2016 FiRe Featured Film: “Unlocking the Cage”

Unlocking the Cage follows animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his unprecedented challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans. After thirty years of struggling with ineffective animal welfare laws, Steve and his legal team, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), are making history by filing the first lawsuits that seek to transform an animal from a thing with no rights to a person with legal protections.

Supported by affidavits from primatologists around the world, Steve maintains that, based on scientific evidence, cognitively complex animals such as chimpanzees, whales, dolphins, and elephants have the capacity for limited personhood rights (such as bodily liberty) that would protect them from physical abuse. Using writs of habeas corpus (historically used to free humans from unlawful imprisonment), Wise argues on behalf of four captive chimpanzees in New York State.

Unlocking the Cage captures a monumental shift in our culture, as the public and judicial system show increasing receptiveness to Steve’s impassioned arguments. It is an intimate look at a lawsuit that could forever transform our legal system, and one man’s lifelong quest to protect “nonhuman” animals.

Website:

http://www.unlockingthecagethefilm.com

2015 FiRe Featured Film: Racing Extinction

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In Racing Extinction a team of artists and activists exposes the hidden world of extinction with never-before-seen images that will change the way we see the planet.

Two worlds drive extinction across the globe, potentially resulting in the loss of half of all species. The international wildlife trade creates bogus markets at the expense of creatures that have survived on this planet for millions of years. And the other surrounds us, hiding in plain sight – a world that the oil and gas companies don’t want the rest of us to see. Using covert tactics and state-of-the-art technology, the Racing Extinction team exposes these two worlds in an inspiring affirmation to preserve life as we know it.

From the Academy Award® Winning Filmmakers of “The Cove”

Website:

https://www.racingextinction.com

#chicagoGirl

From her childhood bedroom in the Chicago suburbs, an American teenage girl uses social media to coordinate the revolution in Syria. Armed with Facebook, Twitter, Skype and camera phones, she helps her social network “on the ground” in Syria brave snipers and shelling in the streets to show the world the human rights atrocities of a dictator. But just because the world can see the violence doesn‚t mean the world can help. As the revolution rages on, everyone in the network must decide what is the most effective way to fight a dictator: social media or AK-47s.

Participant at FiRe 2014: Writer, Director, and Producer Joe Piscatella

Website:

http://www.chicagogirlfilm.com

DamNation

This powerful film odyssey across America explores the sea change in our national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers. Dam removal has moved beyond the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang to go mainstream. Where obsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and other wild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades without access. DamNation’™s majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.

Website:

http://damnationfilm.com

GMO OMG

GMO OMG director and concerned father Jeremy Seifert is in search of answers. How do GMOs affect our children, the health of our planet, and our freedom of choice? And perhaps the ultimate question, which Seifert tests himself: is it even possible to reject the food system currently in place, or have we lost something we can’t gain back? These and other questions take Seifert on a journey from his family’s table to Haiti, Paris, Norway, and the lobby of agra-giant Monsanto, from which he is unceremoniously ejected. Along the way we gain insight into a question that is of growing concern to citizens the world over: what’s on your plate?

Website:

http://www.gmofilm.com

Ground Operations

Ground Operations is a documentary film and social action campaign that champions the growing network of combat veterans who are transitioning into careers as sustainable farmers, ranchers and artisan food producers. Let’s help them get started and build their resources, so that veterans can create healthy new lives for themselves and delicious food security for communities across America. Ground Operations screening events feature farm-fresh food, the film, farmer-veteran speakers and a robust conversation about local food and farming.

Website:

http://www.groundoperations.net

Project Daniel

Just before Thanksgiving 2013, Mick Ebeling returned home from Sudan’s Nuba Mountains where he

set up what is probably the world’s first 3D-printing prosthetic lab and training facility. More to

the point of the journey is that Mick managed to give hope and independence back to a kid who, at

age 14, had both his arms blown off and considered his life not worth living.

Just prior to the trip, the now 16-year-old Daniel was located in a 70,000 person refugee camp in

Yida, and, on 11/11/13, he received version 1 of his left arm. The Daniel Hand enabled him to feed

himself for the first time in two years. He ate chocolate for the first time.

Participant at FiRe 2014: CEO & Founder, Not Impossible Labs, Mick Ebeling

Website:

http://www.notimpossiblelabs.com/#!project-daniel/c1imu

Undiagnosed Medical Refugees

There is a hidden epidemic – millions of people living with perplexing illnesses that elude definition and treatment. Undiagnosed: Medical Refugees is a documentary about what it is like to exist in a constant state of unknown, struggling with undiagnosed illnesses and rare diseases, and existing as medical refugees in a modern health care system. The film aspires to bring objectivity to this controversial and timely subject by interviewing doctors, medical administrators, and people, both children and adults, who have the misfortune of suffering without a diagnosis. Research and professional opinions combine with gripping stories into an incredible narrative that showcases the strength of the human spirit and the need for change in our medical system.

Participant at FiRe 2014: Creator and Co-director Dr. Katia Moritz

Website:

http://www.undiagnosedfilm.com

Uranium Drive-In

The promise of jobs from a proposed uranium mill has an economically devastated mining community in Colorado hopeful for the first time in decades. When environmentalists step in to stop the mill, pro-mill advocates are enraged. A debate ensues, pitting jobs against health and the environment.

Without judgment, both sides of the issue are brought to life in heart-wrenching detail as the film follows conflicting opinions and visions for the future. The film offers no easy answers but aims instead to capture personal stories and paint a portrait of the lives behind this nuanced and complex issue

Website:

http://uraniumdrivein.com