Buy Ticket
Synopsis:
In 2004, a generation of activists arose in South Florida, carrying the passion of direct action groups like Earth First! and the deep analysis of the global justice movement that had swept the country in the preceding years. They sought local issues that exemplified the threats of corporate globalization which they had traveled all over the country protesting at free trade summits, political conventions and industry conferences.
They stumbled upon a plan from biotech industry giants acting in collusion with the administration of then-Governor Jeb Bush to clear a vast swath of land in the Northeast Everglades of Florida to accommodate The Scripps Biotech Research Institute... And it was on.
Over the next ten years, endless county zoning meetings were counter-balanced by dozens of civil disobedience arrests and a near-constant flow of news headlines about the battle: lawsuits, scandal, corruption, gag-orders, tree sits, the loss of endangered species, pranks, blockades, sabotage, and a roller coaster of incremental victories followed by devastating losses for years on end.
Director Biography - Suki DeJong
Suki co-produced her first documentary film, THE RACE TO SAVE MASSACHUSETTS BAY in 1989, while completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Massachusetts College of Art. In 2006, Suki graduated from the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking in Sedona, AZ, and then went on to study at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia.
In 2006, she wrote, produced and directed, ALL APOLOGIES, which was a selection in the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, and won several awards at local film festivals around Florida for best Short Documentary. ALL APOLOGIES takes a riveting look at the death of a 24-year-old young man, which was attributed to a relatively unknown club drug (and popular rape drug) GHB, gamma hydroxy butyrate.
Her latest documentary film, THE STORY OF A FOREST, has been 8 years in the making. At 38 minutes long, it recounts of the efforts of an environmental group who set out to
save a 700-acre forest from being bulldozed by the fast-growing and seemingly innocent
biotech industry. Filmed in South Florida, this documentary provides a look at the current tactics being used by young environmentalists today who are disenchanted with the world they’re being handed. The young activists interviewed used nearly every tool in the anarchist toolbox to stop the bulldozers: street protests; running topless through 4-star hotels in Palm Beach; a 6-week long tree sit inside the forest; endless “paper wrenching” including 2 lawsuits; locking themselves to a van to block construction and to stop destruction of the forest. The goal of the film is bring awareness to the importance of saving coastal forests, and all forests, in the wake of the current climate crisis the world over.
Suki is the owner of Shifting Sands Pictures.