On March 29th, the Augsburg Native American Film Series, along with director Myron Dewey, presents Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock. The film documents the events at Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline from the water protector’s perspective. Here’s Reporter Leah Lemm with the story.
Transcript
Marie: This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock.
Headlines: On March 29th, the Augsburg Native American Film Series and (along with) director Myron Dewey present Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock. The film documents the events at Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline from the water protector’s perspective.
Here’s Reporter Leah Lemm with the story.
STORY #1 - FILM SCREENING OF AWAKE
[CLIP audio: The Dakota Access Pipeline is proposed to carry billions of gallons of crude oil from ND to IL to do that, it has to run under the MO River the water source for 17 million Americans, and the only source of water for the Standing Rock Nation. We call ourselves Water Protectors - we are here to protect the water.]
REPORTER: You’re listening to the trailer of the film, Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock.
MYRON DEWEY: The film is a visual legal narrative - to see the constitutional and the human rights violations.
Leah: I spoke with one of the directors of the film, Myron Dewey, who is Paiute Shashone from the Walker River Paiute Tribe, and is a professor at Duke University and University of North Carolina. Myron was filming at Standing Rock from August 2016 to the close of the camps.
MYRON DEWEY: I felt there was a heavier burden of trying to make sure that our indigenous people all across turtle island was aware of what was happening through indigenous eyes - the media for us by us articulated by us, what we were seeing happening on the ground and in the air and in real time. Also the challenges that I experienced there. So the film is a visual legal narrative for the, for the attorneys as well.
Leah: I watched the film. As Myron pointed out Indigenous voices are central to the storytelling - he also worked to help others use tools such as social media live feeds to document the events.
DEWEY: My background is as a historical trauma trainer, as well as the youth media trainer. And I've been working with youth for about 20 years in the last 10 years with film and media and digital language preservation. Who controls the media controls the narrative, At Standing Rock the goal was to teach as many people to do live feeds as possible because we have a consistent narrative.
Leah: The hopes for the film extend beyond informational.
DEWEY: Awake has an Awake media team of eight people and our hopes are to create frontline media for our home communities so we can have more indigenous people digitally storytelling, journalists and filmmakers.
Leah: Awake can also be found online at AWAKE THE FILM DOT ORG and on Netflix.
[CLIP audio: What’s going on here at Standing Rock isn’t just about Standing Rock. It’s not just about stopping a pipeline, it’s about the survival of humanity.]
Leah: I spoke with Elise Marubbio, professor of American Indian Studies at Augsburg University and the Director of the Augsburg Native American Film Series.
Elise Marubbio: I particularly chose films and focuses that resonated with things that have been in the forefront of activism and cultural awareness in the last couple of years.
Leah: Elise moved from Tuscan Arizona in 2003 and when she arrived, she noted an absence in Native Film Screenings.
Elise: My area is representation of native Americans in Hollywood film and also indigenous film and media. One of the things that I learned when I was here was that there really at that moment wasn't a lot of indigenous film being screened in the city. The film series is really a site for building collaborative relationships between local communities, native communities, um, that honor the really rich tradition of native film in Minnesota and the surrounding areas.
Leah: Elise noted how Augsburg was and continues to be linked to Standing Rock.
Marubbio: There was so much energy and heart and just pure love poured into supporting the people at Standing Rock both from our campus and our community and from communities all across Minnesota, sending needed goods out, going out and actually being a body in that space. Going out and helping in the camps, bringing resources, opening up forms of social media to help spread the word.
REPORTER: Augsburg Native American Film Series events are free to the public. Parking permits are available. Contact information and more about the series can be found at https://www.augsburg.edu/filmseries/
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Leah Lemm.