Place of the Big River

Research project and documentary film in progress (2018-ongoing)

Director: Rachel Stevens
Collaborators: Pawel Wojtasik (cinematography, concept), Gebhard Sengmüller (photography, add’l cinematography)

This experimental documentary film in progress explores ecological and territorial entanglement at the St. Lawrence River / Kaniatarowanenneh (Iroquois) where it borders the United States and Canada, and bisects Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. Through experiential images and sounds of the landscape; investigation into the development of the Moses-Saunders Power Dam and St. Lawrence Seaway Eisenhower shipping lock; testimony from local inhabitants such as Akwesasne Mohawk activists and Tribal Chiefs, a union leader at Alcoa Aluminum, an amateur naturalist and others; meditations on superfund sites, ecological justice, climate change, ‘invasive’ species and new economic drivers such as bitcoin miners; the film investigates how human and non-human inhabitants navigate belonging, sovereignty and interdependence.

Special thanks, so far, to:

Dana Leigh Thompson
Larry Thompson
Ron Stickney
Gary Stevens
The Puffin Foundation