7th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Films about Native American issues screened at Wild & Scenic Film FestivalThe recently concluded 7th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival featured five films about important American Indian issues.

“We’re seeing a rise in environmental films that focus on Native American issues,” said Kathy Dotson, film festival director. “The environmental movement and the Native American movement are very much entwined.”Some of the films at the festival:The efforts of Navajos to re-introduce churro sheep into their herds to improve genetic diversity is the essence of “Woven Ways,” a film by Linda Helm Krapf shown at the festival.

“American Outrage” by Beth and George Gage is about a roundup of horses and cattle by the Bureau of Land Management. The animals are owned by Shoshone Indians Carrie and Mary Dann in Nevada.

Bo Boudart, director of “Power Paths” has been producing documentaries about American Indians for 30 years. ... His film entry is about coal mining on Navajo and Hopi lands that has been depleting aquifers and polluting air in the Southwest.

“March Point” is a film by Annie Silverstein, Tracy Rector, Nick Clark and others about young people from the Swinomish Tribe who feel the impact of two refineries on their reservation. It is a coming-of-age story about three teens who develop an understanding of the threat to their people, the environment and to themselves.

“Sacred Place” by filmmaker Terra Nyssa is about the Gwich’in people of Alaska who are struggling to hold on to their sacred way of life in the face of pressures from oil and gas interests to develop the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.