Necessity: Climate Justice and the Thin Green Line

In the course of screening Necessity: Oil, Water & Climate Resistance at schools, activist events, and festivals, the team began production on a second part, titled Necessity: Climate Justice and the Thin Green Line. Also feature-length, the film is set along the rivers of Oregon and follows activists as they enlist the necessity defense in a jury trial after being arrested for a direct action at Zenith Energy in Portland. This story of climate resistance in the Pacific Northwest brings into view a historical landscape of tribal leaders, Indigenous activists and white allies as they resist oil trains and trucks carrying these highly inflammable products through treaty lands. In following the path of oil-by-rail and oil resistance along the Columbia, we revisit lessons of the New Deal era of building massive dams and what climate activists take from that era in thinking about a Green New Deal.

Click here to view the first Necessity film. Purchase both films in the series together for an automatic 20% discount on purchase.

           

From refugee camps, shelters, war zones and mental hospitals to drag bars and hip-hop clubs, Jan Haaken’s documentary films focus on people and places on the social margins, drawing out their insights on the world around them. As a psychologist and documentarian, Haaken weaves research and historical analyses into rich and vividly drawn landscapes that represent the perspectives of her subjects. Through the lens of psychology, she takes intimate conversations with people in crisis into wider social vistas, bringing forces on the periphery of the action into focus.

        
Jan Haaken is professor emeritus of psychology at Portland State University, a clinical psychologist, and documentary filmmaker.

        

    

Sam Praus is a queer, latinx documentary filmmaker & researcher based in Portland, OR. Her most recent projects include feature-length documentaries, NECESSITY (Co-director), OUR BODIES OUR DOCTORS (Assistant Director). With a background in Cultural Anthropology, she also works with local and national government agencies on public health research projects. She currently works as a consultant at KGW Media Group.