA videos to
schools throughout China! Imagine millions of
children getting a glimpse of our own eco-warrior
Julia Butterfly!
?Timber Gap,? released in April 2000, has been
selected and shown in 11 different film festivals in
the U.S. It won an Honorable Mention at the Earth
Visions Film Festival in November 2000. Free Speech TV
and the IMC featured ?Timber Gap? as the final program
to be broadcast on their live satellite feed from the
Democratic Convention in Los Angeles last summer.
As a result of our collaborative work in Seattle and
Washington, DC, with the IMC, Regeneration TV is using
some of our footage in a globalization DVD/CD-ROM
featuring Rage Against the Machine. IMC Seattle used a
great deal of our footage in their new video, ?This is
What Democracy Looks Like.? Media Boutique also used
much of our footage in its educational film about the
history of Headwaters Forest, ?The Last Stand.?
An Italian sub-titled version of ?LUNA? was provided
to us by CinemAmbiente, which showed ?LUNA? in Italy
at their film festival.
New (7 min.) short movie from HAVC & Earth Films is
?Striptease to Save the Trees,? a musical short that
uses powerful Earth Goddess-inspired folk music and La
Tigressa?s actions and poems to make you laugh and cry
all at the same time. This movie is the prelude to a
28-min. documentary with the same title, soon to be
released.
For more information, contact us at: HAVC, PO Box
2198, Redway, CA 95560 or 707-925-0012.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2001