Join us as we welcome storyteller and director Brooklyn Demme in a presentation, Honoring Indigenous Futures with Storytelling: Oil & Water. Oil & Water is a program of documentary film and discussion which will enable our communities in the area to enter a good, exchange-based relationship with indigenous people in the Amazon.

The first film is Protection Not Protest: The People of Standing Rock (25 mins.). In 2016 the Lakota people of the Standing Rock Reservation had to defend their watershed and sacred burial sites from an invading oil company. This short and impactful film by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme (Brooklyn's father) listens to the voices of the water protectors urging us to defend the sacred.

The 2nd film, The Community of the River Wachirpas (15 mins.) brings viewers into the heart of the Amazon, where oil contamination is risking the lives and culture of an Achuar community living on the Wachirpas River. They are requesting our help to purchase a water-purification system, and proceeds from this event will help them to implement this life-saving technology.

A community conversation with Brooklyn Demme will follow the screening. In addition to questions the audience may have about the films they just viewed, the conversation will cover film, activism, mentorship, and building community at home and abroad.

Brooklyn Deme is a community storyteller who learned working in the field with his father and mentor, the late great Jonathan Demme. Combining his love of film with his experience in executive non-profit leadership, Brooklyn founded Truth 2 Power in 2021 to keep telling the stories which strengthen our communities. Through ongoing work with the Ramapough Lenape Nation, educational fundraising with the Nación Achuar de Ecuador, and a feature-length documentary film commissioned by the Northern Cheyenne Elder's Council, Brooklyn is happy and thankful for the chance to impact the world around us at the intersection of community, education, and film.

For additional information, please contact programming@englewood.bccls.org