Watch the trailer for "Elemental."

Elemental tells the story of three individuals united by their deep connection with nature and driven to confront some of the most pressing ecological challenges of our time.

The film follows Rajendra Singh, an Indian government official gone rogue, on a 40-day pilgrimage down India’s once pristine Ganges river, now polluted and dying. Facing community opposition and personal doubts, Singh works to shut down factories, halt construction of dams, and rouse the Indian public to treat their sacred “Mother Ganga” with respect. Across the globe in northern Canada, Eriel Deranger mounts her own “David and Goliath” struggle against the world’s largest industrial development, the Tar Sands, an oil deposit larger than the state of Florida. A young mother and native Denè, Deranger struggles with family challenges while campaigning tirelessly against the Tar Sands and its proposed 2,000-mile Keystone XL Pipeline, which are destroying Indigenous communities and threatening an entire continent.

And in Australia, inventor and entrepreneur Jay Harman searches for investors willing to risk millions on his conviction that nature’s own systems hold the key to our world’s ecological problems. Harman finds his inspiration in the natural world’s profound architecture and creates a revolutionary device that he believes can slow down global warming, but will it work?

Separated by continents yet sharing an unwavering commitment to protecting nature, the characters in this story are complex, flawed, postmodern heroes for whom stemming the tide of environmental destruction fades in and out of view – part mirage, part miracle.

Available in Select Theaters and iTunes May 2013.

Last week, people converged in Nebraska to speak out about the Keystone XL Pipeline at the State Department's only public comment period. Farmers, ranchers, climate activists, and people of all stripes and colors spoke out in opposition to the pipeline.

Click here for videos covering the entire hearing, it was a really great crowd of passionate people who stood up to speak against the proposed tar sands pipeline. There were even families who were victims of the Exxon Pegasus pipeline rupture in Arkansas who traveled to the hearing to remind and warn others what happened to their community.

Up to 15,000 people have taken to the streets of the Greek city of Thessaloniki to protest against a planned Canadian gold mining project.

The demonstrators say the mine will cause irreversible environmental damage to the area.

Al Jazeera's John Psaropoulos reports from Thessaloniki.

Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade from Garrett Graham on Vimeo.

"Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade" is an hour-long documentary film written and directed by Garrett Graham in collaboration with the Tar Sands Blockade and features exclusive video footage shot by the blockaders themselves during the course of over six months of sustained resistance.

In 2012, Texas landowners and environmental activists came together to organize resistance against a dangerous pipeline being built by a Canadian corporation to bring tar sands oil from Alberta Canada to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. This hazardous project continues despite unprecedented opposition from indigenous communities, local farmers and even global environmental movements. From this struggle, a community of resistance was born that has attracted volunteers from around the continent who have successfully defied this multi-million dollar corporation with the power of non-violent direct action.

The film is meant to be both a celebration of the blockades' achievements and a primer for those interested in joining the campaign. It explains the dangers of tar sands extraction and the risks to public health posed by the pipeline as well as the strategy of non-violent direct action that has been delaying the pipeline so far.

The story takes place in the backwoods of East Texas where the pipeline crosses farmlands and homesteads as well as aquifers and old growth forests. You will hear the voices of the blockaders who are risking their lives to stop this pipeline. In the Texas heat, they have locked themselves to heavy machinery, and braved the elements by living in trees. Hear these courageous folks in their own words.

Blockadia Rising is just the opening chapter in this ongoing movement to stop this pipeline and halt the extraction of the Canadian tar sands, but the blockaders see themselves as a part of a larger struggle against the consequences of run-away climate-change caused by unchecked extraction of natural resources by industry at the expense of both human and non-human communities. This film speaks to all movements for environmental and social justice and showcases direct action techniques that have never been attempted before.

Blockadia Rising: Voices from the tar Sands Blockade (2013) was written, edited and narrated by Garrett Graham, an active participant of the Tar Sands Blockade who continues to support their efforts. This film is dedicated to them, and everyone fighting for environmental and social justice.

The Campaign: tarsandsblockade.org
The Filmmaker: garrettgrahamonline.wordpress.com

[Via Garrett Graham]

There are lots of "springs" happening across the world, following Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. A "spring" is not just another protest, it gets to the heart of what's wrong with that particular country and regime. It exposes the historical reasons for needing a regime chance, and articulates the possibility of spring, a different kind of future beginning now. #Idlenomore pricks at the vital nerve of Canada's foundational and ongoing colonialist enterprise. This movement stands for everything about Canada that ought to be defended. It's significance cannot be overstated.

This video captures the spirit of #Idlenomore. It was produced before Harper agreed to meet with a delegation of First Nations Chiefs. This upcoming meeting (Friday January 11th) will discuss treaty rights. Chief Spence will be joining, continuing her hunger strike until then and potentially afterwards, depending on the outcomes of the discussion. As Spence says, "we'll see what the results are, if there's really a positive result, because there are a lot of issues that we need to discuss."

Idle No More Toronto -Over 1000 people! Idle No More FlashMob Round Dance Took Over Yonge-Dundas Square today in downtown Toronto as part of the Idle No More rallies happening in solidarity with First Nations across Canada and the world.

There's a google map of all the worldwide #IdleNoMore events and rallies scheduled, find your local rally/Flashmob! View the Google Map here: http://bit.ly/ZWzvNA

RALLIES ARE HAPPENING IN EGYPT, OTTAWA, TORONTO, MONTREAL, QUEBEC, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, LOS ANGELES, -BRITISH COLUMBIA, SASKATCHEWAN, EDMONTON, WINNIPEG, SUDBURY, SIOUX LOOKOUT, YUKON, OWEN SOUND, SAN FRANCISCO, HAMILTON, VANCOUVER AND MORE!

FOR UPDATES AND MORE INFORMATION:
http://www.IdleNoMore.com/

LIKE THE IDLE NO MORE FACEBOOK COMMUNITY PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/IdleNoMoreCommunity

In this video, Omar Khadr, a 15 year old Canadian detainee – the youngest at Guatanamo bay – speaks to a team of Canadian intelligence agents after being tortured by US officials before even arriving at the facility.

This just-barely teen boy was taken into custody by the US after a firefight in Afghanistan in September 2002. Khadr was severly wounded in this battle, tortured after being taken into custody, and a month later was sent to Guantanamo Bay. Shortly after he arrived, Canadian security agents spent four days interrogating him, which are documented here. In this clip,the psychologically perverse interrogation techniques used are exposed, as you follow Khadr's painful realization that the Canadian agents are not there to take him home but to manipulate him into making incriminating statements whether or not those statements are true.

In July 2008, the video of this interrogation was ordered to be made available in a Canadian supreme court ruling that stated: “ Interrogation of a youth, to elicit statements about the most serious criminal charges while detained in these conditions and without access to counsel, and while knowing that the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the US prosecutors, offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects.”

The transformation of this 7 minute video into a documentary titled “Four Days in Guantanamo” is increasing the level of awareness regarding the treatments of prisoners at this infamous detention center.

The directors explain that International conventions which protect the rights of children in wartime (especially child soldiers) should have applied to Omar, but the Canadian government sidestepped those laws.

In October 2010, Omar pleaded guilty to all the charges pressed by the US. It was a strategic plea bargain which enabled the young boy to serve eight years in jail, instead of 40. He is the first person ever convicted as a war criminal for acts committed as a juvenile. He served a total of 3619 days in Guantanamo.

Omar has returned to Canada after a decade in custody and has been transferred to a maximum security prison in Canada where he awaits parole, which, according to his attorney, could be as early as 2013.

One person was killed and another seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire during the victory speech of Pauline Marois, Quebec's newly elected separatist premiere, who was unharmed. Police said early on Wednesday that a 50-year-old man entered the hall and fired at least one shot, wounding two people, one of them critically.

Protests against electoral fraud are ongoing as shown in this video, which is made up of protests in 23 cities in Mexico, and other countries. Many more protested in solidarity, around 50, but were not included in this video. Protests are censored by the media in Mexico, and only through the internet are the people able to get their message out to the world.

There is also a message from "Anonymous," and a full transcript of that message follows:

This is a message from the Global revolution to politicians,dictators and plutocrats all over the planet.
Surprised by the global disobedience?

Let us explain to you your delicate situation: Thousands of years ago, human beings started to evolve.
Since then, our species has walked a dark bloody road, which isolated people condemned to live in fear caused by ignorance.

Knowledge, ethics and technological development have always been conditioned by the elite and their wars, which as in the Orwellian metaphor, haven't done anything but perpetuate vertical and obscurantist social schemes.

We have arrived at the 21st Century of our era, after two World Wars,
endorsing the possibility of nuclear conflicts with assured mutual destruction.
Their so-called economists and intellectuals, having announced that it was "the end of the story",it seemed, more than ever, that looking for a fairer order was meaningless.

Continue reading »

Luke's Global Revolution TV is livestreaming police brutality protests going on now in Montreal, Canada, as well as Occupy Oakland's sit-in and concert for education at Lakeview Elementary School.