JUSTICE WARRIORS IN DOC FILMS

By Mabel Pais

MICHAEL MOORE’S FREE GIFT IN COVID TIMES

Vandana Shiva, physicist, social activist
Photo / Rumble Media/planetofthehumans.com
“I think the BIG CRISES of our time is (that) our minds have been manipulated to give power to ILLUSIONS. We shifted to measuring growth, not in terms of how LIFE is enriched, but in terms of how life is DESTROYED.” – Vandana Shiva, Indian Physicist-Social Activist
“As we suffer through one health and environmental crisis after another, it is clear we can no longer simply solar-panel-and-windmill our way out of this emergency.” -Michael Moore & Jeff Gibbs, Filmmakers

 

 

“PLANET OF THE HUMANS”

FILM ASKS HARD QUESTIONS ABOUT  FAILURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT TO HALT CLIMATE CHANGE AND SAVE PLANET

Michael Moore, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker, on April 21, the eve of Earth Day,  released a new documentary film on his RUMBLE Media label – and continues to offer it as a free gift in the midst of the global pandemic. “Planet of the Humans” is directed by filmmaker and environmentalist Jeff Gibbs.

Moore and Gibbs decided that with the American public – and much of the world – confined to their homes and suddenly having to consider the role humans and their behavior have played in our fragile ecosystems, the moment was urgent for the film’s release.

Released on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic, “Planet of the Humans” takes a harsh look at how the environmental movement has lost the battle through well-meaning but disastrous choices, including the belief that solar panels and windmills would save us, and by giving in to the corporate interests of Wall Street.

Directed by Jeff Gibbs and Executive Produced by Moore, the film examines if we’ve been on the “wrong road” with so-called “green energy” that is anything but green.

Abandoned Wind Power Turbine Ruins
Photo / Rumble Media/planetofthehumans.com

“We have ignored the warnings, and instead all sorts of so-called leaders have steered us away from the real solutions that might save us,” says Moore, who holds the all-time box office record for documentaries. “This movie takes no prisoners and exposes the truth about how we have been led ASTRAY in the fight to save the planet, to the point where if we don’t reverse course right now, events like the current pandemic will become numerous, devastating and insurmountable. The feel-good experience of this movie is that we actually have the smarts and the will to not let this happen – but only if we immediately launch a new environmental uprising.”

Jeff Gibbs, the writer/editor/director of “Planet of the Humans”, has dared to say what no one will – that “we are losing the battle to stop climate change because we are following environmental leaders, many of whom are well-intentioned, but who’ve sold out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America.” This film is the wake-up call to the reality which we are afraid to face: that in the midst of a human-caused extinction event, the so-called “environmental movement’s” answer is to push for techno-fixes and band-aids. “It’s too little, too late,” says Gibbs. “Removed from the debate is the only thing that ‘might’ save us: getting a grip on our out-of-control human presence and consumption. Why is this not ‘the’ issue? Because that would be bad for profits, bad for business.”

“Have we environmentalists fallen for illusions, ‘green’ illusions, that are anything but green, because we’re scared that this is the end — and we’ve pinned all our hopes on things like solar panels and wind turbines? No amount of batteries are going to save us, and that is the urgent warning of this film.”

This compelling, must-see movie – a full-frontal assault on our sacred cows – is guaranteed to generate anger, debate, and, hopefully, a willingness to see our survival in a new way—before it’s too late.

The podcast has now amassed more than 9 million downloads in its first four months.

To watch the film and for more information, visit planetofthehumans.com

Key Credits:

Jeff Gibbs, Writer, Editor, Director

Ozzie Zehner, Producer

Michael Moore, Executive Producer

Length: 1h 40m

 

“ADVOCATE”

“With their Sundance-premiering ADVOCATE they’ve (the filmmakers) created an in-the-trenches portrait of this unapologetic firebrand… A remarkable character. A warrior for justice who’s spent her entire adult life taking punch after punch, she forever gets up undaunted to fight another day.”-  Filmmaker Magazine

“For us, socially and politically engaged filmmakers, her rebellious spirit and radical zeal were an inspiration. But we could never do what Lea does; most people couldn’t.”-   Rachel Leah Jones & Philippe Bellaiche, Directors-Producers

A. Lea Tsemel counsels a Palestinian client
Photo / Home Made Docs

“Advocate” documentary coming to POV Monday, July 27

Oscar®-shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature and   PGA-nominated for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures

With power and purpose, Israeli attorney Lea Tsemel champions the fight for Palestinian rights

Lea Tsemel defends Palestinians: from feminists to fundamentalists, from non-violent demonstrators to armed militants. As a Jewish-Israeli lawyer who has represented political prisoners for five decades, Tsemel, in her tireless quest for justice, pushes the praxis of a human rights defender to its limits.

As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she’s more than an attorney, she’s an advocate.

”ADVOCATE” follows Tsemel’s caseload in real-time, including the high-profile trial of a 13-year-old boy — her youngest client to date — while also revisiting her landmark cases and reflecting on the political and professional significance of her work as well as the personal price one pays for assuming the role of “devil’s advocate.”

Rachael Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche first met Lea 25 years ago. By then, the once anonymous firebrand law student who, after the 1967 war, had fearlessly distributed flyers on campus warning her fellow Israelis to end the occupation or risk a vicious cycle of violence — was already a household name.

For the filmmaker duo, a year of documenting was like gathering a lifetime of evidence. This evidence attests not only to the wrongs of occupation but also to the faults of those who try to resist it, the failings of those who try to defend them, and the fundamental flaws of a legal system that purports to serve justice but in fact serves the powers that be.

Tsemel spoke truth to power before the term became trendy and she’ll continue to do so after fear makes it unfashionable. As such, she’s a model we’re hard-pressed to preserve in Israel/Palestine, and elsewhere.

On the one hand, she’s the boy calling the Emperor naked, i.e. exposing the underbelly of Israeli security jurisprudence: the occupier is judging the occupied. On the other hand, she’s the boy with his finger in the dam, doing her utmost to uphold the rule-of-law before the flood of injustice drowns us all. As one military court judge once put it: “If Lea Tsemel didn’t exist, we’d have to invent her.”

Unlike the seminal works of recent years (“The Law in These Parts”, “The Gatekeepers”, “Censored Voices”), this is a female-centered story. Lea is almost always the only woman, or the only leftist, or the only Jew — in the room. For the past two decades, the filmmakers have watched Lea work with a mixture of awe and admiration, marveling at the fact that interrogators still infuriate her, prosecutors still madden her, judges still frustrate her, verdicts still disappoint her — and clients still break her heart.

KEY CREDITS

Directed by Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaiche

Produced by Philippe Bellaiche, Rachel Leah Jones // Home Made Docs Plus Several Independent Producers

Length: 1hour 48minutes

(Mabel Pais writes on Social Issues, The Arts and Entertainment, Health & Wellness, and Spirituality)

 

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