Avi Lewis is an Associate Professor in the Geography department at the University of British Columbia. Avi is also a documentary filmmaker and educator, with more than 30 years of experience in journalism and storytelling from the front lines of social movements. In 2015, he was a co-author of The Leap Manifesto; fifteen political demands to get Canada off fossil fuels in a way that simultaneously confronts racial and gender discrimination and economic inequality. He has also been deeply involved in the emergent frame of the Green New Deal – working with The Sunrise Movement in the US, and producing the animated short films Message from the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair, written with Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi. Prior to joining UBC, he was a lecturer at Rutgers University School of Communication and Information, where he designed a course that unpacks the impact of feature length documentaries. At UBC, his teaching focuses on social and political change, communication and documentary filmmaking.