Documentary Films and Videos Produced by The Cultural Conservancy
“Seed Mother: Coming Home ” is a collaborative short film sharing the Seed Rematriation movement’s healing work of cross-cultural reconciliation to bring Indigenous seeds home to their communities of origin. This film was a co-production with Rowen White and the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, a program of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, as a part of the work assisting communities working towards rematriation of their precious seed relatives. This film is a part of the Seed Rematriation media collection, which includes 3 podcast episodes of the Native Seed Pod.
This video emerged from our collaboration with the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance’s Indigenous Seed Keepers Network. Seeds are a vibrant and vital foundation for food sovereignty, and are the basis for a sustainable, healthy agriculture. We understand that seeds are our precious collective inheritance and it is our responsibility to care for the seeds as part of our responsibility to feed and nourish ourselves and future generations.
Braiding the Sacred is a network of traditional Indigenous corn producers from cultures of maize, sharing resources, information, experiences and seeds. This video emerged from the network throughout 2016 and highlights producers from the following communities: Onondaga, Mohawk, Seneca, Kawaik (Laguna Pueblo), Tesuque Pueblo, Quechua, Diné (Navajo). It was exhibited at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in San Francisco International Airport’s SFO Museum’s VideoArts space, at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Cancún, Mexico, and at numerous film festivals.
Ha' Agua Water Tz'itz is a video-poem—a poetic documentary—created by the Indigenous youth cultural exchange Yakanal and TCC. Water flows throughout our lives, connecting us in our diversity, and together we send ha', agua, water, tz'itz our gratitude, praise, apologies, and prayers. With these images, sounds, words and feelings we hope to connect ourselves more deeply to each other and to the Indigeneity that roots us all in our lands by drawing from, and giving back to, the flow that connects us all.
This video was created by the young Native participants of the Guardians of the Waters youth leadership internship. Participants were steeped in traditional ecological knowledge through Native artists and scholars, who taught indigenous watercraft traditions, such as tule reed boat- and paddle-making. Through listening, discussing, group processing, and audiovisual documenting, participants explored the connections between cultural healing and ecological health, personal and collective identities, as well as traditional and new media.
It has been exhibited at the ImagineNATIVE Film + Arts Festival, the American Indian Film Festival, and at community screenings.
Join the poetic explorations of Native urban youth as they struggle to overcome trauma caused by colonized/industrial foods and awaken to the healing and nourishment of Native foodways from their own traditions and those of others. Learning from teachers and traditional ecological knowledge-bearers in traditions as diverse as California Maidu, Yucatec Maya and Seneca, the youth root down into the cultural soils that support ancient and vital foodways traditions, including crop cultivation, acorn processing, cooking, seed-saving and simply sharing food. This documentary was co-created with the young Native participants of a Native Foodways and Media Youth Internship. Balancing dire social and ecological issues are hope-inspiring stories and soundscapes: percussive music from the sounds of harvesting corn and grinding acorns.
This feature film, a Bolivian, Venezuelan and US co-production, is a story of memory, identity, and justice. The young urban indigenous and mestizo actors of Teatro Trono stir up their collective memories of the social movements that sparked the revolution that currently transforms Bolivia, creating performances for their itinerant theater-truck and the street. The group struggles to overcome their doubts about living up to their heritage – especially since they decide to manifest those who died in the massacre at the heart of the revolution. Their paralyzing fear is overcome by the most unexpected force: the spirits of the dead themselves, seeking delayed justice and creative transformation, not just on stage, but also in the streets.
Our Mino-Niibi Fund partner Teatro Trono was the primary partner in making this film.
Circle of Stories explores the world of Native American storytelling from the Four Directions of Turtle Island. It features "how to" stories from the Narragansett peoples of the East; the "five sacred herbs" medicine story from the Navajo of the South; the "water song" and Earth-honoring traditions of the Western Shoshone of the West; and the power of "the cooking spirit" from the Dakota of the North. The Cultural Conservancy co-produced this documentary film with Philomath Films (Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller) and TCC president Melissa Nelson is the narrator.
Circle of Stories honors and explores the extraordinary diversity and profound contemporary relevance of Native American storytelling. A feast for the eyes, ears and mind, the film presents varied stories from the four directions and seasons.
Nourishing the Body, Honoring the Land explores the transformative nature of Native foodways through dance, planting, stories, and movement focused on physical, spiritual, and traditional lifeways. As part of The Cultural Conservancy's 2014 Workshop Series, we invited Rulan Tangen of Dancing Earth and Wendy and David Bray, knowledge holders from the Seneca Nation to take us through an immersive, hands-on experience of traditional foodways teaching and learning.
This video was created by Quinton Cabellon, our Foodways Intern.
This video is a celebration of the last 3 decades of our work, highlighting many of our partners and allies, to whom we are deeply grateful for their collaboration. Credits and links to partners.