The Red Line - Resistance in Hambach Forest
With its rare flora and fauna, the Hambach Forest in North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the most unique and valuable forest areas on the European continent. Despite being a rare, primeval forest dating back more than ten thousand years, the Hambach belongs to RWE, a German electric utilities company that has started to deforest the area in order to operate the country's largest open-pit lignite mine. The film follows local residents and environmental activists as they try to hold their ground against riot police and bulldozers, some doing so while perched in treehouses, to stop the destruction of this precious land.
Karin de Miguel Wessendorf (born in 1974, in Barcelona) is a filmmaker and author of numerous television documentaries and radio features on social and environmental issues. She traveled to Mexico in 2005 on a scholarship from the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and worked for Promedios, an NGO promoting the indigenous documentary films of Zapatista communities. Her research on media usage within social movements was followed by publications, lectures, and workshops on video activism, community media and politically engaging documentary film.