A powerful two-part documentary series that follows frontline Indigenous leaders, legal advocates, and climate activists using direct action and the legal strategy of the “necessity defense” to resist fossil fuel infrastructure across the U.S. Midwest and Pacific Northwest.

Part I documents the resistance to Line 3, a tar sands oil pipeline expansion project in Minnesota that cuts through Anishinaabe territory and sacred wild rice waters. The film follows Indigenous women leaders, including members of the Giniw Collective and Honor the Earth, as they organize prayer camps, chain themselves to pipeline equipment, and defend their treaty rights. These actions are supported by white allies and legal teams who argue that civil disobedience is justified in the face of irreversible ecological harm.

Part II expands the scope to the Pacific Northwest, where communities and tribes resist oil trains and terminals transporting tar sands and Bakken crude oil along the Columbia River Gorge and through Indigenous lands. It highlights the growing power of regional organizing along the so-called “Thin Green Line”—a corridor of resistance that has blocked or delayed over 20 major fossil fuel infrastructure projects over the past decade. A key part of this organizing is the strategic involvement of labor: the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has played a bold role in rejecting fossil fuel export projects at West Coast ports, refusing to handle coal and oil shipments in solidarity with environmental justice and tribal groups.

Though Line 3 was ultimately completed in 2021, the movement won major victories in delaying construction, building national awareness, and expanding the base of support for Indigenous-led climate resistance. Ongoing lawsuits continue to challenge the permitting process and environmental damage. Meanwhile, the broader tar sands resistance movement has succeeded in halting key infrastructure, including the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and the defeat of several oil-by-rail and export terminal projects across the Northwest.

The Necessity films remind us that even when the system feels rigged, people can still wield moral power, legal strategy, and collective action to fight back. They offer a deep look into how climate movements are rooted in land defense, treaty rights, and acts of solidarity—across generations and geographies.

Best for older teens and adults. The content includes nonviolent protest, legal trials, and environmental destruction, offering rich material for classroom and community discussion on climate justice and Indigenous rights.