#Yurok lands act | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fatehbaz · 4 years

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Do you have any good posts about gardening?

Hey. Sorry, in advance, since this post is a bit long. Looks like this will be a “regional ecology and geography of food plants, gardening, and folk knowledge” and “the role of gardens in ecological imperialism” masterpost resource.

I know very little about the actual practice of gardening. I’m horrible source of info on gardening. I also know little about chemistry, soil science, and the more “technical” aspects of plant life. I’m more into historical ecology, the history of human/cultural relationships with plants, and the geography and distribution of plants, animals, and ecoregions. But I know there are some good people on this site with great knowledge about gardening, foodsheds, and native plants. I am very impressed and humbled by these people, and I would recommend people like caecilian-caesura (soil, gardening, growing things); cedar-glade (restoration, prairie, oak savanna, the Ohio River Valley/Great Lakes); spatheandspadix (great knowledge of plant life, regional and technical ecology, Great Lakes, Appalachia); radicalgardener (food, gardening, Alaska); pacificnorthwestdoodles (gardening and food in the Pacific Northwest). And there are several more people on this site who I could recommend for info on Texas and Florida. (You know who you are, I think (?). Hope you know I respect you). Send another anon or message if you want their names. (And I’m sorry if any of you are uncomfortable with me publicizing or mentioning you here. Please let me know and I’ll remove your name, no problem at all.)

I know this is almost completely unrelated to what you asked, and this isn’t what you were looking for, but I hope it might be interesting for some people? For sheer fun and convenience, I figured I’d compile a list of posts about (1) regional ecology involving gardening, food, and traditional environmental knowledge of plants/food. And (2) the use of gardens, botany, and plants generally in imperialism.

(One of my interests is in regional geography/ecology, especially involving temperate rainforest; prairies and oak savannas; the Pacific Northwest; so-called Canada; the Rockies; the northern Great Plains; and the Great Lakes. And another of my interests is the historical ecology of empires and colonization, and the role of plants and soil in imperialism. So, I’ve separated the list into those 2 categories. The reason I chose to include ecological imperialism here is because Euro-American gardens and farms have played such a central role in extinction, dispossession, initial waves of European colonization, and continued degradation now, as with non-native earthworms.)

Regional ecology and geography involving gardening, food, folk knowledge, and traditional ecological knowledge of plants and plant harvest for food:

- Masterpost about Palouse prairie native grassland: Native and endemic plants. Indigenous history of ecoregion and traditional plant use. The giant native earthworm. Some maps. (Very unique and endangered prairie ecoregion in the inland Pacific Northwest, one of the only sizable grasslands west of the Rockies. Ecologists estimate that only 0.1% of native prairie remains in the Palouse, the rest lost to agriculture over the past 120 years.)

- Masterpost of worm invasion in the Great Lakes region, Canada, and the Midwest: Lots of info about non-native earthworms in hardwoods forests; the transition zone between Great Plains and eastern deciduous forests; Ojibwe/Anishinaabe land; and the boreal-temperate transition zone of the Great Lakes. Info on how worms threaten mycorrhizal fungal networks; understory plants; soil integrity; sugar maples; and traditional maple harvest.

- “Sometimes ... plants that are aesthetically pleasing ... are worse.” Karuk prescribed burning. Traditional food harvest. Agroforestry in Klamath Mountains. Geography of oak woodlands in the PNW. And how California’s settler institutions messed up soil and forest health with bad management by prioritizing pretty conifers instead of cultivating oak woodlands.

- “Coyote’s biota”: Comcaac (Seri) and O’Odaham food, plant knowledge, and the ascribing of special names to native plants and Euro-American plants to distinguish between types of food.

- Gardens, plant-human relationships, and the sophisticated seasonal planting schedules of Makushi people (northern Amazonia).

- Horticulture, deliberate promotion of fungus-plant symbiosis, gardening of Matsigenka people (Madre de Dios watershed, Amazonia).

- Easy-to-access compilation of audio recordings and oral histories of bioregional foodsheds, from 13 Native food autonomy advocates. (New England maple syrup. New Mexico. Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. Abalone/acorns in California. Salmon in PNW, etc.)

- Swamp rattlesnakes, bogs, endangered flooded prairie of Ontario, Great Lakes, Midwest. Geography of massassauga distribution and disappearance of flooded remnant prairie. (Love that pygmy rattlesnakes live on the boreal fringe on Manitoulin Island, the shores of Georgian Bay, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.)

- Endangered endemic frogs and oak woodlands/prairies of the Pacific Northwest: Maps and info on the Oregon spotted frog and disappearance of dryland oak woodland/savanna/prairie in the coastal PNW. (Most of the dryland prairie of the PNW, and the frog habitat specifically, has been lost to agriculture and/or urban development.)

- Respecting plants, wetlands, native foods, and Indigenous history of Chicago area

- Recognizing the centuries/millennia of Native role in cultivating grasslands and resilient foodsheds of coastal California (specifically, Quiroste and Amah Mutsun environmental management techniques in the Bay Area). Also includes info on how California institutions are incorporating Native leadership/management in formal policy.

- Potentially the worst and most annoying post I’ve ever made. A post about snakes, remnant prairies, and forests in the northern Great Plains. Pothole prairies, riparian cottonwood corridors, aspen parkland, and a special snake species in the northern Great Plains. Short and incomplete version: [X]. Longer and more annoying version with answers, more maps, discussion of prairie, Black Hills, Colorado aspen, forest types in the Midwest: [X].

- Indigenous agroforestry in Amazonia, underappreciated designing and planning of forest structure.

- “Forage wars” between Native food harvesters and California legal institutions: Abalone, native foodsheds, and food harvesting in Pomo, Yurok, Coast Yuki, and other Klamath Mountains and coastal Northern California communities.

- Settler agriculture in Canadian prairies and the normalization of standards of agriculture and meteorology in late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Some discussion of effects of unsustainable agriculture on local soil/plant death.)

- New worms in Alaska: Recent news of the discovery (2018 - 2020) of Alaska’s first known native earthworm, near Fairbanks, around the same time that ecologists announce escalation in non-native earthworm invasion of Alaskan and boreal forest environments for the first time. (The non-native earthworms threatening Alaskan/boreal environments were apparently introduced in gardens and at fishing sites.)

- Worm invasion in Alaska: Presentation on where non-native earthworms have expanded their range in Alaska, and how they alter the soil. (From 2019.)

- Worm Disk Horse, responses to worm questions. (Some references to gardening and native/regional foodsheds.)

- Oak savanna, endemic reptiles, sudden oak death outbreak in Oregon and Northern California. Contains a bunch of maps.

- Biodiversity, key species, native plants in native prairie and shortgrass prairies of northern Great Plains

- Endangered and endemic butterflies of oak woodlands/prairies of the Pacific Northwest.

- Uncanny legless lizard creature, landscapes recovering from non-native plant agriculture, and remnant prairie of the Midwest and Great Lakes.

- Palouse prairie and recent news of the survival of the giant Palouse earthworm: Potentially temperate North America’s largest native earthworm, which relies on native prairie.

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Role of gardens, botany, plants, and Euro-American gardening in ecological imperialism:

- The grand tale of breadfruit domestication, the mutiny on the Bounty, and plantation owners plotting with Kew Gardens to domesticate crops to undermine slave gardens in the Caribbean. (Also includes comments on the under-reported central role of media/PR manipulation and slavery in the “mutiny on the Bounty” story.)

- Wild rice (the imperial plot to domesticate wild rice), “cottage colonialism” in Canada, imaginative control, the power of names and naming plants. (Covers 1880s to Present.)

- How the gardens, horticulture, and food markets of slaves and the poor/dispossessed in the Caribbean allowed autonomous food networks to exist and undermine plantation owners and imperial interests. (Late 1700s, early 1800s.)

- Anna Boswell’s discussion of endemic longfin eels of Aotearoa as example of the problem with making “land-water” distinctions in Euro-American agriculture and land management

- Grasses, seed merchants, and “the Empire’s dairy farm” in Aotearoa. (European agriculture in late 19th and early 20th centuries.)

- The role of grasslands, deforestation, and English grasses in ecological imperialism in Aotearoa, early 20th century.

- European botanic gardens in 18th-/19th-century Mexico and Central America as a tool of imperialism and knowledge systematization. (“Botany began as atechnoscope – a way to visualize at-a-distance – but, at the end of the eighteenth century, it was already a teletechnique – a way to act at-a-distance.”)

- Pineapple, breadfruit, and plantations “doing the work of Empire” in Hawaii.

- Carl Linnaeus, botanists’ racism against India and Latin America, and the use of botanic gardens to acquire knowledge as an exercise of “soft empire.”

- Kew Gardens plotting to take Native strains of wild rice and domesticate them for cheap and profitable consumption in other imperial British colonies.

- Calcutta Botanic Gardens abduction and use of Chinese slaves; Kew Gardens (successfully) plotting to steal cinchona from people of Bolivia to service their staff in India; botanic gardens’ role in large-scale dispossession to create plantations in Assam and Ooty (1790s - 1870s).

- Dandelions, other non-native plants, and settler gardens changing soil of the Canadian Arctic. (Late 1800s and early 1900s.)

- Mapuche cultural legacy, Valdivian temperate rainforest, and European plots to dismantle the rainforest to create “Swiss or German pastoral farm landscape” in Chile.

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Sorry. In retrospect, it looks like worms and amphibians are a little over-represented here.

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shirlleycoyle · 3 years

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‘Everyone Loses’: The Government Is Rationing Water at the California-Oregon Border

Along the Oregon-California border, the Klamath River Basin is a crucial water source for Indigenous tribes, endangered species, and farmers. This year, though, there is simply not enough to go around.

The Western US is enduring another major drought, and the Klamath River Basin is at a historic low. This resulted in different groups being forced to compete and make their case for why water, now precious and scarce, should be diverted to their needs. It's a stark reminder of the tough, no-win decisions that citizens will continue to face amid the worsening climate crisis.

The Klamath Tribe contended that the water needs to stay in the lake to protect two endangered fish, the C’waam (Lost River sucker) and Koptu (shortnose sucker). The Yurok Tribe, to the south, said that more water needs to flow to the Klamath River, which is home to many fish species including the threatened Coho salmon. The Klamath Project, a collection of farms in the region, implored that they need water to irrigate crops or else face the possibility of folding after failing to deliver on their contracts with suppliers.

“This water year is unlike anything the Project has ever seen,” said Camille Calimlim Touton, Deputy Commissioner of the US Bureau of Reclamation, which made the decision about water use, in a press release.

On April 15, the US Bureau of Reclamation decided that protections from the Endangered Species Act won out over the desires of the irrigators. The C’waam and Koptu need the water levels in Upper Klamath Lake to be kept high in order to spawn and escape the worst of the poor water quality. The Bureau of Reclamation is ordering that the lake be kept at the very minimum of the biological requirement, in order to allow some water to flow to the salmon in the Klamath River. For the farms, just 33,000 acre-feet was allocated, the lowest in 20 years and enough to meet only a fraction of their needs.

No one wanted it to be this way: each group backed into separate corners, arguing about who deserves water more. This is a particularly bad water year, but many fear that climate change will make such low precipitation a new normal. Already, the rules of the Basin are changing. The snowpack and rainfall were low this year, and inflows into the lake hit the lowest point ever recorded. In this already stressed system, Tribal members are cautioning against using old hydrological estimates to predict future management. Climate change is projected to decrease snowpack and runoff and increase temperatures, meaning less water to satisfy more demand.

The future of the water in the Klamath River Basin is unclear as the different groups seek a long-term solution. In 2010, after years of compromises, the tribes and the Klamath project signed the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) to decide the future of water management in the region. The plan went to Congress, where it wasn’t signed by the deadline, and it died.

Now, a path forward in a warming world is even more urgently needed.

The fight over the water in the Klamath River Basin pitted conservation against agriculture. Farmers are facing dry lands and looming contracts with grocery stores and companies such as FritoLay that they may not be able to fulfill, while Indigenous tribes are contending with the possible loss of important fish species.

The C’waam and Koptu fish, which are endemic to Upper Klamath Lake, are central to the Klamath Tribe’s creation story. The tribe believes that the fish were created to sustain their people. The C’waam and Koptu used to be a main source of food for the tribe, numbering in the millions. Now, as a result of poor water quality and chronic low water levels, they are endangered, and the Klamath can only catch two each year for ceremonial purposes.

“We will do everything necessary to protect the C’waam and Koptu, which are of the utmost importance to our people,” said Tribal Council Vice Chair Gail Hatcher in an April 13 press release. “In this historically bad water year the consequences of decades of mismanagement are coming home to roost; Reclamation’s failure to provide the bare minimum conditions necessary for their survival is unconscionable.”

“We have fished these same runs of salmon since the beginning of time”

The C’waam and Koptu have been fighting an uphill battle for years. As a result of poor water quality, toxic algae blooms, and low water levels, the juveniles die before they can reproduce. Few breeding populations are left for either species, and all of them were born in the 1990s. These fish are approaching the end of their expected lifespan, according to Jay Weiner, attorney for the Klamath Tribe. If they die, there are no fish to replace them with.

The C’waam and Koptu are more endangered than the salmon to the south, and Weiner said that the fish are at genuine risk of a single-year extinction event. With the stakes so high, the Klamath Tribe—which has senior water rights in the Upper Klamath Basin—insisted that the suckers be prioritized.

“We have been screaming to the United States to manage the project more responsibly for years so that we would not end up in a situation like this, where the needs of the C’waam and the Koptu in the lake are pitted directly against the needs of the salmon in the river because of how little water there is,” said Weiner.

c'waam blackwolf.JPG

Within that goal, however, the Klamath people also wanted as much as possible to go to the salmon and their neighboring Yurok Tribe. They don’t see this as a battle of tribe versus tribe, and are deeply interested in the salmon rebounding.

Indeed, to the Yurok Tribe, the survival of the salmon is existential. Just like the C’waam and Koptu for the Klamath Tribe, the fish are tightly bound in the Yurok’s creation story. The river would provide for the Yurok people, the creator told them, as long as they lived in balance with it.

“Because we have always as a people been on these rivers, we have fished these same runs of salmon since the beginning of time,” said Amy Cordalis, the Yurok Tribe’s general counsel. “It’s a very unique relationship that initially started with us relying on them. Now they are relying on us because we have to speak for them to save them.”

The Yurok uses the Klamath for subsistence and commercial fisheries, providing the basis for their entire economy. Now, with the river in such bad shape, they are starting to see the economic tolls. With dams and development interfering with habitat, salmon have been struggling. Recently, a new threat has emerged: Ceratonova shasta, a deadly parasite that is decimating salmon populations in the Klamath River.

C. shasta thrives in river environments that are stable, where there aren’t a lot of flow variations. In the past few years, as the Bureau of Reclamation has struggled to keep the lake full and divert water to agriculture, the river has seen less floods and lower flows.

“Where the water is is as important to a river as the blood in your veins is to your health,” said Michael Belchik, senior water policy analyst for the Yurok Tribe. “Rivers move more than just water. The sediment movement is crucial in the ecology of the river.”

Belchik, along with a team of scientists at Oregon State University, keep track of the spore counts in the water. Last week, the team counted 73 spores per liter, and 5 spores is when they start raising the alarm. With salmon in the Klamath down to 5-10 percent of their historical runs, the Yurok are preparing to lose this entire year class. Warming temperatures, too, threaten to decrease salmon habitat.

“We’re going to lose some farms this year”

Meanwhile, farmers in the region are between a rock and a hard place. The ground is completely dry, said Mark Johnson, the deputy director of the Klamath Water Users Association. Many farms are worried that their crops—usually potatoes or alfalfa—won’t grow.

Some farms have contracts with big companies like In n’ Out and FritoLay, others with grocery stores. If they can’t fulfill their contracts, they may lose them. Without contracts, some farms may fold.

“We’re going to lose some farms this year,” Johnson said simply.

For farmers, this year looks to be a devastating repeat of 2001. That year, the Klamath Project got absolutely no water in order to preserve fish species. In protest, farmers organized a bucket brigade, passing buckets of water from the lake to canals. It became a talking point for Republicans to criticize the Endangered Species Act, and a cause celebre for anti-government militants.

“In 2001, we lost a lot of farms,” Johnson said. “Since then, a lot of the younger generation who should be farming right now just will not come back to the Basin to farm knowing the restrictive conditions that we have.”

The Klamath Project is one of the oldest Reclamation projects in the country, and many farmers and ranchers have been in the Basin for generations. Starting in the early 1900s, the U.S. federal offered Basin land to settlers in order to grow crops needed for the growing western population. Later, they offered land to war veterans.

“Everyone loses in this situation,” Johnson said. “We’re just looking for a long-term solution that guarantees sustainable irrigation to the Basin.”

The Klamath Basin is stretched beyond its capacity. Each stakeholder—the Klamath Tribe, the Yurok Tribe, and the Klamath Project—has expressed sympathy for the plight of the other, and ultimately places the blame on the federal government.

For over a century, the US government has been making competing promises: ensuring Tribal rights to water while luring farmers to the basin with the promise that generations to come would be able to live off the land. To do so, they borrowed from the future: draining the aquifer and diverting the water until drought left the Basin dry, without water to recharge the system. The Basin was never built to handle all these needs.

Like the Klamath Tribe, the Yurok are not interested in pitting tribe against tribe, species survival against species survival. Faced with the harsh reality of desperately needing water that they likely won’t get, the Yurok people are looking to a long history of mistreatment and broken promises from the federal government.

“In the creation of the Yurok reservation, we reserved that right to economy, to the fishing way of life,” Cordalis said. “That created an obligation for the federal government to protect our interests on our reservation, and they never did.”

The Klamath has similar frustrations. Even before Endangered Species Act restrictions, the Klamath Tribe has treaty rights that they believe have long been disrespected. In 1864, they gave a large chunk of their land to the federal government in exchange for water rights, which should have guaranteed the maintenance of a healthy fishery.

Right now, everyone is just trying to make it through this year. The Klamath Tribe sees the Bureau of Reclamation’s decision—which prevents the lake from dipping under 4,138.3 feet—as the minimum possible protection for the suckerfish. This is less than the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Biological Opinion requires, which the Klamath Tribe already believes to be insufficient. The tribe is suing the Bureau of Reclamation in retaliation.

The Yurok does not expect anything more than the bare minimum to keep the river—and the salmon—alive. They are hanging onto a sliver of hope: four of the six dams on the Klamath are set to be removed by 2024, which would be a huge help for the salmon.

For the farmers and ranchers of the Klamath Project, the best they can hope for is relief. Johnson said that the 33,000 acre-feet that was allocated to the Klamath project was barely enough to charge a canal, let alone irrigate over 200,000 acres of land.

“To put in perspective, in a normal year in these drought conditions, we would divert up to 400,000 acre-feet of water,” Johnson said. “It is a pretty dire situation.”

The Bureau of Reclamation set aside $15 million in immediate relief for the Klamath Project.

Looking forward, everyone agrees that they need a more sustainable solution. Long-term, the Klamath Tribe see a real issue with the way that the Basin is managed by the government. Weiner said that, from the tribe’s perspective, the Bureau of Reclamation sees leaving water in the lake as the last possible option, extracting all it can for agriculture and for flushing the river.

“These dry years are not aberrations. These are new conditions that the Klamath Basin needs to live with,” said Weiner. “To treat it like a single year crisis ignores the fact that what’s going on in the Basin is fundamentally unsustainable.”

“Everyone loses in this situation”

According to Weiner, the Klamath Tribe is not interested in negotiating a second restoration agreement that looks anything like the first one. In the KBRA, the Klamath Tribe intended to give up some of their water rights in exchange for restoration work. Now, facing increasing drought and uncertain conditions for their suckerfish, they feel they have no water to give. Weiner said that the Klamath Tribe is looking to the Klamath Project to create a less water-intensive budget.

Johnson said that the farmers are eager to find a solution that works for everyone in the Basin. He, like members of the Yurok and Klamath Tribes, are disappointed that the KBRA failed to make it through Congress. He is tired of the yearly fighting over water allocation, he said. Besides, the lines aren’t so neatly drawn: there are Tribal members who are farmers and ranchers, and all those living in the Basin are concerned with the health of the ecosystem.

“Everyone loses in this situation,” Johnson said. “We’re just looking for a long-term solution that guarantees sustainable irrigation to the Basin.”

According to Cordalis, the land is worth the effort.

“People will be like, ‘Oh this is America, why don't you move?’” Cordalis said. “We’re Yurok people, we’re meant to be on this river. That’s where our ancestors are, that's where we are. We would rather die fighting to rebuild it, and that's kind of what we’re doing.”

‘Everyone Loses’: The Government Is Rationing Water at the California-Oregon Border syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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ndnbutterfly · 4 years

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The destruction of the 18 million acres of Australian wilderness is being mourned worldwide. Countless innocent Aussie animals have become victims to the flames and much of the land will require decades- if not centuries- to recover. Some of the bushlands that the continent is well known for might never be the same again. This crisis, though incredibly sorrowful, has brought people together. More than 42 Million Australian dollars has been raised in charity for wildfire relief so far. Now the conversation has become a question. What caused all of this? Celebrities were quick to use the crisis as a platform to talk about global warming without waiting to learn more about the fires. Climate change holds all the blame, right? It's not that simple.

Forest fires and other natural disasters are often the catalysts for environmentalist speeches and chastising. From a small glimpse at the information, it's easy to assume there is a sort of connection, but the spotlight turns off once all the facts come together to reveal the truth. When it comes to the Australian wildfires, they appear to have been started by accidents and bored juveniles. Christina Zdanowicz of CNN brought this twist into the light with her article 'Police in Australia Are Accusing 24 People of Deliberately Setting Bushfires.' "Police have charged at least 24 people for intentionally starting bushfires in the state of New South Wales, according to a statement the New South Wales Police released Monday. NSW Police have taken legal action against 183 people, 40 of whom are juveniles, for fire-related offenses since November 8, the statement said. The legal actions range from cautions to criminal charges." So we know what started it all but we can't just chalk this up to juvenile delinquents setting fires in Australia, can we? Clearly there's more to these fires, otherwise the bushland could have been burned up decades ago.

There must be a major difference in modern times that prompted such a disaster. The difference has to be climate change. According to physicist Scott Menor, "Climate change made the difference between throwing a match in water to throwing it in gasoline." The rise in global heat is the problem- it has to be! "Scientists believe climate change is amplifying the conditions necessary for firestorms to form," Sophie Tanno of Daily Mail reports. However, "the claims of arson have already become a political battleground, with some politicians and commentators seizing on them to argue that the impact of climate change has been overstated." The arson reports have brought many people to criticize the validity of climate change. A challenge has been brought forth against the idea that climate change is to blame for recent wildfires. It's not unfathomable that some would deny the claim as there is currently no physical proof connecting the two. There is, however, a minor detail that has a major effect on the overall health of the wilderness- especially in arid regions.

The Australian bushlands and the California Redwoods have a similar atmosphere. To put it simply, both locations are very hot and very dry. Both are very prone to wildfires due to this reason but it's also why forests around Virginia, Massachusetts, Japan, and Ireland don't catch fire nearly as often. In both of these arid locations, certain plants even require wildfires as a part of their natural life cycle. Small wildfires are actually good for the health of the plant life. Problems arise when the fire spreads at an alarming rate. In nature, fire spreads through the layers of branches and withered plants laying across the ground. If nothing was done about this debris, a small spark could cause the massive fires we've been seeing happen more and more frequently. The state of California and the country of Australia currently prohibit citizens from cleaning up this debris in the hopes to "preserve" the land, but what of those who came before? What did the Native Americans and the Australian Aboriginals do to prevent crisis' such as the Australian Wildfires? The answer is surprising. They would burn the debris using controlled fires.

An article on the Save the Redwoods League website explains the Native American use of fire breaks and how it helped the wildlife. "In discussing fire, it is important to think about who managed the forests before us, and how that has influenced what the forests look like today... Annual burning was a common practice of many native tribes for a number of reasons. They burned hillsides to improve the grasses there so that deer and elk would frequent the area and could be hunted easily. Increased grass production also provided more grasses for basketry. Additionally, Native Americans wanted to improve production of acorns, which were a major food source for them." Controlled fires clearly held a multitude of uses for the Native tribes of America, but it was also a preventative measure. Fire breaks were used around native villages in order to prevent smaller fires from spreading throughout the area and becoming unmanageable. Sadly, the old knowledge of fire prevention dwindled in these regions over time and was replaced with methods that aren't at effective. "After 1850, when Europeans occupied the region, fire frequency diminished and fire suppression practices began. This has caused a build-up of understory forest debris, which now can contribute to causing the large, catastrophic fires we have seen in recent years." There were some who still attempted to clear the debris, but the act of doing so has become illegal in this past century. Politicians put these laws into place claiming the reason behind them is to preserve the wilderness, but as more and more arid regions introduce these laws, the forests become full of debris causing larger and more destructive fires to rage through the area. The same laws have been introduced in Australia to the dislike of the farmers and those who live in and around the bushlands. The fire breaks were also used by the aboriginals all this time, after all. The policies are not just destroying the forest, they are destroying indigenous tradition as well.

Rick O'Rourke grew up on the Yurok reservation and continues to use firebreaks to this day. He hopes to save part of the California redwoods by using fire. Suzie Cagle uses beautiful imagery to describe the process. "This fire will chew out the underbrush and lick the moss off the trees. It will blister the hazel stalks and coax strong new shoots that will be gathered and woven into baskets for babies and caps for traditional dancers, and it will tease the tan oak acorns to drop. It will burn the invasive plants that suck up the rain, letting more clean, cool water flow through the black, into the watershed and down the Klamath river for the salmon. Soon all that black will be dotted with bear grass and huckleberries pushing up for the sunlight and down for the water they couldn’t reach when they were crowded out by tall scotch broom and dense twists of blackberries and the ever-encroaching fir trees. Even sooner, animals will flock here to roll in the ash, a California dust bath." She continues on to talk about the troubling policies that are supposedly meant to protect the forest. "For most of the last 100 years in California, however, government agencies have considered fire the enemy – a dangerous, destructive element to suppress and exclude from the land. Traditional ecological knowledge and landscape stewardship were sidelined in favor of wholesale firefighting, and a kind of land management that looked like natural conservation but left the ground choked with vegetation ready to burn. As the climate crisis creates hotter, drier, more volatile weather, that fuel has helped drive larger wildfires faster and further across the west." Her words describe the sad state of the forest more vividly than I could.

The tradition of firebreaks continues on in Native culture to an extent. Even my Tata- my great grandfather- used to burn his yard often in order to allow the grass to grow lush in the spring- and also so that my Nana- my great grandmother- could grow healthy herbs and flowers to make medicinal teas with. It's what they used to do when they lived on land that is now a part of Big Bend National Park- another piece of nature that has a similar policy preventing anyone from clearing the debris or even stepping foot on the land. This knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation. Because of this, we know that the wildfires aren't unavoidable and are likely not even caused by climate change at all. The truth is, tragedies like the Australian wildfires occur when politicians think they know what's best for the environment and push policies that make them appear to be heroes in the eyes of their constituents. These policies only end up causing nearly irreversible damage. The politicians can only point the blame at climate change and away from their own mistakes.

Sources:

Native American Use of Fire - Deborah Zierten - Save The Redwoods League

Fire is Medicine - Susie Cagle - The Guardian

Arson Is Not Caused By Climate Change - Sophie Tanno - Daily Mail

Police in Australia are accusing 24 people of deliberately setting bushfires - Christina Zdanowicz - CNN

#NDNButterfly:Enviromentalism #NDNButterfly:Sociology #Australian Wildfires

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learningrendezvous · 5 years

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Social Justice

CAPTURING THE FLAG

Directed by Anne de Mare

Four friends travel to Cumberland County, NC--posterchild for voter suppression in 2016--intent on proving that the big idea of American democracy can be defended by small acts of individual citizens.

In 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court invalidates the part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requiring certain states to submit changes in voting laws to the Justice Department for approval. Almost immediately, certain states take voter suppression measures such as enacting voter ID laws, redrawing district boundaries, and repealing same-day registration.

Three months before the 2016 election, a group of volunteers across the country mobilizes to work on voter protection - to observe elections and to assure that all those who wish to vote are legally allowed to do so. Laverne Berry, Steven Miller, and Claire Wright head to North Carolina. What they find at the polls serves as both a warning and a call to action for anyone interested in protecting the "One Man, One Vote" fundamental of our democracy.

Dealing with themes that are constantly sensationalized and manipulated by the media - Left vs. Right, North vs. South, Black vs. White - CAPTURING THE FLAG offers instead deeply personal, often surprising perspectives on the 2016 Presidential Election and its aftermath.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 76 minutes

POWER TO HEAL: MEDICARE AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION

Directed by Charles Burnett & Daniel Loewenthal

The untold story of how the twin struggles for racial justice and healthcare intersected: creating Medicare and desegregating thousands of hospitals at the same time.

POWER TO HEAL tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country in a matter of months.

Before Medicare, disparities in access to hospital care were dramatic. Less than half the nation's hospitals served black and white patients equally, and in the South, 1/3 of hospitals would not admit African-Americans even for emergencies.

Using the carrot of Medicare dollars, the federal government virtually ended the practice of racially segregating patients, doctors, medical staffs, blood supplies and linens. POWER TO HEAL illustrates how Movement leaders and grass-roots volunteers pressed and worked with the federal government to achieve justice and fairness for African-Americans.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 56 minutes

TRIBAL JUSTICE

Directed by Anne Makepeace

Documents an effective criminal justice reform movement in America: the efforts of tribal courts to return to traditional, community-healing concepts of justice.

TRIBAL JUSTICE is a feature documentary about a little known, underreported but effective criminal justice reform movement in America today: the efforts of tribal courts to create alternative justice systems based on their traditions. In California, the state with the largest number of Indian people and tribes, two formidable Native American women are among those leading the way. Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribe on the northwest coast, and Claudette White, Chief Judge of the Quechan Tribe in the southeastern desert, are creating innovative systems that focus on restoring rather than punishing offenders in order to keep tribal members out of prison, prevent children from being taken from their communities, and stop the school-to-prison pipeline that plagues their young people.

Abby Abinanti is a fierce, lean, elder. Claudette White is younger, and her courtroom style is more conventional in form; but like Abby, her goal is to provide culturally relevant justice to the people who come before her. Observational footage of these judges' lives and work provides the backbone of the documentary, while the heart of the film follows offenders as their stories unfold over time, in and out of court. These other stories unfold over time, engaging viewers with the dedication of the judges, the humanity of the people who come before them, and a vision of justice that can actually work.

Through the film, audiences will gain a new understanding of tribal courts and their role in the survival of Indian people. The film will also inspire those working in the mainstream legal field to consider new ways of implementing problem-solving and restorative justice, lowering our staggering incarceration rates and enabling offenders to make reparations and rebuild their lives.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 87 minutes

INCARCERATING US

Directed by Regan Hines

Exposes America's prison problem and explores various criminal justice reforms.

Incarcerating US exposes America's prison problem and explores ways to unshackle the "land of the free" through vital criminal justice reforms. With 2.3 million people behind bars, the U.S. has the largest prison population in the history of the world.

Through dramatic first-hand accounts, expert testimony, and shocking statistics, Incarcerating US asks fundamental questions about the prison system in America: What is the purpose of prison? Why did our prison population explode in the 1970s? What can make our justice system more just?

The film begins with a brief overview of U.S. prisons and the flawed policies that fueled unprecedented overincarceration. In many cases, these laws exacerbate problems they were designed to solve. Through both empirical evidence and the eyes of those tragically affected by the system for committing minor crimes, we see the failures of two major initiatives: the War on Drugs and mandatory minimum sentences.

Incarcerating US tells the story of America's broken criminal justice system through the eyes of those who created it, those who have suffered through it, and those who are fighting to change it. After decades of failures, now is the time to unshackle the land of the free.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 84 minutes

HAND THAT FEEDS, THE

Directed by Rachel Lears, Robin Blotnick

Shy sandwich-maker Mahoma Lopez unites his undocumented immigrant coworkers to fight abusive conditions at a popular New York restaurant chain.

At a popular bakery cafe, residents of New York's Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. But behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery, and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick. Mild-mannered sandwich maker Mahoma Lopez has never been interested in politics, but in January 2012, he convinces a small group of his co-workers to fight back.

Risking deportation and the loss of their livelihood, the workers team up with a diverse crew of innovative young organizers and take the unusual step of forming their own independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. In one roller-coaster year, they must overcome a shocking betrayal and a two-month lockout. Lawyers will battle in back rooms, Occupy Wall Street protesters will take over the restaurant, and a picket line will divide the neighborhood. If they can win a contract, it will set a historic precedent for low-wage workers across the country. But whatever happens, Mahoma and his coworkers will never be exploited again.

DVD / 2014 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 84 minutes

DETROPIA

Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

A vivid portrait of Detroit, America's first major post-industrial city, as it struggles to deal with the consequences of a broken economic system.

Detroit's story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century...the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos.

With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score, DETROPIA sculpts a dreamlike collage of a grand city teetering on the brink of dissolution. These soulful pragmatists and stalwart philosophers strive to make ends meet and make sense of it all, refusing to abandon hope or resistance. Their grit and pluck embody the spirit of the Motor City as it struggles to survive postindustrial America and begins to envision a radically different future.

DVD / 2012 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 86 minutes

YOU'VE BEEN TRUMPED

Directed by Anthony Baxter

In this David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on a celebrity tycoon. At stake is one of Britain's very last stretches of wilderness.

American billionaire Donald Trump has bought up hundreds of acres on the northeast coast of Scotland, best known to movie-lovers as the setting for the 1983 classic film LOCAL HERO. And like the American oil tycoon played by Burt Lancaster, he needs to buy out a few more locals to make the deal come true. In a land swimming with golf courses, Trump is going to build two more - alongside a 450-room hotel and 1,500 luxury homes. The trouble is, the land he has purchased occupies one of Europe's most environmentally sensitive stretches of coast, described by one leading scientist as Scotland's Amazon rain forest. And the handful of local residents don't want it destroyed.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, the stage is set for an extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action. Water and power is cut off, land disputes erupt, and some residents have thousands of tonnes of earth piled up next to their homes. Complaints go ignored by the police, who instead arrest the film's director, Anthony Baxter. Local exasperation comes to a surreal head as the now "Dr." Trump scoops up an honorary doctorate from a local university, even as his tractors turn wild, untouched dunes into fairways.

Told entirely without narration, YOU'VE BEEN TRUMPED captures the cultural chasm between the glamorous, jet-setting and media savvy Donald Trump and a deeply rooted Scottish community. What begins as an often amusing clash of world views grows increasingly bitter and disturbing. For the tycoon, the golf course is just another deal, with a possible billion dollar payoff. For the residents, it represents the destruction of a globally unique landscape that has been the backdrop for their lives.

Funny, inspiring and heartbreaking in turns, YOU'VE BEEN TRUMPED is both an entertaining, can't-believe-it's-true tale and an environmental parable for our celebrity driven times. A moving score features music from jonsi, the internationally acclaimed musician and frontman of Sigur Ros. The film also offers a rare and revealing glimpse of the unfiltered Donald Trump, as he considers standing as a candidate for President of the United States.

DVD / 2012 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 95 minutes

BETTER THIS WORLD

Directed by Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega

The story of two young Texans accused of intending to firebomb the 2008 Republican National Convention reveals the workings of the post 9/11 security state.

How did two boyhood friends from Midland, Texas wind up arrested on terrorism charges at the 2008 Republican National Convention? BETTER THIS WORLD follows the journey of David McKay (22) and Bradley Crowder (23) from political neophytes to accused domestic terrorists with a particular focus on the relationship they develop with a radical activist mentor in the six months leading up to their arrests. A dramatic story of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal, BETTER THIS WORLD goes to the heart of the War on Terror and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in post-9/11 America.

DVD / 2011 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 89 minutes

HOT COFFEE: IS JUSTICE BEING SERVED?

Directed by Susan Saladoff

Tells the truth about the McDonald's hot coffee case and exposes the influence of corporate America on our civil justice system.

Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman put it on one of his Top Ten lists. More than 15 years later, the McDonald's coffee case continues to be cited as a prime example of how citizens use "frivolous" lawsuits to take unfair advantage of America's legal system.

But is that an accurate portrayal of the facts? First-time filmmaker and former public interest lawyer Susan Saladoff uses the infamous legal battle that began with a spilled cup of coffee to investigate what's behind America's zeal for tort reform. By following four people whose lives were devastated by the attacks on our courts, this thought-provoking documentary challenges the assumptions Americans hold about "jackpot justice."

DVD / 2011 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 86 minutes

IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT

Directed by Marshall Curry

The Academy Award-nominated story of the radicalization of an environmental activist, from his involvement in and later disillusionment with Earth Liberation Front sabotage, to his eventual arrest by the FBI and incarceration as a domestic terrorist.

In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front-- a group the FBI has called America's "number one domestic terrorism threat."

For years, the ELF--operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership--had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado.

With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country.

IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT, directed by Marshall Curry (Street Fight), tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members.

Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a verite chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.

Drawing from striking archival footage -- much of it never before seen -- and intimate interviews with ELF members, and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them, IF A TREE FALLS explores the tumultuous period from 1995 until early 2001 when environmentalists were clashing with timber companies and law enforcement, and the word "terrorism" had not yet been altered by 9/11.

DVD / 2011 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 85 minutes

SPLIT ESTATE

Documents the devastating effect that oil and gas drilling is having on the health of families and the environment in the Rocky Mountain West.

Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine another shocking truth: you have little or no recourse to protect your home or land from such development. SPLIT ESTATE maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.

Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children.

SPLIT ESTATE zeroes in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, but the industry is aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states. They are even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.

As our appetite for fossil fuels increases despite mounting public health concerns, SPLIT ESTATE cracks the sugarcoating on an industry that assures us it is a good neighbor, and drives home the need for alternatives -- both here and abroad.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2009 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 76 minutes

AMERICAN OUTRAGE

Directed by George Gage and Beth Gage

Two elderly Western Shoshone sisters, the Danns, put up a heroic fight for their land rights and human rights.

Carrie and Mary Dann are feisty Western Shoshone sisters who have endured five terrifying livestock roundups by armed federal marshals in which more than a thousand of their horses and cattle were confiscated -- for grazing their livestock on the open range outside their private ranch.

That range is part of 60 million acres recognized as Western Shoshone land by the United States in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, but in 1974 the U.S. sued the Dann sisters for trespassing on that land, without a permit. That set off a dispute between the Dann sisters and the U. S. government that swept to the United States Supreme Court and eventually to the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

AMERICAN OUTRAGE asks why the United States government has spent millions persecuting and prosecuting two elderly women grazing a few hundred horses and cows in a desolate desert? The United States Bureau of Land Management insists the sisters are degrading the land. The Dann sisters say the real reason is the resources hidden below this seemingly barren land, their Mother Earth. Western Shoshone land is the second largest gold producing area in the world.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2008 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 56 minutes

LET'S MAKE MONEY

Directed by Erwin Wagenhofer

Erwin Wagenhofer's incredible odyssey tracking our money through the worldwide finance system.

LET'S MAKE MONEY follows the trail of our money through the worldwide finance system.

What does our retirement savings have to do with the property blow-up in Spain? We don't have to buy a home there in order to be involved. As soon as we open an account, we're part of the worldwide finance market--whether we want to be or not. We customers have no idea where our debtors live and what they do to pay our interest fees. Most of us aren't even interested, because we like to follow the call of the banks to "Let your money work.'' But money can't work. Only people, animals or machines can work.

The film starts at the Ahafo mine in Ghana, West Africa, where vast areas are being blasted open. Gold is extracted from the rock in a tedious process, then smelted and flown directly to Switzerland. The spoils are divided up proportionally: 3% for Africa, 97% for the West. The mine was opened with the assistance of the World Bank.

"I don't think the investor should be responsible for the ethics, the pollution or anything the company in which he has invested produces. That's not his job. His job is to invest and earn money for his clients." - Mark Mobius, president of Templeton Emerging Markets

"In the end it's always the so-called man or woman on the street who's left paying the bills." - Hermann Scheer, winner of the alternative Nobel Prize and a member of German Parliament

DVD / 2008 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 107 minutes

DIAMOND ROAD

Directed by Nisha Pahuja

Examines every facet of the diamond trade from the prospectors to the miners, cutters, jewelers, smugglers and dealers, and advocates for fair trade.

Every year 24 tons of diamonds are teased from the heart of the earth. Once mined they begin their year-long journey through the "pipeline," a vast network encompassing five continents and a diverse cast of characters. By the end of their journey these tiny bits of carbon will have made multi-millionaires of some and virtual slaves of others.

Boring deep into the diamond world, Diamond Road seeks to understand the multiple meanings this object has for a few of the fascinating people who are part of the diamond pipeline - international prospector, impoverished miner, child cutter, celebrity jeweller, smuggler, high-end dealer. Interwoven with their stories is the determined pursuit of one industry leader to bring fairness and transparency to this secretive world. What results is a multi-layered portrait of a stone which is steeped in a history of intrigue, conflict, love and hope.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2007 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 3 hours

WATER FRONT, THE

Directed by Liz Miller

The story of Highland Park, Michigan, and the larger issues of water privatization and human rights.

What if you lived by the largest body of fresh water in the world but could no longer afford to use it?

With a shrinking population, the post-industrial city of Highland Park, Michigan is on the verge of financial collapse. The state of Michigan has appointed an Emergency Financial Manager who sees the water plant as key to economic recovery. She has raised water rates and has implemented severe measures to collect on bills. As a result, Highland Park residents have received water bills as high as $10,000, they have had their water turned off, their homes foreclosed, and are struggling to keep water, a basic human right, from becoming privatized.

The Water Front is the story of an American city in crisis but it is not just about water. The story touches on the very essence of our democratic system and is an unnerving indication of what is in store for residents around the world facing their own water struggles. The film raises questions such as: Who determines the future of shared public resources? What are alternatives to water privatization? How will we maintain our public water systems and who can we hold accountable?

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2007 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 53 minutes

BLACK DIAMONDS: MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL & THE FIGHT FOR COALFIELD JUSTICE

Directed by Catherine Pancake

Examines the escalating drama in Appalachia over mountaintop removal mining.

BLACK DIAMONDS charts the escalating drama in Appalachia over the alarming increase in large mountaintop coal mines. These mammoth operations have covered 1200 miles of headwater streams with mining waste; demolished thousands of acres of hardwood forest; and flattened hundreds of Appalachian mountain peaks.

Citizen testimony and visual documentation interwoven with the perspectives of government officials, activists, and scientists create a riveting portrait of an American region fighting for its life -- caught between the grinding wheels of the national appetite for cheap energy and an enduring sense of Appalachian culture, pride, and natural beauty.

The film includes testimony from Julia Bonds, WV citizen-turned-activist, who received the 2003 Goldman Award (the nation's largest environmental activist award); Ken Hechler, former WV Secretary of State; William Maxey, former Director of WV Division of Forestry; and the many citizens of West Virginia.

DVD (Color) / 2006 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 72 minutes

HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION

Tells the inspiring story of four battles in which Native American activists are fighting to preserve their land, sovereignty, and culture.

Having brutally occupied the homeland of Native Americans, the invading Europeans forced the indigenous population onto reservations-land that was specifically selected because of its apparent worthlessness.

To add salt to wounds that are still open, multinational energy companies and others are coming back to extract the hidden mineral wealth of the reservations, and are leaving a trail of toxins that, if unchecked, will make the land unlivable for centuries to come.

But Native American activists are fighting back, and their inspirational stories are chronicled in "HOMELAND: Four Portraits of Native Action" against the backdrop of some of the country's most spectacular landscapes.

~ Gail Small, an attorney from the Northern Cheyenne nation in Montana, is leading the fight to protect the Cheyenne homeland from 75,000 proposed methane gas wells that pollute the water and threaten to make much of the reservation unsuitable for farming or ranching.

~ Evon Peter is the former chief of an isolated Alaska community of Gwich'in people, who are working against current efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

~ Mitchell and Rita Capitan founded an organization of Eastern Navajo people in New Mexico whose only source of drinking water is threatened by proposed uranium mining.

~ And Barry Dana, the former chief of the Penobscot Nation in Maine, is battling state government and the paper companies that have left his people unable to fish or swim in or harvest medicinal plants from the river on which they've depended for 10,000 years.

With the support of their communities, these leaders are actively rejecting the devastating affronts of multinational energy companies and the current dismantling of 30 years of environmental laws. They are dedicated to forcing change-to save their land, preserve their sovereignty and ensure the cultural survival of their people.

Framed by the ecological and spiritual wisdom of Winona LaDuke, HOMELAND presents a vision of how people all over the world can turn around the destructive policies of thoughtless resource plundering and create a new paradigm in which people can live healthier lives with greater understanding of, and respect for, the planet and all of its inhabitants.

DVD (Color) / 2005 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 88 minutes

IN SEARCH OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE

Directed by Judy Jackson

The first film about a crucial new commitment to the international rule of law: the International Criminal Court.

This is the first film about a crucial new commitment to the International Rule of Law-so victims will no long suffer without being heard, and war criminals will be punished.

Sixty years ago, with the Nuremberg charter, the world first said "Never Again." But these proved empty words for the victims of the Cold War years. The Superpowers couldn't agree on a universal code to punish war criminals. Tyrants ruled with impunity.

So the voices of their victims have echoed down through the decades, refusing to be silent, even in death. Joined by relatives who are unable to move on, until they know how their loved ones died. Different languages from different places, but with the same universal theme-begging to be delivered from the torment of living somewhere between life and death. Telling us that they will be able, finally, to rest, when we find out how they died. Insisting we listen.

It is because of these voices that International Justice has been reborn. In 2002 the International Criminal Court was established in The Hague. So far 100 countries have signed on to the Court's mandate. However, the world's remaining superpower, the United States is strongly opposed.

The new Court is already busy. It is investigating crimes against humanity in Darfur. It has issued indictments against leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda who abduct children and force them to fight. And a militia leader from the Democratic Republic of the Congo faces charges of recruiting children as young as 8 to fight for him.

For the first time war criminals are being forced to listen. The victims' voices now haunt them, telling them they will not be silent until justice is done.

DVD (Color) / 2005 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 66 minutes

LIFE 5: SREBRENICA - LOOKING FOR JUSTICE

Directed by Amanda Felton

Examines the massacre at Srebrenica on its 10th anniversary.

In July 1995 Serbian forces entered the mainly Muslim town of Srebrenica in North-east Bosnia. Twenty thousand refugees, mainly women and children fled to the UN base at Potocari, but thousands were ultimately handed over to the Serbs. The Serbian troops separated men and boys from women and small children. Most of the women were then bussed out; others were raped, tortured and murdered. The men were taken away to be slaughtered, their bodies dumped in mass graves.

Forensic scientists are still uncovering the truth about what really happened at Srebrenica. The perpetrators of the massacre went to enormous lengths to hide the evidence; former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military subordinate General Ratko Mladic-both indicted for war crimes-have evaded capture for ten years. But there is now a bigger political process at work as all sides try to move towards a better and more secure a better future for the Balkans. One reason for this new determination is the prospect of the Balkan States joining the EU.

DVD (Color) / 2005 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 23 minutes

SILENT KILLER: THE UNFINISHED CAMPAIGN AGAINST HUNGER

There are still a billion hungry people in the world. Fifteen thousand children -- the equivalent of five times the victims of the World Trade Center bombings -- die each day of hunger. Yet it doesn't have to be this way. We can end hunger -- if we make a commitment to doing so. SILENT KILLER shows how it can be done.

Hosted by National Public Radio's Scott Simon, the film begins in South Africa's Kalahari Desert, where razor-thin Bushmen use the Hoodia cactus to fend off hunger. But now, a drug firm has patented the Hoodia's appetite-suppressant properties and is using it to make a diet product for obese Americans and Europeans. Hoodia is a metaphor for a world where some people die from too much food, but millions more die from too little.

We discover how serious the problem is in Kenya as we meet Jane Ininda, a scientist who is trying to make agriculture more productive in her country, while her own brother, Salesio, barely survives the drought, poor soils and pests that constantly threaten his crops. Through powerful stories, we come to understand the dimensions of the hunger crisis.

At the World Food Summit in Rome, we learn how activists have been working to end hunger since President John Kennedy declared war on it in 1963. But today, America's commitment to food security is less clear. In fact, world financial commitments to hunger research have been declining in recent years.

But SILENT KILLER does not leave viewers feeling helpless. A visit to Brazil finds a nation energized by a new campaign called FOME ZERO -- Zero Hunger. In the huge city of Belo Horizonte, we meet a remarkable leader and see how, under the programs she supervises, the right to food is guaranteed to all. In the countryside, we are introduced to the Landless Peasants' Movement, which is giving hope to millions of hungry Brazilians.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2005 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes

HOME OF THE BRAVE

Examines the case of Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement.

Home of the Brave is about the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement and why we hear so little about her. Told through the eyes of her children, the film follows the on-going struggle of an American family to survive the consequences of their mother's heroism and the mystery behind her killing.

Viola Liuzzo was a 39-year-old Detroit teamster's wife and mother of five, who joined thousands of people converging in Selma, Alabama for the march on Montgomery, led by Martin Luther King in 1965. But shortly after the historic Voting Rights March had ended, she was shot in the head and killed by a car full of Klansmen, while driving on a deserted highway.

Liuzzo's death came at a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, when President Johnson had been fighting an uphill battle to push the Voting Rights Act through Congress. Her murder is attributed by historians of the era as providing the final piece of leverage that won Johnson approval of the Act in Congress, which forever changed our political landscape.

Why do we not know the story of Viola Luizzo, while nearly everyone has heard of Goodman, Schwerner and Cheney -- the three rights workers killed the year before in Mississippi? The reasons are complex, and won't be found in history books. Immediately following her murder, Liuzzo became the target of a smear campaign, mounted by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, as a means of diverting attention from the fact that a key FBI informant was in the car with Liuzzo's killers. This discrediting of her name -- mostly based on her gender and wholly unfounded -- succeeded in erasing Viola Liuzzo from our cultural memory. After delving through thousands of pages of government documents and filming interviews with leaders in the fields of politics, history and forensics psychology, the filmmakers shed a new light on this complicated, buried story.

Parallel to the Civil Rights struggle for which Viola lost her life is the present-day journey of her five children. Mary, the middle daughter, decides to retrace her mother's road trip from Detroit to Selma with the filmmakers. In the mid-60s she was an angry kid in the midst of a personal rebellion with her mother. The trauma of her sudden death caused her to bury any memories of her mother. Instead, she found herself reliving only the details of her gruesome death and its tumultuous aftermath. Now as an adult, she's ready to bring her back into consciousness. What she finds in Selma is both surprising and profoundly healing.

Her brothers Tony and Tommy, who as boys felt the weight of it all on their shoulders, were eventually hit the hardest. Theirs is a path routed in turmoil, resulting largely from repeated failed attempts to vindicate their mother and seek justice their family. Their lives have been torn apart by what they see as a betrayal of their government, and after decades of fighting, they've each resigned themselves to their own form of refuge, which disconnects them from their sisters and the rest of the world.

DVD / 2003 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 75 minutes

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

A rousing account of the 2002 World Social Forum that will inspire activists everywhere.

What if 51,000 people from 131 countries put their heads together to discuss what is wrong with the world and how to work together to change it? In early 2002, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, public officials, representatives of non-governmental organizations, indigenous nations, farmers, and labor -- including 11,000 young people -- gathered for the World Social Forum. Called in response to the elite gathering of the World Economic Forum in New York, this week of workshops, panel discussions, and high-spirited demonstrations was inspirational for those attending.

The international event, covered extensively by the media in other parts of the world, was virtually ignored by the US press. ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE presents a sampling of the issues and events at this enormous and creative gathering. Amongst the speakers featured are Naomi Klein, Vandana Shiva, Kevin Danaher, Wolfgang Sachs, and Rigoberta Menchu. This documentary impression of the gathering gives hope to US activists that, despite the media blackout, the movement for social justice is alive and well around the world.

DVD (Color) / 2002 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 24 minutes

DROWNED OUT: WE CAN'T WISH THEM AWAY

An Indian family chooses to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam.

Resettlement site or stay at home and drown.

The people of Jalsindhi in central India must make a decision fast. In the next few weeks, their village will disappear underwater as the giant Narmada Dam fills.

Bestselling author Arundhati Roy joins the fight against the dam and asks the difficult questions. Will the water go to poor farmers or to rich industrialists? What happened to the 16 million people displaced by fifty years of dam building? Why should I care?

DROWNED OUT follows the Jalsindhi villagers through hunger strikes, rallies, police brutality and a six-year Supreme Court case. It stays with them as the dam fills and the river starts to rise...

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2002 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 75 minutes

LIFE: THE SUMMIT

The UN General Assembly meets to review progress on social justice worldwide.

The 1995 Copenhagen Social Summit promised action on poverty, employment and social integration -- pledging governments to deliver greater social justice to the world's six billion inhabitants. But in the five years since Copenhagen, the gap between the rich and the poor actually widened, while development assistance from the industrialized donor countries went into sharp decline.

In June 2000 heads of state held a special session of the UN General Assembly to review progress on the Social Summit. Government leaders gathered in Geneva -- the city where Jean Jacques Rousseau first conceived the idea of a 'social contract' -- for what was to become known as the 'Justice Summit.'

This program brings together some key players in the debate -- from both developing and developed countries: Eveline Herfkens, Minister for Development Cooperation in the Dutch government; Nitan Desai, Under Secretary General for Economic & Social Affairs and Faith Innerarity from the Jamaican government delegation, as well as the heads of UN agencies from around the world.

DVD (Color) / 2000 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 24 minutes

MAN WE CALLED JUAN CARLOS, THE

Chronicles the violent history of Guatemala and life of Wenceslao Armira, a Mayan father, farmer, teacher, guerilla, priest and champion of human rights.

Wenceslao Armira, the man we called "Juan Carlos," was a farmer, teacher, guerilla, priest-and father of two children murdered by death squads.

This film is the extraordinary story of an 'ordinary' Mayan from the highlands of Guatemala, who, in unexpected ways, affected the lives of the filmmakers for over 25 years, as they recorded his life. A very personal story, it explores the intersection of disparate lives, North and South, through coincidence and timing, across borders, and history. The life of "Juan Carlos" raises difficult questions about all of our connection to human rights, and social justice, and how we choose to make a difference in the world.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2000 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 52 minutes

http://www.learningemall.com/News/Social_Justice_1901.html

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fatehbaz · 5 years

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Notes on “indigenous ontologies of land” and how Western conservation fails to adequately acknowledge that commodification of land simultaneously relies on and propagates the extermination of indigeneity

When settler-colonial property regimes are put into relation with Marx, Luxemburg, and Harvey, I argue there is one more extension needed. Moore and Harvey allow us to establish that every act of appropriation is also inherently an act of disposession. (...)

A dense temperate rainforest, buttressed by an ocean on one side an a sea of rolling hills, mountains, lakes, and rivers on the other, is a pristine environment through which to understand capital’s exterminism in action, for the only way for humans to produce anything that is not already in production in a rainforest is to halt the ongoingness of nonhuman ecological production. Humans, after all, are not the only “productivores,” but our productive systems (at least following the rise of the European capitalist world-economy), unlike nonhuman productivores, rely upon the systemic destruction of space and place. (...)

Settler colonial production of space often rests upon the destruction of place. For the Yurok, and most any indigenous community, the destruction of place is the destruction of their indigeneity. Simply put, settler colonialism is a system that destroys in order to build. It is, as mentioned earlier, a violent world-ecological revolution, or when land and resource management create long-run “ecological surpluses” that can be subsumed into the capitalist world-ecology. Capitalism, in this perspective, is its own place-making and environment-making regime. (...)

In appropriating land, bodies, and resources from ‘places’ – which we understand to be spaces invested with human meaning – there is also an ‘unmaking of place’, a systemic underdevelopment of existing human meaning – indigenous human meaning. It is localized underdevelopment that settler colonial property regimes have historically required. (...)

Spatial relations within the settler-colonial matrix of territoriality constitutes an eliminatory production of space, or what I have referred to as the negative production of space. There is perhaps no better example than European Enlightenment-fueled scientific forestry. The practices of early scientific forest management in redwood country, and their historical connection to settler colonial property regimes point to scientific forest management, or silviculture, as an inherently destructive enterprise. Just as settler colonialism seeks to ‘destroy to replace’, silviculture – as it was applied in the redwood rainforest until roughly the late 1980s - was a practice that was infected with the “pathology of command-and-control management in the natural resources.” Further, the Treaties of Indian Removal (1830s-1850s) and Reservation (1850s-1890s), as well as policies of Assimilation and Indian self-rule (1870s-1950s) ultimately are what made scientific forestry possible in northwestern California, while also beginning a cycle of alienation that would continue unabated.

Even for the proverbial map-gazing geographer, land is a conceptually and ecologically unstable subject, made evident by the ongoing contradictions in how it is understood in settler colonial and indigenous perspectives. One of the great deceits of the Western intellectual tradition – undoubtedly unintentionally for the most part – is the rather unflinching tendency to pay only slight attention to indigenous ontologies of land and place, while taking the reigning capitalist standpoint as the default position. During the period of settler colonial invasion of northwestern California, the clashing worldviews of the settler and the Indian on the phenomenon of land were brought into close and chaotic relation. Scientific capitalism, or what some have simply called modernity, and its cold adherence to nature as a wild beast to be brought under the domination of man, required new ways of getting land to behave in a profitable manner.

Christopher R. Cox - Department of Geography, University of Washington. “Settler Colonial Property Regimes and the Negative Production of Space.” 18 December 2018.

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learningrendezvous · 7 years

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Criminal Justice

TRIBAL JUSTICE

Directed by Anne Makepeace

Documents an effective criminal justice reform movement in America: the efforts of tribal courts to return to traditional, community-healing concepts of justice.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 87 minutes

DR. FEELGOOD: DEALER OR HEALER?

Directed by Eve Marson

The case of Dr. William Hurwitz educates audiences on the complexities involved in opioid painkiller prescriptions.

The story of Dr. William Hurwitz - a preeminent pain specialist sentenced to 25 years in prison for drug trafficking - provides a window into the ethical dilemma of opioid prescriptions. Painkillers give doctors tremendous power to relieve pain, a primary goal of any physician. But this power begets trouble when the same drugs can lead to addiction, abuse and death.

In 2004 Dr. William Hurwitz was convicted of over 50 counts of narcotics distribution and handed a 25-year prison sentence. DR. FEELGOOD traces Dr. Hurwitz's trial and eventual appeal, detailing the events that led to his arrest.

Testimonies from the witnesses in Dr. Hurwitz's case contradict one another - some revere him, while others condemn him. Taken together, their accounts reveal a profile of a compassionate yet flawed doctor. The film, in telling his story, underscores the tension between every patient's right to pain relief and the lawful need for drug control. There could not be a more critical time to spark discussion on the topic, and call for careful thought and action.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10 - 12, College, Adults) / 84 minutes

INCARCERATING US

Directed by Regan Hines

Exposes America's prison problem and explores various criminal justice reforms.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 84 minutes

RETURN, THE

Directed by Kelly Duane de la Vega, Katie Galloway

After California's "Three Strikes" law was amended, thousands of lifers were suddenly freed, but re-entry presented problems for the lifers, their families and their communities.

In 2012, California amended its "Three Strikes" law--one of the harshest criminal sentencing policies in the country. The passage of Prop. 36 marked the first time in U.S. history that citizens voted to shorten sentences of those currently incarcerated. Within days the reintegration of thousands of "lifers" was underway.

THE RETURN examines this unprecedented reform through the eyes of those on the front lines--prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down, reentry providers helping navigate complex transitions, and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law. At a moment of reckoning on mass incarceration, what can California's experiment teach the nation?

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, Adults) / 84 minutes

EL POETA

Directed by Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega

After his only son is murdered in the Mexican drug war, a mystic poet launches an international crusade to save his country.

EL POETA tells the story of renowned Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, who ignited mass protests and an ongoing movement for peace after the brutal murder of his 24-year-old son Juan Francisco - collateral damage in a drug war that has left 60,000+ dead since 2006 - the majority civilians.

Drawing on the philosophical, artistic and spiritual dimensions of Sicilia and his movement, EL POETA reinterprets the "hard news" horror story of the Mexican drug war as a deeply personal, poetic and at times even hopeful one, tracing Sicilia's path from poet and father to movement leader and international symbol of grief and redemption.

DVD / 2015 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 55 minutes

WHEN JUSTICE ISN'T JUST

Director: David Massey

Directed by Oscar-nominated and NAACP Image Award winner David Massey, this dynamic documentary features legal experts, local activists, and law enforcement officers delving into ongoing charges of inequality, unfair practices, and politicized manipulations of America's judicial system. Additionally, the Black Lives Matter movement and citizens nationwide question the staggering number of police shootings of unarmed Black men and women.

DVD / 2015 / 40 minutes

KNOW HOW

Director: Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza

Written and acted by young people in New York City's foster care system, Know How presents dramatic stories ripped from their own life experiences. Five characters' worlds intersect as they confront loss, heartbreak, adulthood, and bureaucracy in this tale about transience and perseverance.

Addie lives with her Aunt Janet in what's known as "kinship" care; her biological parent is unfit to care for her. Addie's closest friends are from her block: Juice, a drug dealer, and Marie, a girl on the verge of spiraling out of control.

Marie's grandmother has been in the hospital for months now and the prognosis is bleak. Her boyfriend Trey takes care of her as best he can, but both of them are struggling in the foster system.

When the Administration for Children's services (ACS) finds out that Megan's been physically and sexually abused they remove her from her family. Separated from her sister Kayla, she's placed in a treatment facility that is anything but safe.

Eva only has one more year of school, and yet her sister Desi cannot seem to find the time to attend classes. When ACS discovers their father's crack addiction, the family is torn apart.

Austin and his brother James have been living on the street-hungry for a good meal. Desperate, they resort to petty crimes to survive, but soon find themselves embroiled in a turf war that's bigger than they are.

Know How captures the reality of life in foster care from the point of view of those living in it. It's not a documentary nor is it fiction. It's a hybrid approach for using film to create social change. Instead of professional screenwriters and actors, these true stories are written and performed by a cast of ordinary foster care youth, and their performances are powerful, moving, and eye-opening. KNOW HOW is also a musical that brings authentic voices and unseen stories to the screen, and emerged from the efforts of The Possibility Project, a non-profit organization in NYC that brings teenagers together to transform the negative forces in their lives into positive action through projects like this one.

Why make a film by young people in foster care? Because the system doesn't work and the human cost of its dysfunction is too great to ignore. Consider this: a few years after aging out of foster care, only 50% of young people will complete high school or a GED, 60% will be convicted of a crime, 75% will receive public assistance, and only 6% will complete a college degree. The system needs to change.

DVD / 2014 / 106 minutes

FACING FEAR

Directed by Jason Cohen

A former neo-Nazi skinhead and the gay victim of his hate crime meet by chance 25 years later, are reconciled and collaborate in educational presentations.

In this Academy Award-nominated short documentary, worlds collide when a former neo-Nazi skinhead and the gay victim of his hate crime attack meet by chance 25 years after the incident that dramatically shaped both of their lives. Together, they embark on a journey of forgiveness that challenges both to grapple with their beliefs and fears, eventually leading to an improbable collaboration...and friendship.

FACING FEAR retraces the haunting accounts of the attack and the startling revelation that brought these men together again. Delving deep into their backgrounds, the roots of the ideologies that shape how they handle the reconciliation process are exposed. Self-doubt, anger and fear are just a few of the emotions they struggle through as they come to terms with their unimaginable situation.

DVD / 2013 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 23 minutes

TRICKED

Director: Jane Wells & John-Keith Wasson

Modern-day slavery is alive and well in the United States, as thousands of victims are trafficked across the country to satisfy America's $3-billion-a-year sex trafficking industry. Meet the pimps, the johns, the police, the parents and the victims of the thriving sex trade in Tricked, a comprehensive and daring documentary that uncovers one of America's darkest secrets.

DVD / 2013 / 75 minutes

UNREAL DREAM, AN

Director: Al Reinert

From Oscar-nominated director Al Reinert, An Unreal Dream is the terrifying true story of Michael Morton, who spent over two decades in Texas prisons for a crime he didn't commit.

In 1986, Christine Morton was brutally murdered in front of their only child. After Michael was accused and convicted his son Eric, only three at the time, was raised by family members and eventually cut off all contact with the father he believed had killed his mother.

The Innocence Project, in partnership with John Raley, a Texas attorney working on his first ever criminal case, spent years fighting for DNA testing and investigating possible prosecutorial misconduct in Michael's case. Twenty-five years after the murder, DNA analysis of a bloody blue bandana found near the crime scene not only cleared Michael, but yielded a hit on a known felon who has since been charged with the murder of Christine Morton, along with the murder of another young woman two years later.

Upon his release in late 2011, Michael riveted the outside world with his lack of bitterness or anger. Instead, he reached out to his estranged son, and focused his newfound freedom on the fight for reform. An Unreal Dream tells his story, and sheds needed light on America's flawed criminal justice system.

DVD / 2013 / 92 minutes

VALENTINE ROAD

Directed by Marta Cunningham

In 2008, eighth-grader Brandon McInerney shot classmate Larry King at point blank range. Unraveling this tragedy, the film reveals the heartbreaking circumstances that led to the shocking crime as well as the aftermath.

On February 12, 2008, in an Oxnard, California, classroom, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney shot classmate Larry King twice; Larry died of the wounds two days later. Larry (Leticia), a gender-variant youth of color, had liked to wear makeup and heels to school, and had publicly announced a crush on McInerney. For this reason, some of McInerney's defenders say the victim had "embarrassed" the shooter--and was therefore at least partly to blame for his own murder.

VALENTINE ROAD is about an outrageous crime and an even more outrageous defense of it, but the film goes much deeper than mere outrage. In the end, it's the story of two victims of homophobia. Larry was killed because of it, but Brandon's life was horribly twisted by it as well. And it's the story of a community's response--sometimes inspirational and sometimes cruel--to a terrible tragedy.

Filmmaker Marta Cunningham deftly looks beyond the sensational aspects of the murder, introducing us to Larry's friends, teachers and guardians, as well as Brandon's loved ones--both children had led difficult lives. In examining Brandon's prosecution and defense, the documentary poses difficult questions about punishing juveniles for serious crimes, while exposing society's pervasive and deadly intolerance of young people who don't conform to its gender "norms."

VALENTINE ROAD brilliantly focuses on how bigotry and prejudice are community-wide problems, rather than only the acts of individuals. It asks how schools can respond to the the full complexity of students' lives, and support students in crisis before tragedy strikes.

DVD / 2013 / (Grades 8-12, College, Adult) / 88 minutes

MUMIA: LONG DISTANCE REVOLUTIONARY

Director: Stephen Vittoria

Before he was convicted of murdering a policeman in 1981 and sentenced to die, Mumia Abu-Jamal was a gifted journalist and brilliant writer. Now after more than 30 years in prison and despite attempts to silence him, Mumia is not only still alive but continuing to report, educate, provoke and inspire.

Stephen Vittoria's new feature documentary is an inspiring portrait of a man whom many consider America's most famous political prisoner - a man whose existence tests our beliefs about freedom of expression. Through prison interviews, archival footage, and dramatic readings, and aided by a potent chorus of voices including Cornel West, Alice Walker, Dick Gregory, Angela Davis, Amy Goodman and others, this riveting film explores Mumia's life before, during and after Death Row - revealing, in the words of Angela Davis, "the most eloquent and most powerful opponent of the death penalty in the world...the 21st Century Frederick Douglass."

DVD-R / 2012 / 120 minutes

PROSECUTION OF AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT, THE

Directors: David J. Burke, Dave Hagen

This electrifying film documents the efforts of Vincent Bugliosi, one of our nation's foremost prosecutors, as he presents his case that former president George W. Bush should be prosecuted for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq because he deliberately took our nation to war under false pretenses.

Based on Bugliosi's New York Times bestseller, the movie discloses shocking hidden details of how Bush and his people systematically lied to Congress and the country. He shows incontrovertible evidence that Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al committed a monumental crime under our constitution and the laws of this land. He leads us through a legal understanding of what is needed to bring a formal prosecution, setting the stage for what would be the biggest and most important trial in U.S. history.

DVD / 2012 / 100 minutes

BETTER THIS WORLD

Directed by Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega

The story of two young Texans accused of intending to firebomb the 2008 Republican National Convention reveals the workings of the post 9/11 security state.

DVD / 2011 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 89 minutes

IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT

Directed by Marshall Curry

DVD / 2011 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 85 minutes

DHAMMA BROTHERS, THE

Directed by Jenny Phillips, Anne Marie Stein and Andrew Kukura

An overcrowded maximum-security prison is dramatically changed by the influence of an ancient meditation program.

Behind the high security towers and double row of barbed wire and electrical fence at Donaldson Correction Facility dwells a host of convicts who will never see the light of day. But for some of these men, a spark is ignited when it becomes the first maximum-security prison in North America to hold an extended Vipassana retreat, an emotionally and physically demanding course of silent meditation lasting ten days.

The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely follows and documents the stories of the prison inmates who enter into this arduous and intensive program. This film, with the power to dismantle stereotypes about men behind prison bars also, in the words of Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking), "gives you hope for the human race."

DVD (Color) / 2007 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 76 minutes

http://www.learningemall.com/News/Criminal_Justice_1709.html

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