When we filmed the canoe ceremony in Bosmun village on the Ramu River in Papua New Guinea, there was an all night debate about whether we would be allowed to film the transcendental flute players who started playing at midnight heading into the final day of the four-day ceremony.
It was a cold afternoon in DC, gray skies but no rain, perfect weather to drive a crowd into an auditorium to watch four hours of films. The Capitol dome sat quiet and irrelevant off to the northeast, spitting distance from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
As indigenous leaders from around the world head to the Bay Area this week to celebrate the premiere screenings of Standing on Sacred Ground, the excitement heightens my awareness of both the honor and humbling responsibility of directing this project.
The fire was hungry. It consumed milk, vodka, bread, cheese, lamb’s heads, cow’s legs, barley, cedar, juniper, water and the prayers and songs of a dozen shamans from all over Asia. The fire roared, sparked, smoked, called out to ancestors and spirits, and seemed very happy to be fed by the people…
Thousands came to the opening night of the Maui Film Festival to see Islands of Sanctuary!
Islands of Sanctuary premiered at the Maui Film Festival on June 12 under a starry sky with more than a thousand people staying to watch the late night screening…
President Obama has sent a clear message to the environmental community: ‘I need to hear from you loud and clear and often.’ The economic and political pressure on the president to approve the Keystone XL pipeline is enormous…
After joining a 500-year-long struggle, inspired every step of the way by the deep commitment of so many determined allies, it’s nice to watch the wheel of history turn — ever so slowly.
For the last 15 years, the Sacred Land Film Project has worked to improve U.S. government recognition and protection of Native American sacred places…
We were shocked to learn that SLFP colleague Rogelio Mejia narrowly escaped death three months ago. Mejia, a leader of the northern Colombian Arhuaco tribe, survived an attack that riddled his car with 40 bullets…
On September 12, delegates attending the World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea, voted overwhelmingly to approve a motion aimed at strengthening protection for sacred places.
As the sun set on the annual Taos Pueblo Powwow in Taos, N.M., on July 14, representatives of the Taos Land Trust, surrounded by dancers and tribal members from across the country, officially returned a sacred hot springs property to the Taos Pueblo Tribe…