DOC - A CITY IN THE FOREST

Documentary Feature

Title: A CITY IN THE FOREST

Project Status: In Postproduction

Logline 

When a private police foundation in Atlanta tries to raze an urban forest to build the country’s largest police training facility, a diverse, decentralized, and intersectional movement defends the forest from what they call “Cop City.” A City in the Forest paints a collective portrait of the country’s most urgent social justice story, where a web of activists fight back against environmental racism, political corruption, police violence, and the criminalization of dissent.

Synopsis

A City in the Forest opens in Weelaunee, a sprawling urban forest in Atlanta where young queer land defenders create an encampment to prevent it from being turned into “Cop City,” a $110 million police training facility. Tortuguita, a beloved Forest Defender who has been living in a treehouse for months, welcomes us into their forest utopia, where land defenders share meals, read poetry, throw raves, and share outdoor skills.

The movement’s civil disobedience keeps bulldozers at bay for over a year. Then, on a January morning, six officers unload their assault rifles into Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán—tearing their body with 57 gunshot wounds—in the first documented police killing of a climate activist in US history.

Grieving activists mobilize in downtown Atlanta. Tortuguita’s mother becomes the movement's emotional leader. The movement continues to stall construction through non-violent direct actions in broad daylight, and through the destruction of construction equipment and police vehicles under the cover of darkness.

A City in the Forest is ultimately an unflinching portrait of the South as the epicenter of struggles for social and environmental justice in this country. The film is at once a riveting eco-thriller and a moving reflection on community—forged in the frontlines of abolition, the climate emergency, and democracy itself.

Additional Project Information

Directors Lev Omelchenko and Nolan Huber-Rhoades are Emmy-award-winning directors for their AJ Plus video on Cop City. Their feature, A City in the Forest, has been supported by Ford Foundation, Yale DocProject, and Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Team

Directed by: Lev Omelchenko & Nolan Huber-Rhoades, Produced by: Ike Rofe, Edited by: Emily Yue, Executive produced by: Reverend Lennox Yearwood

Seeking

Post-production funds, Post-production in-kind support, Potential financiers, Investors, Distribution advisors, Distribution

Rights Available

All rights available

Project Website

Contact

Ike Rofe

ike@muddywater.co