Dispatch #2 of Stop the Flows focuses on burgeoning anti-nuke movement in Japan, following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Truth be told I had larger plans for this dispatch. But with time and resources lacking, I could only scratch the surface of not just the anti-nuke movement, but of the anarchist and activist scene in Japan. So what you see here is nearly a glimpse into the world of the folks who will end nuclear power in Japan for good.
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END:CIV; kültürümüzün sistematik şiddete ve çevresel sömürüye olan bağımlılığını inceliyor ve sonuçta zehirlenen tabiatı ve savaş bunalımındaki ulusları derinlemesine araştırıyor. Derrick Jensen’in Endgame (Oyun Sonu) adlı kitabına dayanan END:CIV izleyiciye şu soruyu soruyor: “Yaşadığınız topraklar, ormanları kesen, suyu ve havayı kirleten ve besin kaynaklarınızı zehirleyen yaratıklar tarafından işgal edilseydi, direnir miydiniz?”… Uygarlıkların çökmelerinin altında yatan nedenleri genellikle kaynakların aşırı kullanımına dayanır. Bunu yazarken, dünya ekonomik kaos, petrolün zirvesi, iklim değişikliği, çevresel yıkım ve politik karışıklıkla sendeliyor. Hergün, manşetler skandal hikayelerini ve kamu güvensizliğini temcit pilavı gibi ısıtıp ısıtıp önümüze koyuyor. Şu anki küresel sistemin sonuna dair öfkeli taleplerde bulunmamız gerekmiyor – çünkü çok yakında çökecek gibi görünüyor. Ancak, en çok hasar görmüş yerlerde bile cesaret, merhamet ve özgecilik eylemleri kaynıyor. Savaş ve baskının ağır etkilerine maruz kalmış insanların dirençliliğini ve ilerleyen krizle yüzleşmek için öne atılanların kahramanlıklarını belgeleyerek, END:CIV bu herşeyi tüketen çılgınlığın dışında makul bir geleceğe ışık tutar. Jensen’in anlatımı ile desteklenmiş film bizleri bu toprakları gerçekten seviyorsak eyleme geçmeye çağırıyor. Film, küresel ekonomik sistemin çözümlemesini yapmak için müziği, arşivsel metrajı, hareketli grafikleri, animasyonu, güldürüyü ve hicvi de kullanarak enerjik bir tempoda ilerliyor. END:CIV, Jensen’in şiirsel ve sezgisel yaklaşımıyla örtüşen birinci elden fedakarlık ve kahramanlık hikayelerini dikkatle ve duygusal olarak heyecanla yansıtıyor. Taşrada çekilmiş ekran görüntüleri korkunç ama olağan yıkımın traşlama kanıtının yanısıra kesici doğal güzelliğin perde arkasını gözler önüne seriyor.

It’s been a whirlwind of a year for me. I started touring with END:CIV almost a year ago so far I’ve personally shown it over 100 times. Yep, that’s more than 100 Q and A sessions in four countries and in four languages. I’ve traveled over 40,000 KM by foot, bike, boats, van, buses, jets and trains. Online views of END:CIV are close to 80,000 on multiple platforms and grassroots screenings keep popping up every month. So far I’ve posted 9 translations on the website with a few more in the coming weeks including Turkish, Mandarin, Cantonese and Indonesian. All in all I consider this 5 year project a success.

My newest project has the working title of Stop the Flows. Over the next five years I will document resistance movements that are working towards stopping the flows of hydro carbons, mineral extraction, natural resources and capital, through grassroots and underground organizing. I will publish the dispatches as I complete them with the goal of compiling them into a feature length documentary to be released on 2016.

The first dispatch took me to Central BC where Unis’toten nation are pre-empting the construction of 4 oil and gas pipelines through their traditional territories. You can watch that here. The next dispatch will focus on the growing opposition to an oil pipeline expansion right here where I live in Vancouver. In December I will compile the hours of interviews and footage I gathered while in Japan, for a dispatch spotlighting the growing grassroots anti-nuke movement. In January I hope to travel to Australia to continue touring and gathering material for Stop the Flows and ditto goes for Europe in the spring.

So this is my pitch and appeal for financial support. As you may or may not know, subMedia does no receive money from foundations, corporations or governments. This fact has kept our media truly independent and rogue, videos that don’t mince words or tap dance around the issues. I feel the this type of unfiltered media is crucial in these times, when we are witnessing increased suppression of dissent, but also the birth of a global revolutionary movement.

With that said, consider donating a few bucks to subMedia. The goal is to raise $10,000 by the end of the year to push these projects through the winter.

Thanks again for supporting radical media!

frank

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END:CIV は、私達の文化が常習的に繰り返す組織的な暴力と環境破壊についてのドキュメンタリーだ。その結果として生み出されるのは、汚染された大地と、精神に動揺を来した国家である。デリック･ジェンセンの著作『エンドゲーム（最終局面）』に部分的に依拠しながら、 END:CIV は次のような質問を見る者に投げかける。「エイリアンが故郷を侵略して木々を切り倒し、水と空気そして食料を汚染したとしたら、あなたは抵抗するだろうか。」

文明の崩壊の原因を辿れば、多くの場合、資源の過剰な消費という要因にたどり着く。経済の混乱、石油の枯渇、気候変動、環境の悪化などの問題によって、世界は不安定な状態に陥っている。新聞や雑誌の見出しに日々踊るのは、人々の期待への裏切りとスキャンダルの物語だ。だが現在のグローバル･システムの終焉を怒りとともに要求する必要などない。システムは、既に崩壊しつつあるのだから。

最悪の被害をこうむった場所にさえ、勇気と共感、そして利他主義の行動の輪は広がっている。戦争と不況の最大の被害者が立ち直る姿、そして真正面からこの危機に立ち向かう人々の勇気ある行為を映し出すことで、 END:CIV は全てを消費しつくそうとする狂気からの脱出と、より健全な未来への道のりを照らし出す。

デリック･ジェンセンの主張を根拠に、このドキュメンタリーは見る者に、この大地への本当の愛を求めてくる。矢継ぎ早に進行しながら、音楽や過去の映像、モーショングラフィックス、アニメーション、ユーモアや皮肉を巧みに散りばめる事で、私達の身の回りで内部崩壊しているグローバルな経済システムを、このドキュメンタリーは解体しようとしているのである。 END:CIV は当事者の犠牲や勇気ある行動を取り上げ、そこに強烈な、感情をかきたてる映像を加えることで、ジェンセンの詩的で直感的なアプローチと絶妙の調和を示している。未開地で撮影された映像は、日常的に起こっている恐ろしい破壊行為の明白な証拠であるとともに、息を呑むような自然の美しさという一服の清涼剤を与えてくれる。

END:CIVでインタビューに応じてくれた関係者は以下の通りである。
ポール･ワトソン、ワジヤタウィン、ゴード・ヒル、マイケル･ベッカー、ピーター・ゲルダルース、リエール・キース、ジェームズ・ハワード・カンスラー、ステファニー・マックミラン、クワチナス、ロッド・コロナド、ジョン・ザーザン、スティーヴン・ベスト、アリック・マクベイ、ジョージ・ポイトラス、シュスリ、ゾーエ・ブラント、ドルー・オジャ・ジェイ、マヤ･ロビン−ゲイニー、シャノン･ウォルシュ、マクドナルド・ステインズビー、マイク・マークレディ

監督：フランクリン・ロペス／2011年／75分／日本語字幕：島大吾
For more tour dates click here

It’s been a whirlwind two weeks in Japan. From the moment of my arrival I knew I was in for a ride. I was supposed to meet Narita. the lead organizer for the tour at Shijuku station. Unbeknown to me, Shijuku station is the biggest train station in Tokyo with an estimated 2 million people going through it every single fuckin day. Alas I did not find him, and had to figure out where the screening was. With no phone, and no a lick of knowledge of the Japanese language, it took me 30 minutes to find an internet cafe (bizarre fuckin place, but that’s another story). Long story long, I make to to Cafe Lavanderia, an anti-capitalist event space to find a packed room still watching END:CIV. The organizers had to add a second screening to accommodate the over 100 people who showed up. Jet lagged, tired, hungry and cranky, I have to gain my composure and take part on a panel discussion with Kanzen Jisatsu Manyuaru best selling author of “The Complete Manual on Suicide” (yeah that’s right) and Ill Commonz. Yeah, that was all within my first 2 hours in Tokyo.

What followed was 14 jammed packed days of screenings and interviews. No, I’m not big in Japan and the media doesn’t want to talk to me, I was conducting interviews for a report I’m preparing on the grassroots anti-nuclear movement here. What’s happening here is not dissimilar to the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon. People here are fed up with the lies, inaction, and misinformation coming from the nuclear industry and their servants in the Government.

Activism here is not seen in a positive light by society in general and during the 80′s and 90′s there was hardly any visible trace of dissent in this country, or so I’m told. Then came the Iraq war, and mass demonstrations broke the spell of Japanese politeness. Those where followed by anti-G8 protests in 2008. So far this year there have been large (10,000′s) anti-nuclear rallies, every month since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. At the centre of this movement is group of merry trouble makers called Amateur Riot. These folks are based in the neighbourhood of Koenji, and consist of 14 tiny shops that sell anything from used furniture and appliances, second hand clothes, to bars and restaurants. These shops have provided safe spaces for activist to organize their actions. But more on that on my video report.

One of my biggest surprises here, has been poverty. Yep, there’s poor people here. And homeless too! There’s also foreign day labourers that are sent to work inside the evacuation zone in Fukushima. Like Canada, Japan guards is reputation as a democratic techno utopia with great zeal. But the economy here is tanking and unemployment growing. Suicides rates are some of the highest in the industrialized world, with over 3,000 in May alone. If you find that your trusted and punctual public transport system is delayed, chances are high that someone jumped in front of a train.

Yep, I’m vomiting all of this onto the page (so to speak) because I still have much to process. But all in all, people here are great. The hospitality I’ve received has been unparalleled and people’s resilience is amazing, even with the spectre of radiation polluting half the island. The fighting spirit I’ve witnessed has renewed my optimism, and hope that my video report further informs North Americans and beyond about the growing movement here.

Tomorrow, I return to Vancouver to join the thousands who will occupy the Vancouver Art Gallery, and by extension the billions who make the 99%.

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My plan to go to Europe has been postponed indefinitely. Seems that that this chunk of Turtle Island that I call home has become North America’s largest exporter of fossil fuels. So I’m going to stick around here for the time being to help document and agitate, around the multiple proposed mega projects, that not only threaten the natural beauty of what settlers call British Columbia, but that would blast more carbon into the atmosphere.

So I’m switching gears and I’ve started a project with a working title of “Stop the Flows“.

I still plan to go to Europe and Australia next year and next week I head to Japan to screen END:CIV in half a dozen cities. The film project “The Resistance” is still on, but it may merge into “Stop the Flows” and look at resistance movements against extraction. We’ll see.

All for now, wish me luck in the land of the rising sun.

I’ve been off for about 5 weeks and I can’t tell you how refreshed I feel. The five months of touring in North America were good, but I came very close to reaching burn out. I made it home a day before a spontaneous insurrection that rocked the streets of downtown following the loss of the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals. Couldn’t expect a better welcome.

Even though I’ve been mostly relaxing – riding my bike, going to the beach, reading Octavia Butler – I did do some work at Sutikalh, a protection camp that successfully halted the building of a ski resort eleven years ago. Supporters continually provide material support to keep this gorgeous area from being developed. I joined a group of about 30 anarchists to help build a cabin, dig a trench for an outhouse and split wood among other tasks.

This week myself and some comrades, embarked on a mini tour of BC to screen END:CIV in Lillooet, Prince George, Smithers and Moricetown. Like most of BC, all of these areas are rich in what capitalists call “resources” and have been exploited for hundreds of years to extract wood and minerals or to dam the rivers for hydro electric generation.

But the issue that has people talking in BC is the proposed pipeline that will bring dirty tar sands oil to the pacific. This pipeline will be over 1,000 kilometres long, and will bring deforestation and potential oil spills to rivers and indigenous communities along the way. It will also create a corridor with high oil tanker traffic that would threaten one of the most beautiful ecological regions left in the planet, the coast of British Columbia.

Even though the pipeline has not been approved, communities are getting ready to oppose it. The final stop on our tour is Moricetown, where members of the Wet’suwet’en nation are holding their second action camp to build resistance against the proposed pipeline.

Finally, here’s a clip from Aric McBay, who is featured in END:CIV, debating conservative talk show host Brian Lilley on Canada’s SunNews, our Fox News equivalent.

Stay tuned for more updates and dates for the END:CIV tour of Japan in the following weeks.

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Anyway, here are some non-sequential thoughts and highlights from the road.

I spent 10 days in Montreal. Like New Orleans, there’s no other place like it in North America. Listening to people speak french is romantic and all, but the anarchist scene there is tops. Cheap rents allow people maximum time to work on their projects and spaces for folks to congregate abound. Graffiti is prolific throughout the city’s industrial sectors and political posters are plastered on every neighbourhood. In an abandoned building, I heard a talk from a comrade about the struggle for space in Vancouver, where the rents are ridiculously high, and city zoning inspectors have a weak sense of humour when it comes to aerosol art. Our sole anarchist social space was shut down a few weeks ago, and I’ve been dreaming about how we are going to fill that void this summer and beyond.

I crossed back into Obamaland three days ago, and the one thing I had on my mind as I approached the security check point at Niagara Falls, was all the people I met, who are or have been, in one way or another swallowed up by the “Justice” system. Most of those were rounded up in the post-g20 witch hunt of anarchists. Others are long time revolutionaries like anarchist black panther Ashanti Alston and urban guerrillas Ed Mead and Mark Cook of the George Jackson Brigade. Look for those interviews later this summer on subMedia.tv

While in Kingston, a city with seven prisons, I had the pleasure of meeting Ann Hansen of the Vancouver guerrilla group, Direct Action. Hansen gave a talk about the Conservatives’ plan to expand Canada’s prisons, now that they have obtained a majority in Parliament.

The night before I screened END:CIV at the anarchist social space AKA. Aric McBay, who is featured on the film, gave a talk about sustaining communities of resistance. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. I believe that in order to be successful, our communities of resistance have to be multigenerational, need spaces to call their own and support people who are caught up by the system. Aric’s talk pretty much sums it up.

Finally, last night in Buffalo, Leslie James Pickering, from the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, gave a talk about liberation movements in North America and the about the exploits of the ELF.

As I enter the final stretch of this crazy tour, I wonder what would it take for peeps to shit to the next level, to really build a revolutionary movement that dismantles this mad system once and for all. Or is it really going to be the end of the world as we know it?

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END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”

The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As we write this, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day, the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don’t have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system — it seems to be coming apart already.

But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future.

Backed by Jensen’s narrative, the film calls on us to act as if we truly love this land. The film trips along at a brisk pace, using music, archival footage, motion graphics, animation, slapstick and satire to deconstruct the global economic system, even as it implodes around us. END:CIV illustrates first-person stories of sacrifice and heroism with intense, emotionally-charged images that match Jensen’s poetic and intuitive approach. Scenes shot in the back country provide interludes of breathtaking natural beauty alongside clearcut evidence of horrific but commonplace destruction.

END:CIV features interviews with Paul Watson, Waziyatawin, Gord Hill, Michael Becker, Peter Gelderloos, Lierre Keith, James Howard Kunstler, Stephanie McMillan, Qwatsinas, Rod Coronado, John Zerzan and more.

“A fierce critique of systematic violence and industrial civilization, End:Civ is not intended for garden-variety environmentalists. If you are anywhere below, say, an 8 on that sliding scale of pissed off, then this film is going to scare you — which means you should watch it.”
-Eugene Weekly

.”A tour de force film from Franklin López which does more than justice to Derrick Jensen’s thesis that industrial civilization is destroying life on the planet. Employing all the contemporary audio visual techniques our digital world makes possible for a single brilliant penurious filmmaker, López harvests sounds and images from our demented world to relentlessly show the rape of the mind and the earth. To those outside the small choir who see the message of resistance as obvious, this powerful film makes them deal with it either by denial or acknowledging, yes I see it is obvious.”

James Becket
-Director of The Best Revenge

“Franklin Lopez is a fantastically talented filmmaker, who has created a powerful and important film about the most important topic ever: how to stop this culture from killing the planet.”
-Derrick Jensen, Author of Endgame

“By far the most routinely praised contemporary media activist is Franklin López. His shows and films not only possess a distinctive look and feel, but they also contain a wicked sense of humor that is often sorely lacking among alter-globalization activists. López’s work engages in constructing a new vision where popular culture serves the interests of the poor and dispossessed, where humor is reignited within activism, and the D.I.Y. ethics of punk and hip-hop allow those with talent and gumption to be the media, once again.”
-Chris Robé, Pop Matters

“Franklin Lopez’ END:CIV is a labour of love, a stunning 75 minutes film…”
John Zerzan, author of Future Primitive

“It brought me to tears…” “I recommend it to people”
-Alex Smith, Host of Radio Ecoshock

“Franklin Lopez’s END:CIV project is awesome.”
-Shannon Walsh, Director of H2Oil

“Both the quantity and the quality of this movement’s filmmaking is increasing. This is the big battlefield on which we fight right now.”
-Michael Rupert, CollapseNet.com

Franklin López will be touring with END:CIV in 2011.
The END:CIV DVD by PM Press can be ordered now.
If you wish to book a screening in your town or want to order a DVD, simply click on the links below.

Order DVD — Book a community screening — Book a university screening

Upcoming Shows:

END:CIV with Director Franklin López  

For more tour dates click here

• Buy DVD • Download Video (MP4)
.

.

.

END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”

The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As we write this, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day, the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don’t have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system — it seems to be coming apart already.

But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future.

Backed by Jensen’s narrative, the film calls on us to act as if we truly love this land. The film trips along at a brisk pace, using music, archival footage, motion graphics, animation, slapstick and satire to deconstruct the global economic system, even as it implodes around us. END:CIV illustrates first-person stories of sacrifice and heroism with intense, emotionally-charged images that match Jensen’s poetic and intuitive approach. Scenes shot in the back country provide interludes of breathtaking natural beauty alongside clearcut evidence of horrific but commonplace destruction.

END:CIV features interviews with Paul Watson, Waziyatawin, Gord Hill, Michael Becker, Peter Gelderloos, Lierre Keith, James Howard Kunstler, Stephanie McMillan, Qwatsinas, Rod Coronado, John Zerzan and more.

“A fierce critique of systematic violence and industrial civilization, End:Civ is not intended for garden-variety environmentalists. If you are anywhere below, say, an 8 on that sliding scale of pissed off, then this film is going to scare you — which means you should watch it.”
-Eugene Weekly

.”A tour de force film from Franklin López which does more than justice to Derrick Jensen’s thesis that industrial civilization is destroying life on the planet. Employing all the contemporary audio visual techniques our digital world makes possible for a single brilliant penurious filmmaker, López harvests sounds and images from our demented world to relentlessly show the rape of the mind and the earth. To those outside the small choir who see the message of resistance as obvious, this powerful film makes them deal with it either by denial or acknowledging, yes I see it is obvious.”

James Becket
-Director of The Best Revenge

“Franklin Lopez is a fantastically talented filmmaker, who has created a powerful and important film about the most important topic ever: how to stop this culture from killing the planet.”
-Derrick Jensen, Author of Endgame

“By far the most routinely praised contemporary media activist is Franklin López. His shows and films not only possess a distinctive look and feel, but they also contain a wicked sense of humor that is often sorely lacking among alter-globalization activists. López’s work engages in constructing a new vision where popular culture serves the interests of the poor and dispossessed, where humor is reignited within activism, and the D.I.Y. ethics of punk and hip-hop allow those with talent and gumption to be the media, once again.”
-Chris Robé, Pop Matters

“Franklin Lopez’ END:CIV is a labour of love, a stunning 75 minutes film…”
John Zerzan, author of Future Primitive

“It brought me to tears…” “I recommend it to people”
-Alex Smith, Host of Radio Ecoshock

“Franklin Lopez’s END:CIV project is awesome.”
-Shannon Walsh, Director of H2Oil

“Both the quantity and the quality of this movement’s filmmaking is increasing. This is the big battlefield on which we fight right now.”
-Michael Rupert, CollapseNet.com

Franklin López will be touring with END:CIV in 2011.
The END:CIV DVD by PM Press can be ordered now.
If you wish to book a screening in your town or want to order a DVD, simply click on the links below.

Order DVD — Book a community screening — Book a university screening

Upcoming Shows:

END:CIV with Director Franklin López  

For more tour dates click here