Standing On Sacred Ground - a film

[Lodestar]

Debuts on WORLD Channel Beginning Sunday, May 17 at 9:00 PM (ET) Through Sunday, June 7 (check local listings)

Indigenous communities around the world resist threats to their sacred places—the original protected lands—in a growing movement to defend human rights and restore the environment. In this four-part documentary series, native people share ecological wisdom and spiritual reverence while battling a utilitarian view of land in the form of government megaprojects, consumer culture, and resource extraction as well as competing religions and climate change.

Narrated by Graham Greene, with the voices of Tantoo Cardinal and Q'orianka Kilcher, the "Standing on Sacred Ground" series exposes threats to native peoples' health, livelihood, and cultural survival in eight communities around the world. Rare verité scenes of tribal life allow indigenous people to tell their own stories—and confront us with the ethical consequences of our culture of consumption.

Produced by the Sacred Land Film Project.
http://standingonsacredground.org/

PRESS RELEASE

Berkeley, CA — Standing on Sacred Ground, a four-part documentary series, eight years in the making, on Indigenous struggles over sacred sites, enjoys its national broadcast premiere on the WORLD Channel, Sunday, May 17 at 9:00 PM (ET) (check local listings).

The next three episodes will run weekly through June 7, 2015. In addition, public television stations nationwide will have access to the programming via the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA), which has also accepted the series for broadcast distribution beginning in April 2015. The WORLD Channel delivers the best of public television’s nonfiction, news and documentary programming to U.S. audiences through local public television stations and streaming online. WORLD reached 35 million unique viewers 18+ last year.

Standing on Sacred Ground, produced by the Sacred Land Film Project,shares stories from eight Indigenous communities around the globe resisting threats to lands they consider sacred in a growing movement to defend human rights, protect culture and restore the environment. In the series, Native people share ecological wisdom and spiritual reverence while battling government megaprojects, consumer culture, competing religions, resource extraction and climate change.

In episode one, Pilgrims and Tourists, Indigenous shamans of the Altai Republic of Russia and a northern California tribe find common ground resisting government projects: Shasta Dam and a Gazprom pipeline.

In episode two, Profit and Loss, from Papua New Guinea to the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, Native people fight the loss of land, water and health to mining and oil industries.

In episode three, Fire and Ice, from the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia to the Andes of Peru, Indigenous communities protect their sacred lands from development, competing religions and climate change. In the final episode Islands of Sanctuary, Aboriginal Australians and Native Hawaiians reclaim land and resist the erosion of culture and environment.

“Public television viewers will now have the opportunity to access global perspectives from a chorus of Indigenous voices defending against attacks on their resources, and on the future we share,” said producer and director, Christopher “Toby” McLeod. “We are proud to partner with The WORLD Channel, NETA, Vision Maker Media and Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), who are constantly striving to provide public television stations with diverse, enlightening programming for their audiences.”

The films are now available for public television stations to schedule in time for broadcasts timed around Earth Day on April 22, 2015. The WORLD Channel premiere of episode one of Standing on Sacred Ground on May 17 coincides with Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month (May).

“We know having these films available to public television stations in May, timed with “We know having these films available to public television stations in May, timed with Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, will allow local stations to provide their viewers with important content that focuses on the issues facing many Native cultures in their areas,” notes Leanne K. Ferrer, Executive Director of Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC). “We also understand some stations may choose to hold some or all of the films to air in November during Native American Heritage Month.”

The film series has screened to great acclaim around the world since its release at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2013. It received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the Native American Film Festival 2013 and director Toby McLeod received the John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival 2014.

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian screened the series last year as part of the U.S. Environmental Film Festival, and the films were featured at the World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia, last November. The films have also been screening in the Altai Republic, Moscow, Peru and Papua New Guinea.

Praise for STANDING ON SACRED GROUND:

“Beautifully illuminates Indigenous peoples’ resistance to environmental devastation and their determination to protect our common future.” —Robert Redford

“Some of the finest minds on the planet are featured in this documentary—and they’re talking about the biggest problems our planet has ever faced!” —Bill McKibben

In addition to the WORLD Channel premiere in May, NETA has distributed Standing on Sacred Ground to the full public broadcasting system for April 2015. To find out more about the series, visit www.StandingOnSacredGround.org.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/23/1379759/-Broadcast-Premiere-of-Four-Part-Film-Series-STANDING-ON-SACRED-GROUND#

[Panich52]

1. K&R (Posted link to this post in First Americans)

[Lodestar]

3. Thanks.. Here's another

Celebrating Real Heroes Like the One We've Just Lost

If you want to meet the best Australians, meet Indigenous men and women who understand this extraordinary country and have fought for the rights of the world's oldest culture. Theirs is a struggle more selfless, heroic and enduring than any historical adventure non-Indigenous Australians are required incessantly to celebrate.

I know this to be true, because I have been reporting from and filming in Indigenous communities for most of my life. In 1984, I met one of the best Australians, Kwementyaye Randall.

Kwementyaye Randall was, like so many others, stolen from his mother. He was 7 when he was taken by the "authorities," and he never saw his mother again and grew up alone. Indeed, he felt the full force of Australian colonial brutality and duplicity most of his life; but he fought it and rose above it, and he never faltered in confronting the injustice imposed on Indigenous people. I mourn the passing of this old friend, a real hero in a nation that has yet to find the moral sense to honor those who courageously stand against oppression within Australia.

..//..

Sitting in the shade outside his house more than 30 years later, he spoke eloquently about the love and respect for this land that he and Indigenous people felt. He was an educator and natural leader who taught people to reclaim the cultural identity that is Australia's singular uniqueness.

But mostly, Kwementyaye Randall was still angry and hurt. He described vividly how the Australian army had invaded his community in 2007 - "They pitched their tents right over there, without asking: Can you believe it? The Australian Army. We were being invaded."

MORE
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/30812-celebrating-real-heroes-like-the-one-we-ve-just-lost

[niyad]

2. should also cross post in video/multimedia