Filmmaker's Statement

I made this film because I was inspired by the organizing work and the lucid, hard-hitting, hilarious – and largely unknown – writings of Judi Bari. My previous film had been a children's story; by 2002, like many people, I had been feeling a strong pull to be more involved in the processes of democracy. My father was Judi Bari's lawyer in her civil case against the FBI and the Oakland Police. When he told me his big Earth First! case was going to trial, I saw that this was my opportunity to participate in public discourse through my filmmaking.

Judi Bari's story, while tragic in many ways, also represents a victory for activists, which everyone should know about. Judi linked the environment with labor concerns; she teaches us to think in terms of connections between movements, and this seems really important right now. The film is also centrally about the false and damaging association of dissent with crime or terrorism. Perhaps what I most wanted to do with the film was to fly in the face of that association, looking for activism's roots in ethics and, ultimately, patriotism.

In making the film, I dreamed big. These were my dreams (some of them, anyway):

>> Activism would begin to be seen by more people as a necessary and positive aspect of a vital, functioning society.

>> More environmentalists would consider problems from the perspecive of the working people whose livelihoods may depend on unsustainable or destructive resource industries. This would prompt creative problem solving that would involve job creation in restoration or sustainable industries.

>> More labor organizers and other social justice activists would begin to consider how natural resources figure into the battles they fight.

>> More law students would choose public interest/civil rights work coming out of school.

The Forest for the Trees is dedicated to all the people whose daily work is inspired by compassion and respect for life and for the planet that sustains it.

About the Filmmaker

Bernadine Mellis' first film, "Born," is an experimental short that has screened at galleries and festivals in San Francisco and New York City. "The Golden Pheasant, an Orphan's Tale," a children's story Mellis wrote and directed, has also screened in museums and schools nationally , as well as on public television. A film she made last year with sound and film artist EE Miller, "farm-in-the-city," has been screening in festivals recently. Bernadine's father's role as lead attorney in Earth First! activist Judi Bari's civil case prompted her to make "The Forest for the Trees," her first documentary. Bernadine currently teaches film as an adjunct at Temple University, where she received her MFA in 2004.

Filmography

>> "The Forest for the Trees" (2005)
Feature-length documentary, 54 minutes
Director, Producer, Videographer, Editor

>> "farm-in-the-city" (2004)
Super-8 short, 4 minutes
Co-Director, Co-Editor

>> "The Golden Pheasant, an Orphan's Tale" (2003)
16 mm children's short, 14 minutes
Writer, Director

>> "Born" (2001)
16 mm experimental short, 6 minutes
Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor

 
 
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