Two Nights of Film, Environmental Justice & Community Action

August 26–27, 2026
Varsity Theatre | Chapel Hill, NC
Doors Open: 6:00 PM

WHAT IS VS. GOLIATH?

Executive produced by Don Cheadle and The Solutions Project, Fossil Free Media, and The Equation Campaign, VS. GOLIATH is an award-winning documentary series from Tikkun Olam Productions. After spending the past year screening at film festivals around the country, VS. GOLIATH is beginning an impact campaign designed to support communities organizing against fossil fuel expansion. The series brings audiences directly to the frontlines through the stories of people who refused to accept that their communities should become sacrifice zones.

The films feature a retired schoolteacher whose faith drives her fight against the petrochemical industry in Louisiana; a veteran, farmers, and Indigenous leaders battling the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia; Indigenous leadership resisting oil and gas extraction in the Greater Chaco region of New Mexico; and a former refinery worker challenging liquefied natural gas exports in Port Arthur, Texas. These are stories of resistance, courage, community, & what becomes possible when ordinary people decide to stand against Goliath.

WHEN COMMUNITIES STAND UP TO GOLIATH

Across this country, communities are confronting powerful corporations, extractive industries, pipelines, pollution, and development projects that threaten our water, land, sacred places, health, and future.

But communities are fighting back.

Join 7 Directions of Service for VS. GOLIATH: Stories from the Frontlines, a special two-night film and community gathering at the Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill. Through documentary film, conversation, and community action, we will travel from Appalachia and Cancer Alley to the Greater Chaco region, hearing from communities confronting some of the most consequential environmental justice struggles in the country. These aren't simply stories on a screen. They are stories about people defending home. And their struggles have important lessons for the fights happening right here in North Carolina.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26

APPALACHIA & CANCER ALLEY

Doors Open: 6:00 PM | Films Begin: 6:15 PM

Night One takes us to Appalachia and Louisiana's Cancer Alley, where generations of communities have lived with the consequences of extraction, fossil fuel infrastructure, industrial pollution, and environmental injustice.

Though separated geographically, these communities share a common experience: powerful industries have been allowed to place disproportionate environmental and health burdens on people and places considered expendable. In Appalachia, veterans, farmers, Indigenous leaders, landowners, and community organizers have challenged the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the enormous corporate and political forces behind it. In Louisiana, faith and community become powerful forms of resistance as residents confront a petrochemical industry that has transformed communities along the Mississippi River.

Through film and conversation, we will explore what happens when communities refuse to accept that sacrifice is inevitable and what their struggles can teach us about the environmental fights unfolding here in North Carolina.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 27

GREATER CHACO REGION & PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS

Doors Open: 6:00 PM | Films Begin: 6:15 PM

Night Two takes us west to the Greater Chaco region and south to Port Arthur, Texas—two communities whose stories reveal the profound connections between Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, public health, and the consequences of fossil fuel development.

The evening begins in the Greater Chaco region, a living cultural landscape of immense significance to Indigenous peoples that has faced decades of pressure from oil and gas extraction. The film explores the relationship between Indigenous sovereignty, sacred places, cultural survival, land, water, and environmental justice, asking a fundamental question:

What happens when places Indigenous peoples consider sacred are treated simply as resources to be extracted?

We then travel to Port Arthur, Texas, where residents living in the shadow of refineries and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities confront the cumulative impacts of industrial pollution on their families and neighborhoods. Through the story of a former refinery worker turned advocate, the film examines the human cost of fossil fuel expansion and the courage required to challenge the industry from within.

Although these stories unfold in different places, they raise many of the same questions we are asking here in North Carolina.

As proposed fossil fuel infrastructure continues to move through our region, Indigenous communities and their allies are confronting projects that threaten waterways, ancestral landscapes, archaeological sites, cultural resources, potential burial grounds, and the health of surrounding communities.

Together, these films ask us to consider:

Who decides what is sacred?

Whose history is protected?

Who bears the consequences of development?

Who is expected to live with pollution so others can profit?

And what responsibility do we have when the places our ancestors left in our care are threatened?

The geography may be different.

The responsibility is shared.

TWO NIGHTS. FOUR REGIONS. ONE SHARED STRUGGLE.

Appalachia. Cancer Alley. Greater Chaco. Port Arthur.

Different landscapes.
Different communities.
Different histories.

Yet each raises similar questions about corporate power, environmental justice, Indigenous rights, public health, sacred places, and who decides what happens to the land.

WHY “VS. GOLIATH”?

Environmental justice fights can often feel like David versus Goliath. On one side are corporations with enormous financial resources, attorneys, lobbyists, consultants, and political influence. On the other are families, farmers, Tribal communities, environmental advocates, landowners, young people, faith leaders, and neighbors trying to protect the places they call home.

Yet Goliath does not always win.

Community knowledge matters.

Indigenous knowledge matters.

Organizing matters.

Speaking up matters.

And standing together matters.

MORE THAN A FILM SCREENING

VS. GOLIATH invites you to move from watching to witnessing. And from witnessing to action.

Following the films, we will create space for conversation about the connections between these national stories and environmental justice struggles happening right here in North Carolina. You will also have opportunities to take action. Meet people working on the frontlines. Learn about current environmental threats facing our communities. Connect with other people who care about environmental justice. Find ways to volunteer, organize, advocate, and help protect the places we call home. Whether you have been organizing for years or are just beginning to learn about these issues, you belong in this conversation.

Bring a friend.

Bring a neighbor.

Bring your questions.

Bring your voice.