Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Icarus Films Teams With Bullfrog Films On Dec. 17 For The DVD Debut Of Documentary Filmmaker Christopher McLeod’s Standing On Sacred Ground


DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
Icarus Films will be teaming up with Bullfrog Films on Dec. 17 for the DVD release of documentary filmmaker Christopher McLeod’s Standing on Sacred Ground, a four-part film series on the disconnect of modern society with their ancestors and the lack of ecological wisdom that flows from that.

This globetrotting look at native cultures and their connection to the world around them is broken into four separate sections, each running 57 minutes.  

The first in the series, Standing on Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Tourists, shares the common struggle of members of California’s disbanded Winnemen Wintu tribe with the Altai peoples of Western Siberia in Russia, who are fighting for the return of the rivers and the land in their respective areas to the their sacred state.   

The Shasta Dam is the central focus of the Winnemen Wintu, while the Altais are dealing with both oil and natural gas pipelines and the influx of tourism in this isolated area following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
In the next segment, McLeod turns his focus on such diverse areas as Papua New Guinea and Alberta, Canada in the presentation titled Standing on Sacred Ground: Profit and Loss.   Here the focus is on the Kurumbukari area and that of Basamuk Bay in Papua New Guinea, where the Chinese have set up a large nickel mining operation and have local villagers in opposition to their indifference to both the customs of the region and the Chinese nasty habit of dumping the trailings from their mining operation into Basamuk Bay and polluting it in the process.

This environmental assault takes a different form in the mining of Athabasca tar sands in remote areas of Alberta, Canada.   The central focus here is on the impact such operations have on the sacred Athabasca River and on fishing and wild life.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph TribbeyThe third segment is titled Standing on Sacred Ground: Fire and Ice, which connects the peoples of the Gamo Highlands above the Rift Valley in the southwest area of Ethiopia, to those of the Andes in Peru.    At issue is the clash of cultures and how it affects the traditional ways of agriculture and the general rhythm of life in these remote areas.

Filmmaker Christopher McLeod finishes the four-part series with Standing on Sacred Ground: Islands of Sanctuary.  The clash of traditional lifestyles and sacred lands with outside interests are examined with Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory of Australia and the arrival of mining operations and the U.S. Navy returning the small island of Kaho`olawe to its original state after using it as a bombing range from the 1940s until 1994 … over 20,000 acres had to be cleared of unexploded bombs costing nearly a half-billion dollars.    Paradise restored.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey





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