Published: December 5, 2010
This Fall The Return of Navajo Boy screened with Navajo guest speakers at sponsored public events in the Navajo Nation, Salt Lake City, Chicago; Portland, and France!
In the Navajo Nation, Indian Health Service collaborates with Groundswell to engage audiences in remote communities impacted by uranium mining. Participants from the film, Elsie Begay, her son Lorenzo, and daughter-in-law Mary Begay travel across the reservation to lead discussions.
In the Midwest, the University of Chicago Law School hosted a screening and panel discussion with filmmaker Jeff Spitz, Navajo activist Mary Begay, and author Judy Pasternak. Pasternak’s new book: Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed features the Navajo family in our film. Pasternak appears in our film’s 2008 Epilogue which is now available on DVD.
Bennie Klain, Co-producer, traveled to France for the Premier of The Return of Navajo Boy at the Amiens International Film Festival. (See photos on Groundswell’s Flickr page.) Groundswell Board member, Alan Slavik, a Paris-based marketing consultant, attended the Amiens premier and is planning future screenings in Paris.
I live in France and had the chance the visit Dinetah several times for documentary projects. I missed the event in Amiens, are you planning other screenings in France?
Alain Catez
I first discovered this human rights/public health/eco-justice story on the LA Times web site when I discovered Judy Pasternak’s brilliant multi-media series ‘Blighted Homeland.’
I would love to have the opportunity to see ‘The Return of Native Boy’ here in Paris, where I live. Will you please post news of any screenings?
Will Judy Pasternak, Jeff Spitz, & Mary Begay ever come to speak in Paris? This would be too wonderful!