Overview: A Radical Thread tells the story of an intentional community fights off corporate Goliaths while using the same collective ethos to stitch an 83-foot tapestry visualizing their story.

DVD Verdict: Seeking an alternative to America’s consumer culture, hundreds of back-to-the-land families coalesced around Poet Laureate Gary Snyder and settled on California’s San Juan Ridge in the late 1960s.

Repeatedly threatened by corporate Goliaths intent on clear-cutting the Sierra forests, damming the Yuba River, and polluting the Ridge with open-pit gold mining, the community organized to defend their homesteads.

Their success in overcoming these seemingly impossible obstacles has created national models of sustainability. Now, they are facing their greatest threat of all: climate-driven wildfires.

A RADICAL THREAD is set against the dramatic scars of 19th century hydraulic gold mining and told through the story of the San Juan Ridge Tapestry Project, a 17-year collaborative stitching project that has produced an 83-foot tapestry visualizing the Ridge’s story in twelve embroidered narrative panels.

Among those appearing in the film are Shelly Covert, spokesperson for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, who credits the community’s activism for helping set the stage for cultural reparations; tapestry illustrator Jennifer Rain Crosby, who demonstrates how its creation embodies the ethos of the community; and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder, whose prescient archival footage about the environmental costs of fossil fuels are combined with his faith in the Ridge’s continued vitality.

The fact that many voices contribute to the community’s narrative reflects the power of their collective nature as well the process of making the tapestry. But the main character of the film is the tapestry itself, which depicts a community founded with much optimism and hope that has learned to grow and survive in the face of challenges that include the existential threat of climate change.

I was particularly taken with a shot of the minor atmospheric distortions caused by the burning of cleared underbrush as a wildfire safety measure; the way the traces of black ash flicker as they rise into the sky is like nothing I’ve seen captured via a moving image format.

In short, A RADICAL THREAD explores what can happen when a community truly dedicates itself to living lightly on the land, and comes together to understand new ways of sustainability for future generations.

Bonus Features:
English SDH Captions
Scene Selection

A Radical Thread | Official Trailer

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