Join filmmaker Bernadine Mellis for a showing of her "The Forest for the Trees," an intimate, behind-the scenes documentary that looks at an unlikely team of young activists and old lefties who come together to battle the U.S. government.
Bernadine Mellis is the daughter of civil rights lawyer Dennis Cunningham, who started out his career representing the Black Panthers and the Weathermen.
Judi Bari was an Earth First! leader who was one of the first to place as much importance on the legacy and future of the trees as she did on timber workers' lives and families. But that strategic relationship was too much of a threat. Her car was bombed in 1990, and three hours later, she was arrested as a terrorist--charges that were later dropped. Convinced it was a ploy by the FBI to discredit her and Earth First! Judi decided to sue.
Cunningham took on Judi's case and after 12 years, Judi Bari v. the FBI finally gets a court date. Knowing this is one of her father's most significant cases, Mellis is there at strategy meetings, at breakfast, driving to and from the court, documenting her morally driven, tired dad. Not your typical "Take your daughter to work day," this film offers access to a piece of U.S. history that everyday grows increasingly resonant.
Free! Everyone welcome!
For more on the film, see http://www.redbirdfilms.com/BariFilm.html
Cosponsored by the Vermont Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and Black Sheep Books