Free Speech TV (FSTV), a nonprofit, national, independent news network, announces the premiere of Paulette Moore’s, The Spirit of Standing Rock, Wednesday, February 15 at 7 p.m. CST. Free Speech TV will host a Facebook Live interview event with the filmmaker immediately following the broadcast at 7:30 pm CST. The public can join the Facebook live chat.
Moore, a filmmaker-in-residence at Northland College, is Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) of mixed Native and British heritage and an enrolled member of Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve in Ontario, Canada. She spent two decades based in Washington DC working as a director, producer and writer with Discovery Channel, National Geographic, PBS, ABC and other national and international media outlets.
Moore collaborated with YES! Magazine co-founder and editor-at-large Sarah van Gelder to create this documentary from their footage and reporting from Standing Rock camps gathered in the fall of 2016.
They chronicled activists known as Water Protectors who have stood with Standing Rock Sioux leaders in North Dakota to defend the land and water from a $3.8 billion, 1,200-mile pipeline slated to run under Lake Oahe and the Missouri River. The Spirit of Standing Rock is a collection of soulful narratives from Water Protectors, articulating their world view and describing what has brought them together in sacred action.
“We are honored to premiere this important new work by Mohawk filmmaker Paulette Moore,” said Ron Williams, executive director of Free Speech TV. “Filmed under extremely dangerous and difficult conditions, this is a courageous and inspiring chronicle of the stand Water Protectors are taking and those who have joined them in their struggle.”
Devoted to chronicling Indigenous resistance to the destructive practices of extractive industries, Moore collaborated with her Eastern Mennonite University students in Harrisonburg, VA to create the documentary To Wisconsin with Love in 2009. The film is about the successful Ojibwe-led response to what would have been the world’s largest open-pit taconite mine threatening the health of northern Wisconsin’s watersheds.
In 2016, Moore worked with Northland College students and the north woods community to create a companion film to the mining movie titled From Wisconsin with Love. This film focuses on the spiritual, economic, physical, and legal aspects of the act of harvest from the perspective of Ojibwe prophecy and practice.
“Indigenous world view and action are focused on relationship and responsibility to each other, to the land and the water. When we consider all—human and non-human—to be our relatives we act with great power, intelligence and compassion,” Moore said.
Sarah van Gelder, a public speaker, and the author of the new book, The Revolution Where You Live, will be speaking on the Northland College campus Wednesday, February 22 and Thursday, February 23. She explores the leading edge of change, writing and speaking internationally on a wide range of topics. She has also been published in the Guardian, Huffington Post, Christian Science Monitor and Alternet. She has been interviewed on Democracy Now!, Rising Up with Sonali and The Thom Hartmann Program.
Free Speech TV has also acquired both To Wisconsin with Love, and From Wisconsin with Love and will premiere all three at the following times.
The Spirit of Standing Rock (CST)
Wed, 02/15/2017 (7 pm)
Sat, 02/18/2017 (3 pm)
Sun, 02/19/2017 (10:30 am)
Wed, 02/22/2017 (7:00 pm)
Thu, 02/23/2017 (3:15 am)
Sun, 02/26/2017 (4:15 am)
To Wisconsin with Love (CST)
Wed, 02/15/2017 (7:30 pm)
Sun, 02/19/2017 (2:15 pm)
From Wisconsin with Love (CST)
Wed, 02/15/2017 (8:15 pm)
Sun, 02/19/2017 (3:00 pm)
Free Speech TV is a national, independent, nonprofit news network committed to advancing progressive social change. As the alternative to media networks owned by billionaires, governments and corporations, FSTV elevates unique perspectives through daily news programs, independent documentaries and special events coverage.
Free Speech TV reaches over 38 million households nationally on DISH (channel 9415), DIRECTV (348), and over 150 community cable affiliates. FSTV streams live at freespeech.org and is available on Roku, Amazon Fire and Google Nexus. FSTV believes a more just and democratic world is possible when the media empowers people with the information they need to fight for what matters.