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Film Screening and Discussion “Powerlands”
July 10 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
In the documentary “Powerlands” a Navajo filmmaker, Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, investigates displacement of indigenous people and devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. On this personal and political journey she learns from indigenous activists across three continents, including in Asia.
From the La Guajira region in rural Colombia, the Tampakan region of the Philippines, the Tehuantepec Isthmus of Mexico, and the protests at Standing Rock, this award-winning film highlights the common struggle of indigenous people against the same corporations that are causing displacement and environmental catastrophe in the director’s own home.
Following the successful launch two years ago and the many awards (including the 2022 Rigoberta Menchú Grand Prize), Powerlands is now on a world tour and will be screened at SEA Junction, 4th floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC) on 10 July 2024, 5.30 – 7.30 pm. The 75-minute film is in Zapotec, Blaan, Visayan, Wayuunaiki, Diné, Spanish, and English; with English subtitles. At the post-screening discussion both the films’ director, Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, and Jordan Flaherty, the film producer, will provide insights about the film and Pranom Somwong will give comments from a Thai perspective.
Film Synopsis Powerlands (US, 2022)
Ivey-Camille Manybeads Tso follows the trail of extractive industries that have exploited the land where she was born across different continents. The film begins in Navajo Nation, where Ivey-Camille joins friends of hers who have founded a group called Indigenous Youth for Cultural Survival, which collaborates with other Navajo activists who have documented the chemical companies that have contaminated the land, including BHP and Peabody Coal.
Next, in La Guajira, Ivey-Camille visits the indigenous communities displaced by the largest coal mine in Latin America, co-owned by BHP and Glencore and successively these companies’ activities in the The Philippines, the deadliest place in the world to be a defender of the earth.
The threads of resistance combine with a united indigenous movement at the 2016 protests at Standing Rock. From there, she travels to Oaxaca, Mexico, where she learns that even a green energy source, like wind power, can be harmful if it is done without consent and cooperation from Indigenous communities.
Inspired by her journey, Ivey Camille, brings the lessons from these struggles home to Navajo Nation.
For more info visit the Powerlands website: https://powerlands.org/
Powerlands Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eewFcxTBRnc
Speakers’ Bios
Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso is an award-winning queer Navajo filmmaker. She was a fellow with the Firelight Media Documentary Filmmaker Lab, and the 4th World Indigenous Media Lab. She started making films at the age of 9, through the Native youth media project Outta Your Backpack Media. At the age of 13 she made the award-winning fiction film In the Footsteps of Yellow Woman, based in the true story of her great-great-great grandmother Yellow Woman, who lived through the Navajo Long Walk of 1864-1868.
Jordan Flaherty is an award-winning journalist, producer, and author. He has produced dozens of hours of film and television, including for Al Jazeera’s Emmy, Peabody and DuPont-award winning program Faultlines; as well as short and long-form documentaries for Democracy Now and teleSUR, reporting in the New York Times and Washington Post, and writing two books based on his reporting. You can find more of his work at jordanflaherty.org.
Pranom Somwong is a Human Rights Defender from Protection International (PI). She is serving as Protection International’s country representative in Thailand. For several years she has been facilitating trainings and workshops for community-based human rights defenders (HRDs), women human rights defenders (WHRDs), and young HRDs and activists all across Thailand. Leading initiatives to design, develop, and sustain protection networks. Read more about her on: https://hrdworldsummit.org/portfolio-item/pranom-somwong/
For information/reservation for our events please email: info@seajunction.org or phone/wa: +66970024140
NB: The event is free, but donations are welcome to support SEA Junction activities.
Organizer:
SEA Junction, established under the Thai non-profit organization Foundation for Southeast Asia Studies (ForSEA), aims to foster understanding and appreciation of Southeast Asia in all its socio-cultural dimensions, from arts and lifestyles to economy and development. Conveniently located at Room 407 and 408 of the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center or BACC (across MBK, BTS National Stadium), SEA Junction facilitates public access to knowledge resources and exchanges among students, practitioners and Southeast Asia lovers. For more information, see www.seajunction.org, join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/1693058870976440/ and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @seajunction.
