Where Capitalism faces Rights of Nature, a community fights to keep Democracy alive.
Invisible Hand, a Rights of Nature documentary, hasn’t been released to the public yet. They do have a website where you can view the 3 minute trailer (which I highly recommend!), read more about the story behind the movie, and see where they are currently having public showings. Below is brief description of the documentary from the website.
INVISIBLE HAND is the world’s first documentary film about the creation of ‘Rights of Nature’ from the exploitation of capitalism. It’s set in the defining battle of our times where democracy faces off with corporations in the rural and exploited communities of America.
FULL SYNOPSIS
For the first time in United States history, in the fall of 2014, an ecosystem filed to defend itself in a lawsuit claiming its ‘right to exist’ in Grant Township, Pennsylvania. But watersheds can’t hire lawyers or speak, so how can they defend their rights?
How do watersheds have rights?
There are no gas stations or stores in Grant Township, Pennsylvania. There is no post office, and no public water supply. When a corporation proposed injecting toxic waste underground there, the people of Grant Township passed a Community Bill of Rights banning waste injection and giving legal Rights to Nature.
Since then, Grant has been sued by Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE), an oil and gas corporation with tons of fracking waste to unload. PGE sued the township claiming that it has the “right” to inject toxic fracking waste without the communities consent. The Pennsylvania state government also sued the people of Grant Township, claiming an abuse of power.
Across Pennsylvania, and worldwide, communities are fighting in the same battle against the kings of corporations. In the anticipation of losing this battle, Grant Township took another radical turn and became the first community in history to enact a law legalizing civil disobedience in (c. 2016).
Tying the frontline fight in Grant Township to the conflict in Standing Rock, North Dakota, INVISIBLE HAND presents a new outcome of the “invisible hand” used by free market economists and capitalists in their promotion of self-interest and the exploitation of nature for profit — the creation of ‘Rights of Nature.’
Narrated by award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo and directed by the alarming, award-winning filmmakers Joshua B. Pribanic and Melissa A. Troutman, INVISIBLE HAND takes you inside the struggle behind the curtain of our daily economy to reveal a new future for democracy and Nature.