Give us your Input, & see OUTLINE below

Below is an outline of what I intend to cover, leaving flexibility and opening for new discoveries as well. Please offer us your feedback and suggestions through the contact form.

The project has already changed based on my research, beginning interviews, and personal journey. It is including much more about the crossroads we are at– humanity facing the dual crises of automation and climate disruption, making us choose between versions of fascism or a classless society. See the new outline below.

-Matt Pillischer, Writer/Director/Producer

NEW OUTLINE as of 7-12-20:

I. THE REVOLUTIONARY CATALYST: ECONOMIC & ECOLOGICAL CHANGES, putting us at a crossroads for our future. 

1. 1. Unprecedented changes to the environment– sea level rise, increase of disease, extreme weather and fires, dangers to crops and fresh water– can we even survive? All the horrors of climate disruption, including disease, global pandemics interrupting supply chains and the ability of people to work. 
   2. The revolution of technology has already set us on a new course beyond capitalism. How technological innovation in the economy has spurred revolutionary societal change in the past. Where computers fit into this new revolutionary change in the economy, and the end of work. 
   3. Something about the incredible weight of it all, briefly. How to deal with it collectively rather than isolated. The false choice between hope and hopelessness, but rather inspiration and obligation to act for future generations. History is like a river, sometimes very slow and almost still, and other times rapids and waterfalls. Remember the revolutionary potential, given the crises we are facing.

II. A FASCIST REVOLUTION: WHERE THE RULING CLASS IS TAKING US and the options that gives humanity.

1. We understand the horrors of capitalism– Capitalism’s exploitation, use of racism, sexism, homophobia, & other divisions. Poverty and War, conquest & ignoring/destroying indigenous ways of life: Capitalism’s need for endless growth, accumulation of all resources, and destruction of the Planet– now we are unbelievably facing mass extinctions (including the possibility of humans very soon). 
2. But capitalism is ending. The capitalism we know. We are already in a revolution whether we like it or now. But what comes next isn’t automatically utopia. In fact, without a people’s revolution, it’s dystopia of some form…
3. The Ruling Class’ plans after capitalism: Exterminism and Rentism and a highly surveilled Fascist society where the ruling class takes care of us only as long as they can continue to make money off us, and only as long as resources allow in a world of climate disruptions. 

III. THE OTHER REVOLUTIONARY ROAD: THE FIGHT TO END CLASSES for a different path to save humanity. 

1. A work-less society and climate disruption are crises that have incredible potential to unite a new revolutionary class of people. People everywhere are seeing that the system can’t take care of us, can’t plan to take care of people during pandemics, floods, fires, resettling refugees humanely, etc, providing the basics of food and housing for people in crisis. More sections of the population open to radical ideas about change and fed up with government (Dems and Repubs).
2. Using technology humanely for all people, operating from a place of abundance not manufactured scarcity, and not using technology that is killing us. Having the power to make that decision. 
   1. Thinking beyond the technological “fixes,” and a mindset of mastering nature. We need to be inspired by indigenous ways people lived within nature, not masters/destroyers of it.
3. A revolution led by a new class that needs power to survive the coming storms. This part will show what our revolution may look like– see the outline on the Director’s blog as a guide. Animation and narration of this.

IV. NEXT STEPS 

1. A call for the clarity of revolutionary ideas amidst upheaval. A focus on theory, analysis, and propaganda to unite our class.

V. OUTRO:

1. Youth and humans adapt. People find joy even through change and despair. While it won’t be an easy life for our children and generations to come, we can model appreciating and finding connection to nature, to each other, to finding joy and contentment in small things. We can model fighting for justice, marking in “the book of life” that we are protesting tooth and nail against a system that exploits, degrades, and kills. There are those of us who refuse to be silent, who will fight to the end.

 

_________________________________________

 

So far, we have confirmed interviews with the following people:

• Pam Africa, leader of International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Joe Allen, socialist, author of The Package King: A Rank and File History of United Parcel Service; and Vietnam: The Last War the U.S. Lost; and People Wasn’t Made to Burn: A True Story of Race, Murder, and Justice in Chicago
• Pastor Keith Collins, Cheri Honkala, Galen Tyler, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign and Poor People’s Army (interviews done)
• Glen Ford & Margaret Kimberley, leaders of Black Agenda Report (interviews done)
• Peter Frase, author of Four Futures: Life After Capitalism, on editorial board of Jacobin Magazine.
• Dahr Jamail, author of The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption; and The Mass Destruction of Iraq: The Disintegration of a Nation, Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible; and others (interview done)
• Daryle Lamont Jenkins, founder of One People’s Project meant to monitor and publish information about alleged racist and far right groups and individuals (interview done)
• Nate Kleinman, organizer with Occupy Sandy, and founder and farmer with Experimental Farm Network that focuses on sustainable agriculture, and collects seeds from war-torn countries and countries threatened by climate change to preserve plant biodiversity.
• George Lakey, longtime activist and author most recently of Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians got it right and how we can, too; and How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning. (interview done)
• Rabbi Brant Rosen, founder of Tzedek Chicago, author of Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi’s Path to Palestinian Solidarity, midwest regional director of American Friends Service Committee (interview done)
• Azadeh Shashahani, former President of National Lawyers Guild
• Kempis “Ghani” Songster, co-founded Ubuntu Philadelphia, a forum on healing and restoring community with crime victims, juvenile lifers, and community members. Songster himself was a juvenile lifer in PA, until after 30 years of incarceration when the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life without parole for youth was unconstitutional, he was re-sentenced and released in December 2017. He spent many years studying climate disruption and believes work around ecological collapse should take precedence in all our activism work.
• Vanessa Wills, a political philosopher, ethicist, educator, and activist working in Washington, DC; Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The George Washington University (interview done)

I am also working on line up interviews with others, perhaps including:

• Indigenous group(s)
• Anarchists
• Sunrise Movement
• Extinction Rebellion

If you have ideas for other perspectives that should be included, please let us know!

 

_________________________________________

 

FURTHER BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RESOURCES ON THE WEBSITE:

Since portions of the film will only scratch the surface, we will use this website to post deeper exploration of topics and extended interviews. We will collect and share other resources related to understanding capitalism and ecological crises. We will focus on film & video resources. Please send suggestions to us.

 

_________________________________________

For the initial funding drive, we raised $12,000 in money and resources.  Thank you to all the Seed&Spark contributors!

Or contact Matt here.