VS. GOLIATH: Stories from the Frontlines (Night 1/2)

Executive produced by Don Cheadle and The Solutions Project, Fossil Free Media, and The Equation Campaign, VS. GOLIATH is an award-winning documentary series from Tikkun Olam Productions. After spending the past year screening at film festivals around the country, VS. GOLIATH is beginning an impact campaign designed to support communities organizing against fossil fuel expansion. The series brings audiences directly to the frontlines through the stories of people who refused to accept that their communities should become sacrifice zones.

The films feature a retired schoolteacher whose faith drives her fight against the petrochemical industry in Louisiana; a veteran, farmers, and Indigenous leaders battling the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia; Indigenous leadership resisting oil and gas extraction in the Greater Chaco region of New Mexico; and a former refinery worker challenging liquefied natural gas exports in Port Arthur, Texas. These are stories of resistance, courage, community, & what becomes possible when ordinary people decide to stand against Goliath.

Join 7 Directions of Service for VS. GOLIATH: Stories from the Frontlines, a special two-night film and community gathering at the Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill. Through documentary film, conversation, and community action, we will travel from Appalachia and Cancer Alley to the Greater Chaco region, hearing from communities confronting some of the most consequential environmental justice struggles in the country. These aren’t simply stories on a screen. They are stories about people defending home. And their struggles have important lessons for the fights happening right here in North Carolina.

Night 1/2: APPALACHIA & CANCER ALLEY
Wednesday, August 26
Doors Open: 6:00 PM | Films Begin: 6:15 PM
Varsity Theater, 123 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Night One takes us to Appalachia and Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, where generations of communities have lived with the consequences of extraction, fossil fuel infrastructure, industrial pollution, and environmental injustice.

Though separated geographically, these communities share a common experience: powerful industries have been allowed to place disproportionate environmental and health burdens on people and places considered expendable. In Appalachia, veterans, farmers, Indigenous leaders, landowners, and community organizers have challenged the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the enormous corporate and political forces behind it. In Louisiana, faith and community become powerful forms of resistance as residents confront a petrochemical industry that has transformed communities along the Mississippi River.

Through film and conversation, we will explore what happens when communities refuse to accept that sacrifice is inevitable and what their struggles can teach us about the environmental fights unfolding here in North Carolina.