Council filmmaker at Standing Rock

Nara Garber, the filmmaker of our Council film Listening for Signal, has been documenting the community and actions at Standing Rock over the last several months. She is there now, and sent this update from the field:

The video below follows part of a peaceful action on November 18th, two days before so-called law enforcement would unleash their rubber bullets and water cannons on the Backwater Bridge. The landscape has changed in every way since then – physically, politically, psychologically. Water protectors now know they could (will?) be charged with felonies for engaging in peaceful protest. “Law enforcement” now monitors activity from a hill directly overlooking the entrance to Oceti Oyate. Construction crews are now drilling again (did they ever actually stop?). Meanwhile, the disastrous policies and appointments of the new administration have diverted attention and outrage from what continues to happen here. As ICE agents raid homes and rebuff refugees; as evidence mounts that SCROTUS’ National Security Advisor jeopardized national security by colluding with the Kremlin; as public education, the environment, science, and basic human decency in any form come under attack, another chapter in a blood-soaked narrative of exploitation is being written on Lakota Treaty Lands. Please, amidst everything else that is happening, let us not forget Standing Rock. View video at:  https://vimeo.com/197855030

(Note: I shot and edited this footage for Mary Katzke and Affinityfilms, Inc. as part of a longer project, currently titled “Unforgettable.”)