Gwendolen Cates

A moving, intimate portrait of an internationally renowned artist, Jock Soto of the New York City Ballet, who is Navajo Indian, Puerto Rican, and openly gay. On the verge of retirement, one of modern ballet's most gifted and celebrated dancers is forced to contemplate life after dance. Exploring identity, family, and transition, the film climaxes with his emotional departure from ballet at age 40 in 2005. As Soto reflects on his uncertain future, he also attempts to connect with his past, revisiting his Navajo roots and the cultural heritage to which he is at once detached and devoted. Soto's story defies stereotypes in the same way that his dancing transcends the expected.

The Indigenous sovereign Onondaga Nation – the Central Fire of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy – follows the Great Law of Peace, never accepted U.S. citizenship, has its own passport, and still maintains a traditional government led by Clanmothers and Chiefs, one of the world’s first true democracies that inspired the Founding Fathers and the women’s suffrage movement. The film spotlights the Onondaga Nation’s tireless environmental advocacy and their legal battle with the U.S. over ancestral land taken by New York State in violation of a 1794 treaty with George Washington.

This epic documentary follows a group of Indigenous teenagers to Rome where they confront representatives of the Pope about 15th century Vatican laws known as the Doctrine of Discovery that codified conquest, colonization, racism, and slavery – and became international and U.S. law. Also featuring Indigenous activists in Aotearoa New Zealand, Guatemala, New Caledonia, and Puerto Rico, the film exposes how the Doctrine continues to impact humanity and the planet.