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A Radical Thread
A back-to-the-land community fights off corporate Goliaths intent on environmental devastation while using the same collective ethos to stitch an 83-foot tapestry that visualizes their story.
70 minutes
SDH Captioned>>
Directed by Jeanne C. Finley
Produced by Jeanne C. Finley
Created in collaboration with Marsha Stone & Jennifer Rain Crosby
Assistant to Director: Yumeng Guo
Photography: Andrew Black, Yumeng Guo
Sound Design: Jim McKee, Earwax Productions
Original Music: Andrew Murray Campbell, Luca LaMarca
Executive Producers: Julia Robertson, Susanne Cockrell
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"[A] visually sumptuous exploration of how a place shapes its people, and vice versa." Peter Friederici, Prof. Sustainable Communities, Northern Arizona Univ
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Set against the dramatic scars of 19th century hydraulic gold mining, A RADICAL THREAD follows a Sierra Foothills back-to-the-land community as they invent national models of sustainability in their fight against the corporate goliaths of mining, logging and damming. The community's 17-year collaborative project stitching an 83-foot tapestry visualizes the Ridge's story in twelve narrative embroidered panels. Now, as they face their greatest threat of all, climate-driven wildfires, they pass their knowledge of environmental justice to the next generation.
Grade Level: 10-12, College, Adults
US Release Date: 2026
Copyright Date: 2025
DVD ISBN: 1-961192-57-8
Reviews
"A Radical Thread reminds us of what is possible when humans come together to live in reciprocity with the land. Through decades of communal living and the weaving of that shared history into a multi-paneled tapestry, the San Juan Ridge community transforms labor into love, craft into story, and community into living history. Their values are not merely documented in A Radical Thread - they are woven directly into the fabric of the film itself." Erika Osborne, Professor of Art and Art History, Colorado State University
"I highly recommend the film. A Radical Thread beautifully weaves together the stories, told through a set of tapestries, of poets, back-to-the-land settlers, and the region's original Native peoples along the San Juan Ridge near the Yuba river California. Despite waves of disruption - from the Gold Rush to mining and now climate-driven wildfires - this film highlights a community's deep resilience and enduring connection to place." Thomas Kersen, Associate Professor of Sociology, Jackson State University, Author, Where Misfits Fit: Counterculture and Influence in the Ozarks
"A Radical Thread literally weaves together the content of the times - the back to the land movement of the 1970s - with art. It is an informative film about another unknown or forgotten period of people's history. The first person narratives along with the storytelling embedded in the fabric serves as a roadmap for our current problems related to climate change and justice." Susan Erenrich, Social Movement History Documentarian, Lecturer of Government Teaching, American University
"As a professor who teaches in both a Fiber and Textiles Department, as well as in a new program focused on sustainability and justice, I see so many possibilities for rich discussion in sharing this film with my students. Radical Thread is a deeply compelling and timely film, offering valuable insights from the Back to the Land counter-culture movement, the communities and places shaped by them and the ongoing practices that seek alternatives to mainstream American capitalist society. I am so grateful for this film." Valeska Populoh, Fiber Department, Maryland Institute College of Art, Co-founder, Puppet Slamwich, Black Cherry Puppet Theater
"A Radical Thread is a compelling portrait of a community's endurance, told through the extraordinary creation of an 83-foot tapestry. This film transforms collective art into a powerful narrative of resilience, sustainability, and shared purpose - an inspiring testament to what can be achieved when many voices stitch together one story." Madelaine Corbin, Fiber artist, Craft Center Coordinator, Oregon State University
"This engaging documentary tells the story of how a long-standing homesteading community on the San Juan Ridge in Nevada County, CA created an extensive series of tapestries documenting their history. A participatory art project that mirrors the nature of the community, the recently completed tapestries are an impressive testament to the culture the residents have developed and nourished over fifty years." Julie Reiss, Lecturer of Art and Sustainability, Columbia University, Editor, Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene
"A Radical Thread presents us with a visual storytelling of the kind of community we can aspire to be a part of: one that honors life, place, and the stories of its people through intention, collaboration, and artistry. Through each panel of the time honored tradition of stitching story, the San Juan Ridge tapestry communicates powerful themes of identity, climate resilience and shared humanity, showing how creative expression can hold space for both reflection and action." Melanie Wilder, Fiber Arts Instructor, Warren Wilson College
"A Radical Thread beautifully illustrates a fleeting Utopia. As a child of the hippie movement, the values espoused seem even further from where we are today, yet, through the stories and illustrations, I can suspend my disbelief for the duration of the film and hope. The people who have accomplished the Tapestry Project have left a narrative and pictorial legacy that, with great care, will serve generations to come." Delaney DeMott, Associate Professor of Fibers and Material Studies, Temple University
"Told through fabric and film, A Radical Thread is a visually sumptuous exploration of how a place shapes its people, and vice versa. Plumbing the highlights and heartbreaks that result from reinhabitation, it shares hard-won insights into how other communities can approach their own climate-breakdown future." Peter Friederici, Professor of Sustainable Communities, Northern Arizona University, Author, Beyond Climate Breakdown: Envisioning New Stories of Radical Hope
"A Radical Thread is a wonderful portrait of the San Juan Ridge community, featuring the beautiful San Juan Ridge Tapestry that documents key moments in the history of this intentional, back to the land community with their collective joys and struggles in 12 panels spanning 83 feet and was 17 years in the making. The film and tapestry are gifts not only to the generations of Ridge residents but also to the world at large for they serve as testaments to the power of people coming together to meet the challenges of climate change and a celebration of collective action and creativity." Kim-Trang Tran, Professor of Art, Scripps College
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DVDs include public performance rights.
DVD Features
DVD includes English SDH captions, and scene selection
Awards and Festivals
People's Choice Award, Wild and Scenic Film Festival
Semi-Finalist, Tokyo Women's Film Festival
Doclands Documentary Film Festival
Mendocino Film Festival
Detroit Independent Film Festival
Subjects
Activism
American Studies
Art/Architecture
Citizenship and Civics
Climate Change/Global Warming
Community
Conservation
Design
Ecology
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Justice
Fiber Arts
Film Studies
Geography
History
Humanities
Local Economies
Migration and Refugees
Mining
Native Americans
Natural Resources
Sociology
Sustainability
Textiles
Western US
Women's Studies
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... more Reviews
"A Radical Thread is the kind of documentary we need - one that reminds us that place and community are intimately connected. The tapestry and its artists are not only a chronicle of the San Juan Ridge community's history, they are contributing to its future by looking back and learning, finding and creating a linked story. What a treat to see sustainability in action in this outstanding film!" David Taylor, Director of Sustainability Studies, Associate Professor, Environmental Humanities, Stony Brook University
"Radical Thread is a moving portrait of how human communities are strengthened through relationship with place. The beauty of the tapestry is equals parts the artifact itself, and the storytelling that accompanies it. As a faculty member at a Non Tribal Native American Serving Institution, I appreciate that the film incorporates the voices of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and their historical and contemporary stewardship of the Yuba River watershed alongside the most recent settlements of the 1960s homesteaders." Michelle Larkins, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability, Fort Lewis College
"The film is both a visual celebration and an intimate reflection. It documents not just the making of the tapestry, but the ethos inherent in a culture of collectivism, care for the land, and an ongoing struggle to live sustainably." Selvedge Magazine
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