MONKEYWRENCH

THE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE

A ground-breaking effort in change, MONKEYWRENCH focuses on radical activism, radical progress, and their impact on society and the human condition. The film will use historical material, recreated footage, and animation of the early years and activities of environmental activism and industrialization to bring the importance of our times into sharp focus. MONKEYWRENCH will change the way you view the planet that you live on.

TRE ARROW: Under guard at the North Fraser Pre-trial Center in Port Coquitlam, B.C. sits American activist Tre Arrow, fighting extradition on charges related to the burning of logging trucks in Oregon. A raw-foods eating environmentalist, he was on the FBI's most wanted list at the time of his arrest. A series of interviews from behind bulletproof glass reveal the personal side of his life and the great struggle. The FBI claim, and Tre adamantly denies, that he is part of the ELF, or Earth Liberation Front, a radical group that has been responsible for more than 600 arsons and $100 million in damage to property in the United States since 1995. "The Elves" believe that society is clearly on a path of destruction, and that technological progress must cease.

HILLARY HOSTA: Deep in the heart of coal mining in America, in the hollers of West Virginia, Hillary is fighting for mountain justice, trying to prevent the blowing up of the mountains in a procedure known as 'mountain-top removal'. She has worked on direct actions for Greenpeace and the RainForest Action Network (RAN) and she does not agree with radical direct action, including arson, and sees it as a violence that only enforces the status quo (click to enlarge picture).

PAUL WATSON: co-founder and Member Number Seven of the biggest environmental organization in the world, Greenpeace, he quit the group in 1978 because they disavowed direct action. Since starting the Sea Shephard Society, he and his crews have rammed more than 15 vessels that he accuses of oceanic destruction, sinking 4 of them. He is a proponent of direct action and uses the mandate of the UN Charter of Nature to bolster his actions as "the oceans policeman".

RON ARNOLD: On the other side of this battle is big business and the groups that support them, including Stop Eco-Terrorism and Wise Use, a group founded by Ron Arnold, ex-volunteer for the Sierra Club in Washington State. In every state of the US, relentless Wise Use information campaigns about the purpose and meaning of environmental laws are building a grassroots constituency. To Wise Users, environmentalists are pagans, eco-nazis, and communists who must be fought with shouts and threats. Interviews with the CEOS of logging, mining, and whaling companies reveal their stand on the issues at hand.

POLITICIANS: Interviews with environment ministers from around the world, at the UN conference on climate change in Montreal to the daily headlines in the papers we read. Full of energy, emotion, gandhian wisdom, information on the future, and a visual feast of natural environments and creatures from around the world, MONKEYWRENCH will change your relationship with the planet that you live on.