This film profiles Richard Silliboy, a tribal elder and vice chief of the Aroostook Band of Mi’kmaqs, and a black ash basketmaker. As he weaves a potato basket at his home in Littleton, Maine, Richard contemplates the arrival of the emerald ash borer and the tenuous future of this ancient art.

D...

Following a century of loss, the Kawaiisu people of Central California have held on to their language, one of the few aspects of their culture that remain intact. Now, with only two fluent speakers remaining, Julie Girado Turner has spent the last 16 years documenting the language that lives with...

In The Dream of Karabakh, refugee and mother-of-five Shushan is living in Armenia after losing her home in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region during a war with Azerbaijan. She is grieving a double loss: her husband died in a car accident six months prior to the conflict.

Shushan reminisces abo...

Life and survival is incredibly difficult in the bleak Cerro Rico mining district in Potosi, Bolivia. This is true for the men risking their lives going down into the mine shafts looking for silver ore, but especially so for the women, who are viewed by the men as fair game.

This powerful and br...

On a remote mountaintop a brave social experiment is taking place. Former Buddhist monk Lobsang was trained under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has created a unique community in the foothills of the Himalayas which rescues orphaned and neglected children. Five-year-old Tashi is ...

Indonesia has the largest tropical rain forest on Earth. Therefore, Indonesia has long been known as the ‘lungs’ of the world. Forests has an important role in maintaining climate balance. But for indigenous peoples in Tanah Papua and the Maluku Islands, forests are not only as ‘lungs’. For them,...

For almost half a century, Quechua, Achuar, and Kichwa communities in Northern Peruvian have suffered extreme negative environmental, health, cultural, social, and economic impacts as a result of the operations of the oil companies, Occidental Petroleum (1971-2000) and subsequently Pluspetrol (20...

“If not us, who will protect our territories? Who will manage our territories?”

Indonesian Indigenous Youth called their fellow brothers living in the cities and finished their studies back to the community. They called it the ‘Homecoming movement.

Youth are driving new models of sustainable ru...

Award-winning filmmaker Kalyanee Mam, and conservationist Rebecca Kormos, worked with Guinee Ecologie Founder Mamadou Saliou Diallo, to film the chimpanzees of Guinea, and to speak with local community members about their relationship with the chimpanzees. They gathered myths and stories that des...

This documentary focuses on the Hamar Tribe, a semi nomadic and rural people who live along the Omo River in Southwestern Ethiopia. Preserving the traditions of their ancestors is essential to defining Hamar life. One of the most venerated of the Hamar’s ancient traditions involves the transition...

The Great Green Wall is an incredible, generation-defining project, yet the wider world seems to know very little about it. This film was created to change that, sharing its story in a way that feels spectacular, but also tangible on a human level. The Great Green Wall won’t be completed for a ge...

Set in the remote Alaskan Yukon Delta, Yukon Kings follows Yup'ik fisherman Ray Waska as he teaches his grandkids how to fish during the summer salmon run. With environmental and cultural forces threatening their subsistence way of life, Ray holds onto the hope that his grandsons will one day pas...

Shot among the Samburu semi-nomadic tribe of Kenya, "When The Time Comes" portraits its relation to the ancestral and controversial practice that is female circumcision (Female Genital Cutting) and highlights the inter-generational debate that is taking place in their communities, allowing girls ...

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there's an island whose inhabitants subsistence depends on the sea. There has been an alarming decline of endemic species in their waters because of overfishing by international factory ships, as well as damaging plastic these same ships discard on their shores...

Indigenous Harakmbut leaders lead journey to rediscover ancient sacred site to connect with their cultural past and protect their future.

Director: Paul Redman
Producer: Tim Lewis

2014 | 9 min
Latin America | Peru
Languages: Spanish
Subtitles: Portuguese, English, Indonesian, Spanish

Shot over the span of two months in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, ‘Songs of the Vine’ is a virtual reality documentary focusing on the healing modalities, cosmovision and culture of the Shipibo, an indigenous group best known for their mastery of ayahuasca and sacred plant medicine. By immersin...

Adiela Jinet Mera Paz, a leader of the Siona people, has taken up the effort to remove mines from the tribe's ancestral land, following decades of armed conflict that has left them facing extinction.

Director: Tom Laffay
Producer: Emily Wright
2021 | 10 min | Colombia
Language: Spanish
Subtitle...

In the foothills of Nepal, extreme deforestation has pushed many rural communities onto marginal lands. In “Scaling the Mountain,” villagers in Jogimara and Naubise find that combining conservation efforts with reproductive health services helps them support their families and their communities m...

Despite their customary land being recognised by the Indonesian Government in 2012, the Seko community have been defending their land against large-scale energy development for the last 3 years. In 2016, 14 community leaders were criminalized, including 1 woman. They were sentenced for at least 7...

Marginalised for decades, Pygmy peoples are fighting for recognition and land rights. Even the term ‘pygmy’ is laced with historical racism and prejudice, they are not treated as equal citizens in their home country. At the heart of pygmy culture is their forest, central to their spiritual belief...

Guna communities have long been recognized for protecting the forests along their coastline; despite significant threats from farming and industrial logging, they are proven protectors of their ancestral forests.

Today they face uncertainty over the sea that surrounds their island homes. Increas...

Permanent Culture documents the journey of Joseph, a man who once worked in exploitative sugarcane fields but then found work at Palos Farm. At this permaculture farm, Joseph has not only found more fulfilling work, but also acquired leadership and ecological knowledge that allows him to now be a...

On the 12th September 2013 the Honduran government granted almost 7% of its territory to the indigenous Miskito people who have lived traditionally on this land for centuries. We follow the leadership of the indigenous organization, MASTA, as they speak to their elders and explore solutions to be...

A new model of conservation is emerging. It is one that values the role of local communities and reconciles protecting biodiversity with the use and management of resources. In the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán, communities play a vital role in conservation efforts and several ...