Sacred Land Memes
How do we spread the word and create a buzz amidst a flood of social media content? We know that our four-hour series of film stories is pushing everyone’s attention span envelope. So, leading up to…
Hopi and Zuni Visit Bears Ears in Utah
Back in the 1980s, when I was younger—and more limber—I led 20 week-long backpacking trips in the canyon country of southern Utah. In the Cedar Mesa area, south of Canyonlands National Park, every…
Koch Brothers Leased 2 Million Tar Sands Acres
In March 2014 there was a brief media dust-up after the Washington Post reported that the Koch brothers were the largest leaseholders of tar sands acreage, having leased 1.1 million acres. The Post…
Tar Sands Protests Then and Now
I’m headed to Dartmouth at the invitation of old friend Terry Tempest Williams, to show Profit and Loss and Islands of Sanctuary on Wednesday. Terry has hiked the area of eastern Utah where…
New Video: Tar Sands Map Rap
In our film, Profit and Loss, we have four brief scenes of Mike Mercredi explaining a giant wall map of the Alberta tar sands that he and his colleague Lionel Lepine created for their Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation tribal government. The clips we use in the film are about 20 seconds each, and like all…
Hawai`i’s Legislature Should Fund Commercial Free Kaho`olawe
As our films head for PBS broadcast in places like Honolulu, it is heartening to continue to cultivate the relationships that led to the film stories being told. Collaboration with the Protect Kaho`olawe…
Kaho`olawe’s Legacy—as told by Clifford Nae`ole
Our filming in Hawai`i took us to many special places beyond Kaho`olawe. Listening to stories about the amazing, profound impact that the extended family known as the Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana had throughout the islands…
Report From Four Corners
In early February, I made a pilgrimage back to the Four Corners area to visit old friends at Zuni and Hopi, to show some films, and to find out about sacred site battles old and new. Tops on everyone’s mind is the proposal to build a resort hotel…