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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
(click on broll or dschwartz for all his posts)
Rebels with a Cause: The Triumph of Environmental Activism
I have had the distinct pleasure and honor of seeing a pre-release version of Nancy Kelly's and Kenji Yamamoto's "Rebels with a Cause" which documents the herculean efforts to save California's Marin/Sonoma coastlines and lands eastward. The film's executive producer is KRCB Public Television in Rohnert Park, California.
With relentless population growth and unbridled construction, the virgin lands of the United States – of the Earth, for that matter – are being lost to 'development.' The natural beauty of northern California, being no exception, was and will always be highly attractive to developers. But something different happened as the eyes of private and corporate investors regarded this coastline and its interior. Citizens and political leaders worked together over a period of more than five decades to save these lands and shores for the people of the San Francisco Bay Area and for the people of the world – in perpetuity, as the lawyers say.
Both film industry veterans with highly admirable filmographies, Kelly and Yamamoto have told the story of this land rescue in a highly detailed yet thoroughly engaging fashion – including utterly gorgeous shots of its subject. In addition to the simple idea that this is a dramatic story that deserves telling, it is even more important in its implications for our nation's and planet's environmental health. The message is clear: Environmental activism can and does make a difference, and no matter the powers-that-be, no matter the odds, never stop fighting for environmental values and ideals, never underestimate what can be accomplished by a few determined individuals.