Documentary Production

In addition to short documentary production and documentation of Indigenous teachings, elders, and intergenerational eco-cultural healing processes, we also participate in larger productions, such as feature films and television series.

 

Indigenous Terra Madre is the gathering of Indigenous communities and supporters that form part of the Slow Food movement. In November of 2015, we joined representatives of Slow Food Turtle Island Association as well as 148 tribes from 58 countries gathered in Shillong, Khasiland, Meghalaya, India, to share information, strategies and resources around indigenous food and biocultural diversity. This video shares some of their voices and visions.

The feature film Spectacular Movements is a 78-minute documentary co-produced by The Cultural Conservancy and directed by our Media Director, Mateo Hinojosa. This film features our Mino-Niibi Fund partners Teatro Trono, in El Alto, Bolivia (Aymara), was released in 2015, and is now available to stream and for community screenings upon request.

Inter-Institutional Documentary Collaboration

We have collaborated extensively in media productions and training with many Native institutions. Some recent collaborators include:

We also fund documentary productions and capacity-building through our Mino-Niibi Fund. Some of our Indigenous partners who focus on documentary production are Uywana Wasi of Bolivia and Mingas de la Imagen of Colombia.

 
Uywana Wasi’s Wallunk’as project filming an oral history in a local community

Uywana Wasi’s Wallunk’as project filming an oral history in a local community

Mingas de la Imagen filming as part of an educational collaboration

Mingas de la Imagen filming as part of an educational collaboration

 

Watch this short film, Seed Mother: Coming Home, which we co-produced with the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, one of a series of collaborations we have undertaken together the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance since 2016.

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With the Sacred Land Film Project, we collaborate to share stories of both resistance to the destruction of sacred places and efforts to revitalize traditional cultural practices, through film screenings, events, discussion guides, curricula, and sharing documentary filmmaking skills.

View the short video on the Youth Gathering of Native Americans we edited as part of a collaboration with California Consortium of Urban Indian Health and American Indian Health & Services, Santa Barbara

Historic Documentary Collaborations

Salt Song Trail Project

The Cultural Conservancy has been involved since 2000, collaborating with the The Salt Song Trail Project of the Native American Land Conservancy, working closely Vivienne Jake (Kaibab Paiute) and Matthew Leivas, Sr. (Chemehuevi), Salt Song Project Directors to produce an award-winning documentary, a map of the Salt Song Trail, and song revitalization.

Circle of Stories

 
 

One of our early multimedia projects, CIRCLE OF STORIES - video series and interactive web site, features wisdom from elders. It was co-produced in 2002 with Philomath Films, ITVS, PBS, and Second Story.

Bioneers Indigenous Forum

We are honored to have co-founded the Indigenous Forum at Bioneers, to have co-produced it 2008-2014 with the Indigenous Environmental Network, and to have recorded the many Indigenous leaders present. Here is one video from 2014, exposing the impact of the Bakken oil fields on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.