Our Movement Starts Here (82 mins, 2024)

Producers / Co-directors: John Rash & Melanie Ho

Team: Allison Friday, Jeffrey Reed, Raeghan Buchanan, Rex Jones, Sandip Rai, Bethany Fitts, and Lillian Slaughter


Documenting the History and Global Urgency of Environmental Justice

In 1982, a rural, predominately Black community in North Carolina mobilized and fought the state’s plan to site a toxic PCB landfill in their county. This landmark action, the first to articulate the concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice,brought together civil rights activists and environmentalist for the first time to fight for common goals. 40 years later, the citizens of Warren County commemorate the anniversary by inspiring a new generation of environmental justice activists to push the movement into a future that grapples with the inequities of climate change, continued environmental atrocities that target poor communities of color, and a system that continues to dump on those with the least power to fight. 

Through contemporary interviews with the original protesters who inspired the environmental justice movement in 1982, this feature documentary tells the story of a rural community fighting the state of North Carolina’s plan to construct a toxic landfill near their homes.

PUBLIC EVENTS

April 15, 2025 – Appalachian Theatre – App State University (Boone, NC)

Feb 21-23, 2025Colorado Environmental Film Festival (Golden, CO)

Jan 26, 2025Carrboro Film Festival (Carrboro, NC)

Jan 26, 2025 – Meredith College Documentary Film Festival (Raleigh, NC)

Jan 24-26, 2025Central Florida Film Festival (Mount Dora, FL)

Nov 30, 2024L.A. Punk Film Festival (Los Angeles, CA)

Nov 23, 2024San Diego Environmental Film Festival (San Diego, CA)

Nov 16, 2024Indie Memphis Film Festival (Memphis, TN)

Nov 2, 2024Outer Banks Environmental Film Festival (Manteo, NC)

* 2024 Jury Award: Best Feature Film

* 2024 Audience Award: Best Film

Oct 30, 2024Shadowbox Studio, 10th Anniversary (Durham, NC)

Oct 27, 2024Beaufort Film Festival (Beaufort, NC)

Oct 24, 2024Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Oct 19-20, 2024Bread and Roses Film Festival (Asbury Park, NJ)

*Best of Festival 2024: Programmer Award

Oct 19, 2024Punkfilmfest Berlin (Berlin, Germany)

Oct 18, 2024Lost River Film Festival (San Marcos, TX)

Oct 17, 2024Queen City Film Festival (Plainfield, NJ)

Oct 12, 2024Gary International Black Film Festival (Gary, IN)

* 2024 Jury Award: Best Documentary

Oct 12, 2024Indigo Moon Film Festival (Fayetteville, NC)

* 2024 Jury Award: Best Documentary

* 2024 Audience Award: Best Documentary

Oct 8, 2024 Festival Internacional De Cinema Ambiental e Direitos Humanos (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Oct 4-5, 2024Africa Human Rights Film Festival (Cape Town, South Africa)

Sept 25, 2024Richmond International Film Festival  (Richmond, VA)

* 2024 Outstanding Merit for Civic Action

Sept 21, 2024Global Peace Film Festival  (Winter Park, FL)

Sept 19, 2024Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi (Oxford, MS)

Sept 14, 2024Georgia Film Festival (Oakwood, GA)

* 2024 Special Recognition: Documentary

Sept 12, 2024Rights! Camera! Action!, Duke University (Durham, NC)

Sept 7, 2024Full Bloom Film Festival  (Statesville, NC)

* 2024 Best Documentary Feature

Aug 25, 2024Indianapolis Black Documentary Film Festival (Indianapolis, IN)

Aug 24, 2024Fort Smith International Film Festival (Ft. Smith, AR)

* 2024 Best Documentary Feature

July 27, 2024Social & Economic Justice Film Festival *(San Francisco, CA)

* 2024 Best Feature-Length Film

July 13, 2024Firestorm Books (Asheville, NC)

May 17, 2024Florida Environmental Film Festival (Sarasota, FL)

May 10, 2024Long Leaf Film Festival, NC Museum of History (Raleigh, NC)*

*History + Best Documentary Award 2024

MEDIA

NC Local News Workshop: Interview with co-directors John Rash & Melanie Ho, Catherine Komp

North Carolina Health News: From Dumped On To Praised, Will Atwater

The Warren Record: Film Documenting Warren County to Premiere

The Warrenist: Documentary Screening

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Warren County, NC

Sept 18, 2022

40th Anniversary Events and Panel Discussions

Filmed by John Rash, Melanie Ho, Rex Jones, Sandip Rai, Lillian Slaughter, and Bethany Fitts

Edited by Lillian Slaughter

40 years after the original PCB protests that launched the movement in Warren County, North Carolina, the original protesters return along with current members of their community to pass the torch to the next generation of environmental justice activists.

*Thanks to Rev. Bill Kearney for helping to provide access to film this event.

EXHIBTION OPENING PANEL @ UNC

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Sept 15, 2022

40th Anniversary Events and Panel Discussions

Filmed by John Rash and Melanie Ho

Edited by John Rash

The North Carolina Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina held an exhibition opening program on Sept 15, 2022 titled “We Birthed the Movement: The Warren County PCB Landfill Protests, 1978-1982.” The event featured a video presentation highlighting the stories of five images from the exhibition and comments by members of the Warren County Environmental Action Team (WCEAT), who co-curated the exhibition with Wilson Library staff.

*Thanks to Biff Hollingsworth, and Stephen Fletcher for helping to provide access to film this event.

Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. Lecture

Duke Chapel, Duke University, Durham, NC

Sept 15, 2022 

40th Anniversary Events and Panel Discussions

Filmed by John Rash and Melanie Ho

Edited by Sandip Rai

Rev. Dr. Ben Chavis Jr. commemorating 40 years of the environmental justice movement in conversation with Catherine Coleman Flowers and moderator Cameron Oglesby at Duke Chapel, Duke University, Durham, NC on Sept 15, 2022.

*Thanks to Cameron Oglesby for helping to provide access to film this event.

RECALLING WARREN COUNTY

Panel Discussion, Duke University, Durham, NC

Sept 14, 2022

40th Anniversary Events and Panel Discussions

Filmed by John Rash and Melanie Ho

Edited by Bethany Fitts

Panel discussion hosted by the Nicholas School for the Environment at Duke University to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the birth of the environmental justice movement in Warren County, North Carolina. Professor La’Meshia Whittington moderates the panel that includes original activists Rev. Dr. Ben Chavis, Jr., Dollie Burwell, Wayne Moseley, and Former Rep. Eva Clayton as well as photographer Jenny Labalme and Rev. William Kearney.

*Thanks to Cameron Oglesby for helping to provide access to film this event.