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Director’s Notes
By Velcrow Ripper
In 2004, I emerged from a 5-year pilgrimage to the ‘ground zeros’ of the world, with the feature documentary, ScaredSacred complete. The film focused on human reconciliation, and stories of resilience in the face of crisis, with the subtext: Unwrap the Darkness. Reveal the light. It was a way for me to look for strategies to confront the planetary crisis we are facing, by going to the places where people have had to deal with some of the most difficult experiences of our time. I sought out those remarkable individuals who had come through with their spirits not only intact, but transformed. One of the key survival tactics that emerged was one of taking action, to ensure that what happened to them, not happen to others. This gave a deep sense of hope and meaning to the survivors.
As I finished the film, I realized that there was more of the story to be told, a deeper exploration about the relationship between spirituality and action in the world. Along with producer and collaborator, Cher Hawrysh, I began developing the ideas that would become “Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action.”
In the summer of 2006 I received a phone called from Actor Daryl Hannah, a fan of ScaredSacred. She was in South Central LA, where North America’s largest urban garden, farmed by largely indigenous latinos in a traditional manner, was under threat. She convinced me that this was a powerful, important story, and one that could work beautifully to illustrate the emerging themes of Fierce Light. Although we were only in the early stages of development, and had no financial backing for the film, Cher and I made the decision to cover the story of the South Central Farmers. As it turned out, this would become the back-bone of Fierce Light. But it was not an easy story – that summer ended in the heart breaking destruction of the farm. However, the farmers proved to be incredibly resilient, and in the wake of that destruction - they refused to give up.
Then, in the fall of 2006, came that awful day, when I learned of the death of my friend, and fellow media activist, Brad Will. My notions about activism came crashing down. Here was a young guy, an independent journalist for IndyMedia in NY, whom I had worked closely with throughout those dark days after 9/11 documenting what was happening, whom I had seen months before at the World Social Forum in Venezuela never armed with more than his video camera and backpack - gunned down by state supported paramilitaries, in order to silence him. I found myself wondering: how far was I willing to go to bear witness?
I have traveled to many of the worlds ‘hotspots’ and I have been shot at myself, but somehow I’ve always felt a sense of protection. But now, everything had fallen into question. I realized that to make sense of Brad’s death, I needed to do more than mourn. I needed to take action.
I found myself taking a bull-horn in hand at a rally in front of the Mexican Consulate in Toronto, where I made my first ‘political’ speech. In the wake of Brad’s death, my producer, Cher Hawrysh and I, decided that it would make sense for me to go to Mexico myself, to continue where Brad had left off.
The Experiences
The experience of being in Oaxaca, Mexico in the place where Brad Will was killed while video taping, turned out to be terrifying for me. As it turned out, I arrived in the midst of the biggest crackdown the indigenous lead peoples movement had experienced, in which foreign journalists were being targeted by death squads, and activists were being “disappeared” off the streets daily. Within a few days of my arrival the movement was forced underground, and all the foreigners had fled, as the result of publicly issued death threats. I was the last foreign journalist there. Although it was one of the most dangerous film shoots of my life, I also experienced a great sense of clarity, in which I realized that the movement that was emerging in Oaxaca, was part of a growing movement of movements around the world, and that even if it was crushed in one place, like a forest fire, the roots were still burning, and it would rise somewhere else. It became clear to me that I needed to explore these unique locations and speak with the people who were on the forefront of this new wave of change that I could sense was trying to blossom.
The Outcome
As I travelled the world, I discovered that there is a huge shift taking place, in which people are realizing they need to transform our relationships to each other and the planet if we are to resolve the planetary crisis we are facing. The inspiring changes I witnessed are not coming from the top down – from the corporations or governments of the world- they are coming from the bottom up, from the efforts of ordinary individuals. Researcher Paul Hawken has documented well over a million grass roots groups working for change - what he calls the largest mass movement in history.
This “movement of movements” shares a common set of values, which I consider spiritual: values of compassion, collaboration, understanding, of focussing on what you are for, as opposed to what you are against. It is a new paradigm of activism, and a new paradigm of spirituality: engaged in the real world, in which the process is consistent with the end result. Peaceful, non-violent, but fiercely determined to create a new world, of justice, sustainability and global harmony. We can change our world. We have the tools, and I hope to provide one piece of the puzzle with Fierce Light, an inspiration towards compassionate action.