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It’s notoriously hard to make films about climate change that are pleasurable to watch. The NECESSITY filmmakers have done just that. Their two-part series captures the awe-inspiring beauty of threatened lands and waterways and the creativity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people putting their bodies on the line in saying "No to Oil."
Everyone should see the NECESSITY series. The films are inspiring and profoundly informative.
- Naomi Klein, Professor of Climate Justice, University of British Columbia
Filmmaker and Author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything
CLIMATE JUSTICE & THE THIN GREEN LINE
TRAILER
Now available for educators at Collective Eye
OIL, WATER & CLIMATE RESISTANCE
TRAILER
Now available for educators at Collective Eye
ABOUT THE NECESSITY FILMS
This two-part film series unfolds around activists and their use of the necessity defense in jury trials in different regions of the US after being charged with trespassing.
Legal strategies in the climate movement take center stage as Indigenous leaders and Native and non-Native activists respond to the growing climate emergency.
From the Mississippi Headwaters, wild rice fields and Great Lakes in Part I to the rivers and mountains of the Columbia River Gorge in Part II, awe-inspiring terrains are sites of coordinated resistance to corporate expansion of oil through pipelines, rail and terminals to get their lethal products to market.
As inspiring and hopeful as they are informative, the films show how alliances form around shared commitments to save the planet.
NECESSITY is a fiscally sponsored project of Film Independent, selected project of Doc Society + Exposure Labs inaugural Climate Story Lab, and selected project of The Fledgling Fund Call for Projects on Climate Change, and The Puffin Foundation.
There's another black snake in the form of industries leaving radioactive wastes in lands across our beautiful Pacific Northwest... as we continue to fight Big Oil, we also need to fight Big Nuclear. - Cathy Sampson Kruse, Producer and Activist
HELP US SHARE THIS EXCITING PROJECT
These films promote thoughtful public dialogue on climate change and the complex strategies needed to address the global climate emergency.
Help us share these inspiring stories of allyship and Indigenous-led resistance with communities across the country. As Tara Houska proclaims, “there is beauty and purpose in the struggle.”