At its heart, it’s a battle for homeland and sovereignty. Bears Ears, a remote section of land lined with red cliffs and filled with juniper sage, is at the center of a fight over who has a say in how Western landscapes are protected and managed.
Self - Narrator (voice)
A documentary exploring the controversial use of blood quantum in determining Native American identity.
Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16 by a man who bragged to his friends that he 'bug-smashed a fag'. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition - the 'nadleeh', or 'two-spirit', who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits.
In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.
The largest man-made disaster of the 20th century, now largely lost to history. A journey through the early history of Los Angeles and the city's water needs. Ever-growing demand led to larger and larger projects, and eventually to tragedy. The history of the tragedy, the role of William Mulholland in the disaster and the city's water development, and how the lessons of the tragedy reflect on our current infrastructure needs today.
Three decades on from the disaster, Chernobyl shows signs of life again.
Examines the global fisheries crisis and the forces pushing many marine fish stocks toward commercial extinction. Documents some promising and innovative efforts to restore fisheries and protect essential fish habitat. Examines new market initiatives giving consumers a powerful vote in deciding how our oceans are fished. Commentary is provided by fishermen and by many of the world's most respected marine and fisheries scientists.
Two best friends, Clint and Lenny, set out to pan for gold during the California Gold Rush. They have a stroke of luck and find a significant amount of gold in their pans. As they continue to pan, Clint becomes increasingly fixated on finding more and more gold, to the point where he becomes ruthless and starts to turn on Lenny. Lenny tries to remind Clint of the importance of their friendship and the values they once held, but Clint's greed continues to consume him. Eventually, their friendship is put to the test as Clint's behavior becomes increasingly dangerous and erratic. Will the gold be the end of their friendship, or will Lenny be able to save his friend from the destructive power of greed?
INAATE/SE/ re-imagines an ancient Ojibway story, the Seven Fires Prophecy, which both predates and predicts first contact with Europeans. A kaleidoscopic experience blending documentary, narrative, and experimental forms, INAATE/SE/ transcends linear colonized history to explore how the prophecy resonates through the generations in their indigenous community within Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With acute geographic specificity, and grand historical scope, the film fixes its lens between the sacred and the profane to pry open the construction of contemporary indigenous identity.
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
Still photographs and narration give an overview of the history of the American Indian.
The exploitation of the country’s mineral wealth is projected as the most reasonable solution to deal with the economic crisis that plagues Greece. The Greek state has ceded its mining rights over 31.700 ha of land in northern Halkidiki, a region rich in gold, copper and other metals, to the Canadian multinational company Eldorado Gold. However, many of the region’s inhabitants, who have been resisting the construction of a goldmine for years, claim that this investment will cause irreparable damage to the environment and the benefits will be fewer than the losses. “Cassandra’s Treasure” presents a detailed picture of the modern Greek state before and during the crisis period.
ARCTIC SUMMER is a poetic meditation on Tuktoyaktuk, an Indigenous community in the Arctic. The film captures Tuk during one of the last summers before climate change forced Tuk's coastal population to relocate to more habitable land.
This short documentary is a celebration of life on planet Earth. Made from haunting visual images selected from 50 years of NFB productions, the film looks at human beings, their place on earth, and their deep interconnection with all other beings. Evocations of forces that threaten the planet and all its inhabitants also offer avenues for reflection.
The “Prophecy of the 7th Fire” says a “black snake” will bring destruction to the earth. For Winona LaDuke, the “black snake” is oil trains and pipelines. When she learns that Canadian-owned Enbridge plans to route a new pipeline through her tribe’s 1855 Treaty land, she and her community spring into action to save the sacred wild rice lakes and preserve their traditional indigenous way of life. Launching an annual spiritual horse ride along the proposed pipeline route, speaking at community meetings and regulatory hearings. Winona testifies that the pipeline route follows one of historical and present-day trauma. The tribe participates in the pipeline permitting process, asserting their treaty rights to protect their natural resources. LaDuke joins with her tribe and others to demand that the pipelines’ impact on tribal people’s resources be considered in the permitting process.
Peter Westerveld, artist and visionary, doesn’t want institutions to resolve the problems linked to earth’s problems. Growing up in Africa, he witnessed the advance of the desert and dedicated himself to finding solutions for the ongoing erosion and desertification of the land. The film follows Peter and the NGO working with him to realise his project; to build contour trenches that capture and store rain water under the surface and replenish the desert land.
A solitary woman walks through the eerie night-time landscape of Dublin's Cork Street, a street once quiet and residential, now a four-laned artery for city traffic. Memories are narrated which no longer match the present-day surroundings.
Scientist Mark Plotkin races against time to save the ancient healing knowledge of Indian tribes from extinction.
An epic journey along Africa's Great Green Wall — an ambitious vision to grow a wall of trees stretching across the entire continent to fight against increasing drought, desertification and climate change.
The last surviving Native Americans on Long Island are the focus of The Lost Spirits. The film chronicles their struggles as an indigenous people to maintain their identity amidst relentless modernization and a heartless bureaucracy.