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Long Synopsis
In the wake of the new millennium, acclaimed filmmaker Velcrow Ripper spent five years traveling to the ‘ground zeros’ of the world, in search of stories of hope in the darkness. He emerged with a deep belief in the resilience of the human spirit, and his inspiring journey became an award-winning feature documentary - ScaredSacred.
On October 27, 2006, his friend, media activist Brad Will, was shot to death in Oaxaca, Mexico while videotaping protests against State Governor, Ulises Ruiz, who had turned to violence in an effort to subdue a peaceful protest by strking teachers.
This tragic event forced Ripper, once defiantly hopeful, to question the two driving forces in his life – activism and spirituality. He wondered, can peaceful activism, which has inspired so much of his work, still be effective in our ruthless socio-political environment? And does spirituality, the search for inner meaning, still have a place in a world in crisis?
Instead of discarding these two touchstones in his life, Ripper considers the possibility that a new power and depth could be released if spirituality and activism were brought together. Sparked by what Gandhi called “soul force,” and Martin Luther King called “love in action,” Ripper travels to Mexico, New Zealand, Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and North America, taking us on an international journey in search of stories of spiritual activism. He discovers what researcher Paul Hawken (author “Blessed Unrest”) describes as the largest global movement in history, connected by a shared commitment to compassionate, positive action, driven by the understanding that we’re all in this together. The enormous popularity of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign can be attributed to the fact that he is tapping into this rising zeitgeist.
Ripper begins his journey by investigating the roots of spiritual activism, in Montgomery, Alabama, the epicentre of the American civil rights movement in the 60’s. He interviews Congressman John Lewis, who was a leader of the movement alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Lewis recounts the story of the historical “Bloody Sunday” march from Selma to Montgomery, which he lead, explaining, “we had been taught that there was a spark of the divine in every human being. So when I was beaten, thrown in jail, left bloody, unconscious, left for dead, I could not hate. I had to love.” This ‘love in action’ was the heart of Martin Luther King’s message, and in a few short years, led to the transformation of the U.S. political system and a new level of social justice for Blacks in the south.
However, much has changed since the 60’s, and it is not clear whether MLK’s “Love in Action” can work with today’s cynicism. 26 Years after the Civil Rights Movement, it was another King in the news, this time, in violence ridden, racially charged, South Central Los Angeles. Beaten down by a dozen white police officers after being stopped for speeding, Rodney King’s story sparked one of the largest riots in U.S. history and led to the physical destruction of an entire section of the city. Following the riots, the city provided 350 L.A. families a large plot of land in the midst of South Central L.A. Together, the families transformed the vacant lot into the largest urban farm in North America. Then, fourteen years later, after it had been transformed into a vibrant oasis, the city sold the land to a developer.
The farmers appealed the eviction and asked people from all over to join in a protest to help save the farm. Ripper is one of the many who answered the call. Others include actors Daryl Hannah and Danny Glover, singer Joan Baez, spiritual teacher Michael Beckwith (The Secret) and environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill, famous for having spent two years living in an ancient redwood to defend it from logging. Amidst a tense atmosphere of police, bulldozers and a cross-cultural ‘sit-in’ to save the gardens, Ripper has a unique opportunity to see, first-hand, the effects of contemporary spiritual activism in action.
The same day Velcrow interviewed John Lewis about the Civil Rights Movement, the congressman was presenting a bill to The House of Commons to close down the U.S. Military Training Institution once known as The School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia. Between 1946 and 2001, the SOA trained more than 61,000 Latin American soldiers and policemen. Some of them became notorious for having been responsible of human rights violations, such as generals Leopoldo Galtieri or Manuel Noriega, dictators such as Bolivia’s Hugo Banzer as well as some of Augusto Pinochet’s officers.
For nearly two decades, a yearly protest has taken place beyond Fort Benning’s gates, challenging the validity of the government institution. Ripper joined the over twenty thousand protesters who hold an annual vigil for those who have died at the hands of Fort Benning alumni. Amidst the sea of names chanted for those killed, the name of Ripper’s fallen friend, Brad Will, was chanted.
On the other side of town, on the same day, a counter rally takes place entitled God Bless Fort Benning Day. The event, geared towards families in celebration of the military, gives children the chance to play on military vehicles, hold an Arab hostage at knifepoint, or look down the business end of a machine gun barrel.
Seeking to understand the power of peaceful activism, Ripper visits the historic site of Robben Island in South Africa, where peace activist Nelson Mandela and others were imprisoned durring the Apartheid era. It is after this visit that Ripper meets Archbishop Desmond Tutu, head of the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Movement’ and examines how peaceful protest has affected people in South Africa and its role in ending the practice of apartheid.
While in South Africa, Ripper visits one of the most important spots recognized as the birthplace of the “Satyagraha” (soul force), the non-violence philosophy established by the ‘Original Sacred Warrior’, Mahatma Gandhi, which in turn inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The phoenix Settlement, near Durban, South Africa is now run by Gandhi’s great granddaughter, Ashish Ramgobin who shares with Ripper her thoughts on Gandhi’s legacy and the possibility of ‘spiritual activism’ transforming social attitudes in today’s world.
Following Gandhi’s legacy to India, Velcrow visits with the Dalit community in Andrah, Pradesh. While Gandhi fought for the rights of the Dalits (once known as The Untouchables), they see their work as “Going Beyond Gandhi” and establish, for themselves, solutions to the problems that they continue face.
Leela Kumari, a Dalit lawyer and activist, describes the inspirational story of how her entire village joined together and stood up against murder and injustice. In an impressive display of solidarity, she explains how 2000 people took shelter in a nearby city, living together, cooking together, eating together – joining together in resistance. As a result of their commitment to non-violently standing up against injustice, the village has received reparations of land, houses, jobs and a school. However, more important than these rewards, the community has become a unified force of compassion and peace. To this end, Velcrow finds that this group of Dalits is living its message: “This is a story of people building power from within their own community, and from within their very being.”
2008 marks the 33 year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. But the wounds of war continue to effect the Vietnamese and the world. The hearts of many people in South, in Central, and in North Vietnam as well those of Vietnamese living abroad are not yet totally healed. In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Ripper witnesses the historic return visit of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, and peace activist who was exiled from Vietnam 30 years ago. At the age of 81, he has returned to Vietnam for only the second time since his exile to share his non-violent message to thousands of his followers and to see if the School for Social Service that he founded 50 years ago can assist his efforts to re-establish Buddhism in Vietnam.
Ripper also meets with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker (The Color Purple); author, teacher and American activist bell hooks; Carly Stasko, a Toronto-based artist, writer, activist, and holistic educator who recently completed writing (r)Evolutionary Healing: Jamming the Culture and Shifting the Power; eco-philosopher, Joanna Macy, Ph.D, a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and co-founder of the deep ecology movement; Judy Rebick, Canadian journalist, political activist, and Chair of the Sam Gindin Social Justice and Democracy Institute at Ryerson University in Toronto; Van Jones, founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland California, a strategy and action ‘incubator’ working towards justice, opportunity and peace in urban America; Sera Beak, a Harvard-trained scholar of comparative religion and author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach To Igniting Your Divine Spark; Noah Levine, a meditation teacher, counselor and author of Dharma Punx and Against The Stream; and author and Stanford graduate Sam Harris (The End of Faith).