CAA sent out the project to their financing divisions and every indie financier rejected the idea, to the point that they couldn't even book a pitch meeting. So, director Daniel Goldhaber and actor/producer/writer Ariela Barer flew themselves to the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and tried to find somebody who would be interested in the project. They eventually met the people behind Spacemaker Productions at a random party, and they agreed to the project within 15 minutes, despite the script not being finished.
Malm's book (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) is a work of nonfiction that uses a history of social justice movements to argue that property destruction should be considered a valid tactic in the pursuit of environmental justice.
An anonymous higher up at the U.S. Bureau of Counterterrorism was a technical advisor on the film.
Rejected from the Sundance Film Festival twice, as well as the South by Southwest Film Festival.
At the very beginning of the film, Xochitl punctures a car's tires and puts a note on the windshield that reads:
"WHY I SABOTAGED YOUR PROPERTY
We are living through the sixth mass extinction of all life on earth. This is, in part, due to the car you choose to drive. The production of this gas that fuels your vehicle poisons our water and blights our land. When you burn this gas, you boil our oceans and destroy our atmosphere.
As a wealthy person, you may escape some of these consequences. But they are here. People are dying. Communities are being wiped off the face of the planet - today. We can still prevent a climate catastrophe. But if the market will not act, then we will.
If the law will not punish you, then we will.
Today, it was your tires. Next time, it will be your engine. We must disable CO2-emitting devices today, not tomorrow. We cannot wait."
"WHY I SABOTAGED YOUR PROPERTY
We are living through the sixth mass extinction of all life on earth. This is, in part, due to the car you choose to drive. The production of this gas that fuels your vehicle poisons our water and blights our land. When you burn this gas, you boil our oceans and destroy our atmosphere.
As a wealthy person, you may escape some of these consequences. But they are here. People are dying. Communities are being wiped off the face of the planet - today. We can still prevent a climate catastrophe. But if the market will not act, then we will.
If the law will not punish you, then we will.
Today, it was your tires. Next time, it will be your engine. We must disable CO2-emitting devices today, not tomorrow. We cannot wait."