Published: September 18, 2012
“The Return of Navajo Boy” (2000), an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and PBS, is an internationally acclaimed documentary, directed by Jeff Spitz (Groundswell Educational Films), which reunited a Navajo family and triggered a federal investigation into uranium contamination. A stunning, 57-minute film, it tells the story of a long lost brother’s return to his extended Navajo family led by Elsie Mae Cly Begay, whose history in pictures reveals an ongoing struggle for environmental justice. A new 13-minute epilogue (produced in 2008) shows how the film and Groundswell Educational Films’ outreach campaign created news and rallied supporters, resulting in a Congressional mandate for an Environmental Protection Agency clean-up of uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation, including (eventually) Ms. Begay’s backyard.
Thursday, October 25 at 4:30 P.M.
“Navajo Lives” –
Mary Begay of the Navajo Nation
Persson hall Auditorium
Friday, October 26 at 12:15 P.M.
“’The Return of Navajo Boy’:
Its Environmental impact” –
Jeff Spitz, director
ALANA Cultural center
Friday, October 26 at 7 P.M.
“The Return of Navajo Boy” The Film
Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Co-sponsored by the Colgate Arts Council, the Native American Studies Program,
the Environmental Studies Program, the Film and Media Studies Program,
and the Department of Geography
