Awake: A Dream From Standing Rock

Last updated
Awake: A Dream From Standing Rock
Awake A Dream From Standing Rock Poster.jpg
Directed by Josh Fox, James Spione, and Myron Dewey
Written by Floris White Bull
Based on Dakota Access Pipeline protests
Produced by Shailene Woodley
Narrated by Floris White Bull
Release date
2017
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States

Awake: A Dream From Standing Rock is a 2017 documentary directed by Josh Fox, James Spione, and Myron Dewey. The three-part 89 minute documentary features events at Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The film was produced by Josh Fox and International WOW Company.

Contents

Production

Josh Fox, Floris White Bull, Frances Fisher, Lauren Taschen, Nomiki Konst and Rosario Dawson at the premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in 2017 Awake PRemiere shot.jpg
Josh Fox, Floris White Bull, Frances Fisher, Lauren Taschen, Nomiki Konst and Rosario Dawson at the premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in 2017

The 89 minute, three part documentary was filmed at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. It was directed by Josh Fox, James Spione, and Myron Dewey [1] and written by Floris White Bull. [2] Shailene Woodley features and is the executive producer. [3]

The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Earth Day (April 22) 2017 [2] before being made available via the video streaming service Netflix. [1]

Synopsis

Part one of the documentary is filmed by Josh Fox and narrated by Floris White Bull who discusses the path of the pipeline and its proximity to the Missouri River. [1]

Part two of the film features footage of arrests, filmed by James Spione, without commentary. [1]

Part three is filmed by Myron Dewey and includes an interview with philosopher and activist Cornel West at Dakota Access Pipeline plus other protest footage filmed by Dewey. [1]

The film concludes with narratives about the role of the police and United States federal government in the construction of the pipeline. [1]

Critical reception

Writing for The Colgate Maroon-News, Claire Madsen described the documentary as a "poetic visual of the experience of the activists combined with investigative journalism in the context of sweeping political change" [4]

Nick Estes described the film as a "jarring dream sequence, a cinematic poem of juxtaposed images and scenes of life and violence". [3]

The film won the American Library Association's Notable Film for Adults award in February 2018. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Standing Rock Indian Reservation</span> Native American reservation in the United States

The Standing Rock Reservation lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaksa bands of the Dakota Oyate," as well as the Hunkpatina Dakota. The Ihanktonwana Dakota are the Upper Yanktonai, part of the collective of Wiciyena. The sixth-largest Native American reservation in land area in the US, Standing Rock includes all of Sioux County, North Dakota, and all of Corson County, South Dakota, plus slivers of northern Dewey and Ziebach counties in South Dakota, along their northern county lines at Highway 20.

Bleed the Dream is an American rock band from Southern California, United States.

Energy Transfer LP is an American company engaged in natural gas and propane pipeline transport. It is organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It was founded in 1995 by Ray Davis and Kelcy Warren, who remains Chairman and CEO. It owns a 36.4% interest in Dakota Access, LLC, the company responsible for developing the Dakota Access Pipeline.

<i>Freebird... The Movie</i> 1996 American film

Freebird... The Movie is an in-depth look at Southern rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Released on videon on August 30, 1996, it is part documentary and part concert footage. Charlie Daniels was involved as "creative consultant".

James Michael Spione is an American director, producer, writer and editor of both documentary and fiction films. Early on in his career, he developed a reputation for suspenseful dramatic shorts; his later career, however, has been marked by a new focus on short and feature-length documentaries for both theatrical release and public television broadcast.

Gasland is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Josh Fox. It focuses on communities in the United States where natural gas drilling activity was a concern and, specifically, on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), a method of stimulating production in otherwise impermeable rock. The film was a key mobilizer for the anti-fracking movement, and "brought the term 'hydraulic fracturing' into the nation's living rooms" according to The New York Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Fox</span> American film director

Josh Fox is an American film director, playwright and environmental activist, best known for his Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning 2010 documentary, Gasland. He is the founder and artistic director of a film and theater company in New York City, International WOW, and has contributed as a journalist to Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, NowThis, AJ+ and Huffington Post.

<i>Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film</i> 2002 documentary film by Ric Burns

Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film is a 2002 documentary and biographical film that traces the life of the American photographer Ansel Adams. He is most noted for his landscape images of the American West. The film is narrated by David Ogden Stiers and features the voices of Josh Hamilton, Barbara Feldon, and Eli Wallach. It was broadcast on PBS as part of the series American Experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shane Balkowitsch</span> American photographer

Shane Balkowitsch is an American wet plate photographer from Bismarck, North Dakota. Balkowitsch was given the name "Maa'ishda tehxixi Agu'agshi" by Calvin Grinnell of the Hidatsa-Mandan-Arikara Nation on October 28, 2018. The subject of his photos is the human condition. Since 2012 he has photographed over 4,700 individuals, including various celebrities and historical figures. Balkowitsch is a self-taught photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dakota Access Pipeline protests</span> 2016–17 series of protests in the United States

The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, also known by the hashtag #NoDAPL, were a series of grassroots Native American protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States that began in April 2016. Protests ended on February 23, 2017 when National Guard and law enforcement officers evicted the last remaining protesters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deia Schlosberg</span>

Deia Schlosberg is an American documentary filmmaker and producer. She is the recipient of one Emmy and two Student Emmys. Her October 2016 arrest while filming an anti-fossil fuel protest in North Dakota led to a viral #freedeia social media campaign and an open letter to President Barack Obama co-signed by 30 celebrities. The arrest and subsequent charges put Deia at risk of 45 years in prison and contributed to a worrying pattern of attacks on journalistic freedom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaDonna Brave Bull Allard</span> Lakota historian and activist (1956–2021)

LaDonna Tamakawastewin Brave Bull Allard was a Native American Dakota and Lakota historian, genealogist, and a matriarch of the water protector movement. In April 2016, she was one of the founders of the resistance camps of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, aimed at halting the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water protectors</span> Environmental activists from an Indigenous perspective

Water protectors are activists, organizers, and cultural workers focused on the defense of the world's water and water systems. The water protector name, analysis and style of activism arose from Indigenous communities in North America during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at the Standing Rock Reservation, which began with an encampment on LaDonna Brave Bull Allard's land in April, 2016.

TigerSwan is an international security and global stability firm founded in 2008 by retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and Delta Force operator James Reese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NODAPL</span>

#NODAPL, also referred to as the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, is a Twitter hashtag and social media campaign for the struggle against the proposed and partially built Dakota Access Pipeline. The role social media played in this movement is so substantial that the movement itself is now often referred to by its hashtag: #NoDAPL. The hashtag reflected a grassroots campaign that began in early 2016 in reaction to the approved construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States. The Standing Rock Sioux and allied organizations took legal action aimed at stopping construction of the project, while youth from the reservation began a social media campaign which gradually evolved into a larger movement with dozens of associated hashtags. The campaign aimed to raise awareness on the threat of the pipeline on the sacred burial grounds as well as the quality of water in the area. In June 2021, a federal judge struck down the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's lawsuit, but left the option of reopening the case should any prior orders be violated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William "Hawk" Birdshead</span> Lakota activist working in the suicide prevention movement

William "Hawk" Birdshead is an activist who founded Indigenous Life Movement, a media organization. He works in suicide prevention.

Nick Estes is a Lakota organizer, journalist, and historian at the University of Minnesota. He has cofounded The Red Nation and Red Media. In 2019 he was awarded the Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for nonfiction, and in 2020 he was honored as the Marguerite Casey Foundation's freedom scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dakota Access Pipeline</span> Oil pipeline project in the United States

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) or Bakken pipeline is a 1,172-mile-long (1,886 km) underground pipeline in the United States that has the ability to transport up to 750,000 barrels of light sweet crude oil per day. It begins in the shale oil fields of the Bakken Formation in northwest North Dakota and continues through South Dakota and Iowa to an oil terminal near Patoka, Illinois. Together with the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline from Patoka to Nederland, Texas, it forms the Bakken system. The pipeline transports 40 percent of the oil produced in the Bakken region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myron Dewey</span> Native American filmmaker and journalist (1972–2021)

Myron Charles Dewey was a filmmaker and journalist from the Walker River Paiute Tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Floris White Bull</span> Native American activist and writer

Floris White Bull is a Native American activist and writer.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Almuti, Theresa Curry (2018-01-20). "Documentary Review: "Awake: A Dream From Standing Rock" is a sobering, crucial film". NPI's Cascadia Advocate. Archived from the original on 2022-11-30. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  2. 1 2 Merry, Stephanie (2017-04-13). "A new Standing Rock documentary shows how film can give voice to those who feel powerless". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2019-01-11. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  3. 1 2 ESTES, N. Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock. Environmental History , [s. l.], v. 23, n. 2, p. 383–386, 2018. doi : 10.1093/envhis/emy001 Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=128535984&site=eds-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 9 abr. 2023.
  4. Madsen, Claire. "'Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock' Presented at Ryan Family Friday Night Film Series". The Colgate Maroon-News. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  5. "Awake, A Dream from Standing Rock | Awards & Grants". American Library Association . 2018. Archived from the original on 2023-04-23. Retrieved 2023-04-23.