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 was 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, provided insights about the film while Pranom Somwong gave comments from a Thai perspective.

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 training 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/

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.

 

Photo credit: Chawin Chantalikit, SEA Junction’s Team