A news anchor reports while graphic news coverage of a terrorist car bomb attack in 1990 in Oakland, CA is shown. Two Earth First! activists are immediately blamed by the FBI for bombing themselves. We learn that the victim/suspects Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney have later sued the FBI and Oakland Police and that Judi Bari is now dying of cancer before her case goes to trial. Weak though defiant, she gives her deposition, on camera, just a month before she dies.
This action-packed journey unfolds in the order Judi testified, questioned by civil rights attorney Dennis Cunningham. The archival footage brings the story to life, driven by music from the Earth First! movement. Judi Bari, an eloquent, brash orator with a union background, grows into a powerful environmental leader. Story threads and character arcs intertwine: the lawsuit against the FBI, the complex history of Earth First!, the loggers, the controversy of tree spiking, the political/romantic partnership of Judi and Darryl, and the fate of the ancient redwoods.
| Directed by | Mary Liz Thomson |
