2014 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Avi Lewis’ The Message

Sundance tends to include at least one eco-friendly docu in their line-up, and this one promises to shake up the establishment. He broke out with his directing debut, The Take (about unemployed auto-parts workers who took joblessness into their own hands) and now a decade later, his sophomore project also working with a direct, to-the-point type of title in The Message is in the works. Once again working alongside Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine), Canuck documentary helmer Avi Lewis has been working on this project since ’11, but as is the case with several docu titles, we might be a tad bit early on the delivery date.

Gist: Based on the book by Naomi Klein, truly confronting the climate challenge means reducing inequality, addressing the global South’s right to development, localizing economies, halting destructive extraction projects and deepening democracy. The film takes an international outlook and emphasizes people on the frontlines of change, questioning ideas about our place in the world and offering alternatives to the quest for endless economic growth, the assumption of Western supremacy, and human dominance over nature.

Production Co./Producers: Joslyn Barnes (Trouble the Water) and Avi Lewis

Prediction: World Documentary Competition

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

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