Bill Devall

On 1500 metres above sea level, on the slope of the mountain Hallingskarvet, stands "Tvergastein', the cabin of Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. In his life he has spent nearly 12 years in this hut, where he wrote several books and essays on philosophy and ecology. In this film, Naess tells about the concept of 'deep ecology', which was first introduced by him in 1973. One of the basic tenets of deep ecology is that nature has a value in itself, apart from its possible use value to humans. Next to being a famous mountaineer, Naess has been a longtime activist in the environmental movement. He gives an inspiring account of his participation in blockades to prevent the Alta river in northern Norway (the area of the Sami, an indigenous people) from being dammed.

"Earth First! - The Politics of Radical Environmentalism" documents the rise of the controversial eco-activist group, Earth First!, as told by its founders, its admirers and its opponents, including rare interviews with its founders, Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle and Howie Wolke. Earth First! burst onto the environmental scene in the 1980s, engaging not only in civil disobedience to protect America's wilderness from exploitation, but ecotage - the destruction of heavy equipment, roads, and mills involved in deforestation. The movement become heroic to some, infamous to others, by scaling and occupying 200-foot tall old-growth trees to frustrate the plans of timber companies; and for "tree-spiking," hammering iron spikes into standing trees as a threat to the machinery of any mill that dared to process it. Earth First! includes rare footage of ecoteurs engaging in their exploits on camera.