Tracy Rector

"Without a Whisper" is the untold story of how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists in their fight for freedom and equality. Mohawk Clan Mother Louise Herne and Professor Sally Roesch Wagner shake the foundation of the established history of the women’s rights movement in the United States. They join forces on a journey to shed light on the hidden history of the influence of Haudenosaunee Women on the women’s rights movement, possibly changing this historical narrative forever.

Wisconsin's tribe's ongoing fight to protect Lake Superior for future generations. "Bad River" shows the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's long history of activism and resistance in the context of continuing legal battles with Enbridge Energy over its Line 5 oil pipeline. The Line 5 pipeline has been operating on 12 miles of the Bad River Band's land with expired easements for more than a decade. The Band and the Canadian company have been locked in a legal battle over the pipeline since 2019.

“Te Pito o Te Henua” (The Navel of the World) tells the story of the community behind Rapa Nui’s largest and most colorful annual Indigenous celebration, the Tāpati Rapa Nui Festival. Honoring ancient rites and competitions, Rapa Nui families participate in nine days of athletic feats, cultural demonstrations and ceremonies paying respect to the land, water and other natural beings of the island. They also crown a Queen to represent her people for a year throughout Polynesia and on the world stage. The film traces the journey of 19-year-old candidate Vaitiare and her family as they join work to earn her the crown and represent this small but well-known island as its people fight for increased autonomy and recognition on the world stage. Through intimate character portraits, behind-the-curtain moments and heartfelt musical performances, “Te Pito o Te Henua” reveals the true meaning of Tāpati and the deep connections the Rapa Nui share with their lands and waters.

Following the flow of the seasons, Jessica Shenandoah revives the land-based traditions of our Mohawk ancestors that colonizers nearly erased from our memories.

After her sister Tama’s untimely passing, Birdie learns that the bond between them is stronger than life and death.

Devastated by her best friend's suicide, a young Lakota woman creates a girls' boxing team with urgent hope that sport, sisterhood and tradition will guide youth toward a safer path.

This film explores expressions of reciprocity in the Cherokee world, brought to life through a story told by an elder and first language speaker.

Waponahkik (the people of the dawn land) bring gratitude to the sun where it first looks our way. Song and stories invite us to accept the new day and put behind us any harm done the day before.

A mountainous expanse of the Solomon Islands, known as Sky Aelans, hides in the clouds. Here, there is a chorus of animals, every tree has a story and every drop of water carries a memory. But despite a 2018 pledge to protect mountain regions above 400 meters, this land is being threatened and the Indigenous communities who live in these mountain forests are the last protectors of these high sacred places. They are not simply seeking to save themselves and the land they love, but the creatures who inhabit this pristine island in the clouds.

Exploring the revitalization of traditional birthing practices in Indigenous communities across Turtle Island, the film blends personal stories of pregnancy, birth, loss, and renewal, revealing the vast and diverse experiences of women within the life-giving cycle.

Standing Above the Clouds follows Native Hawaiian mother-daughter activists as they stand to protect their sacred mountain Mauna Kea from the building of the world’s largest telescope.

Family, football and history come to life in an intimate portrait of the Dean family, longtime residents of the historic town of Pahokee, Florida. We take a journey back home, with filmmaker Ira McKinley, to the land of sugarcane, as he reconnects with his niece Bridget and nephew Alvin and explores their shared family history that spans seven generations. Told through stories that transcend space and time, Outta The Muck presents a community, and a family, that resists despair with love, remaining fiercely self-determined, while forging its own unique narrative of Black achievement.

The rules were: one day, one wheel, one shot (no editing). Valérie Massadian’s hypnotic short was made for Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum.

Mia Kami wrote and directed “Rooted” to reflect the deep connection between people of the Pacific, their land, sea, and their identity. The video portrays a diverse group of strong, beautiful, and creative people with many stories to tell, who are rooted in their place, culture, and traditions.

Bounty reveals the hidden story of the Phips Proclamation, one of many scalp-bounty proclamations used to exterminate Native people in order to take their land in what is now New England. In the film, Penobscot parents and children resist erasure and commemorate survival by reading and reacting to the government-issued Phips Proclamation’s call for colonial settlers to hunt, scalp, and murder Penobscot people.

The land endures despite foreign incursions of power plants and highways, as the people sing and drum in celebration of the ocean, mountains and creatures of the Salish Sea.

Two Elders exiled from their community must depend on their strength, ancestral knowledge, and each other to survive in the harsh Alaskan wilderness.