Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action

Humanity has to change its habits in a hurry if it's going to have a home worth inhabiting in the 21st century and beyond. To make this kind of global shift we need good information, but we also need inspiration -- fear of collapse and catastrophe is more paralyzing than motivating. This film shows where a broad range of activists find their inspiration. Whatever you choose to call it -- spirit, or the fierce light within -- it's the way it moves and connects you with others that counts. Velcrow Ripper has captured this in beautiful and often startling images, interwoven with highly engaging interviews. Some of the people appearing here are well known -- Thich Nhat Hanh, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Paul Hawken, Alice Walker, Bell Hooks, Joanna Macy, to name just a few -- but some of the less famous folks contribute as much or more to the film. Above all, the film challenges you to find your own centre of inspiration, instead of offering easy answers.

The main documentary is 97 minutes, but the DVD also includes 13 5-minute self-contained mini-movies that are equally well shot and edited. This could make the DVD especially useful for local gatherings of people looking for their own way of making a difference. Along with Ripper's earlier film, ScaredSacred, this could take us a long way toward healing the split between the "way of action" and the "way of contemplation".

The producer of this film traveled to speak with many legendary figures, such as Desmond Tutu and Thich Naht Hahn, about when activism meets spirit, and one finds oneself having to take a stand against all that is wrong and destructive in society. In this film are impoverished folk from L.A.'s mean streets, who created a garden of Eden in a desolate lot. Years of thriving activity followed, until the powers-that-be decided to bulldoze the garden and build a warehouse. The scenes when the bulldozers move in was one of the most heartbreaking and enraging - and radicalizing! - moments in film. He also filmed the moment the young woman who spent two years in an old growth tree, to protect it, finally came down and her feet touched the ground for the first time, as she then fell sobbing to the earth. I had to buy this film after renting it once. It is one of my favorites. Anyone who cares about the earth, and is appalled at the destructive practises of the multinationals, will love this film. The young man did a great job!