Documentário: Disobedience

Disobedience is a 40-minute film directed by award-winning Kelly Nyks of PF Pictures. The CMG Focus Fund grant supported the production and distribution of the film, a sequel to the well-received documentary Disruption. Production for the film occured from January to April and distribution was coordinated with the worldwide Break Free from Fossil Fuels campaign planned for May 4-15, 2016.

The film featured verité footage of inspiring front line actions in Brazil, Turkey, Germany, The Philippines, Canada, and the United States interwoven with interviews from some of the most renowned voices in the conversation of social movements and the climate crisis, including Elizabeth Kolbert, Naomi Klein, Marshall Ganz, Malcom Gladwell, Naomi Oreskes, Michael Mann, and Bill McKibben.

“Disobedience will tell the behind-the-scenes stories from the rising climate movement around the world,” said director Kelly Nyks. “Viewers will experience a global journey profiling activists from Brazil to Germany, as they stage acts of civil disobedience to lift the climate movement to new heights of commitment and engagement at this critical moment in human history.”

Payal Parekh, Program Director of 350.org added, “Through the articulation of the best practices of civil disobedience and a crash-course in social movement history, this film will make the irrefutable case for direct and local engagement. In doing so, Disobedience offers an answer to the all-important question concerned citizens ask about climate change: “What can I do?””

Nyks & his team at PF Pictures have been committed to making films that impact viewers and motivate change. As PF Pictures website states: We use film as a tool for social change.

About the Grantees

Kelly Nyks is an award-winning writer/director of narrative and documentary films and has worked across Europe, Asia and America. His most recent film, Requiem for the American Dream, is currently in theatrical release to widespread critical acclaim including a New York Times Critics Pick. His credits include Disruption (2014), Impossible (2014), Do The Math (2013), Money is Material (2013), The Artificial Leaf (2012) and Split: A Deeper Divide (2012), among others. To learn more visit: PF Pictures

Break Free from Fossil Fuels was organized by a wide range of international, national and local organizations. From May 4-15, 2016 they are mobilized to keep fossil fuels in the groun and accelerated a just transition to 100% renewable energy and a sustainable future for all. 

Project Updates and Milestones

Feature Fund Grantee Kelly Nyks released Disobedience on April 29th. Distribution was coordinated with the worldwide Break Free From Fossil Fuels campaign. The campaign ran from May 4-15 with the following notable actions taking place with over 30,000 participants and 20 escalated actions over 6 continents. The major fossil fuels disruptions were:

• Newcastle Coal Port in Australia shut down for one day.
• Vattenfall Welzow-Sued coal mine + Schwarze Pumpe coal power station in Germany was shut down coal plant for 3 days of successive acts of civil disobedience to demand an end to coal.
• Action against the Pecém coal power plant, the largest thermal power plant in the Brazil it is a symbol of the federal government’s contradiction of the agreement signed at COP21.
• Ffos-y-Fran coal mine, the largest open-cast coal mine in the United Kingdom - was shut down for over 12 hours, with no injuries and no arrests.
• Thousands converged by land and water on March Point in Anacortes, WA — the largest unmitigated source of CO2 in the northwest United States and, the site of two oil refineries. Over three days, the action included multiple kayak flotillas, a march led by Indigenous leaders, and an overnight sit-in on the train tracks that led to over 50 arrests.
• Community leaders led a mass action Aliaga coal ash disposal site near Izmir, Turkey calling for a stop to four fossil fuel plant projects in the surrounding area.