in     by 29 Palms Inn  01-06-2015
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Join us at the 29 Palms Inn at 8:30pm on Sunday June 21, 2015 as we present a powerful documentary film on the current and controversial topic of the build out of large solar renewable plants in conflict with Native American sacred sites.

“Who Are My People?” is the latest documentary film by Emmy Award Winning filmmaker Robert Lundahl.

This special film screening coincides with the summer solstice, and will be shown outdoors and under the stars on the lawn at the 29 Palms Inn. 

Filmmaker Robert Lundahl worked with an array of scientists and professionals, and with Native American Elders, including Reverend Ron Van Fleet (Mojave), Phil Smith (Chemehuevi), Alfredo Figueroa (Yaqui/Chemehuevi), and Preston Arrow-weed (Quechan/Kumeyaay), to create “Who Are My People?”, the first film to focus on Native Americans responding to desert utility scale solar renewables. The film takes the shape of the film maker’s personal narrative about a journey to the desert.

In the Mojave Desert of Southern California,the world’s energy companies converge to produce power. Large environmental groups like NRDC and the Sierra Club have partnered with energy companies and utilities. They’ve destroyed ecosystems, migrating birds, tortoise, and sacred places from ancient civilizations.

The LA Times indicates, we are at a “Flashpoint” between competing value-systems. Bodies have been exhumed, and geoglyphs destroyed, in an area that is a long-term indigenous settlement.

“Who Are My People?” depicts how the world’s energy firms like Solar Millennium, have met their match in a small group of Native American elders, in the hottest desert on the planet.

The film takes us behind the scenes of two of the largest solar projects in the world, “fast tracked” by US renewable energy policies.

The documentary features Don Alfredo Figueroa (Yaqui, Chemehuevi), Reverend Ronald Van Fleet (Mojave Traditional/Hereditary Chief), Phil Smith (Chemehuevi). Preston Arrow-weed, (Quechan/Kumeyaay), Chemehuevi Chairman Charles Wood, Keith Secola (Iron Mountain Ojibwe), Jesus (Chuey) Figueroa, (Chemehuevi, Yaqui, Chichimeca), Victor Van Fleet (Mojave), The Bird Singers, Larry Eddy (CRIT).

Also included are Bill Powers, P.E., solar expert, Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, Lowell Bean Ph.D. Anthropologist, James Andre, Ph.D., Botanist, U.C. Riverside, V. John White, Executive Director, CEERT, Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger. Narrated by filmmaker Robert Lundahl.

Lundahl with Chris Clarke and Sr. Alfredo Figueroa

Journalist Chris Clarke, Sr. Alfredo Figueroa, and Filmmaker Robert Lundahl at the site of the abandoned Blythe Solar project, once touted as the largest in the world.

What people are saying about the film:

Dr. Allan Hoffman served 5 Presidents as Sr. Analyst and Sr. Executive in the Department of Energy:

I was invited to review the documentary film “Who Are My People?” because of my professional familiarity with concentrating solar power technologies. I was responsible for the U.S. Department of Energy’s broad range of renewable energy electricity programs for several years during the Clinton Administration. “Who Are My People?” is well worth watching.

The following opinions reflect my personal internal conflicts. I understand the critical need to move away from our use of fossil fuels and to use of renewable energy as quickly as possible while meeting energy needs. Conversely, I am deeply concerned about how the U.S. federal and state governments have treated our NA tribes historically and to this day. 

Andrea Morison is Communications Coordinator of Canada's Peace Valley Environmental Association.

“Who Are My People?”, a documentary film by Robert Lundahl, will leave you thinking that the English language is at a deficit when it comes to allowing one to fully comprehend  what we now, often inaccurately, believe ‘green’ and ‘renewable’ energy to represent.

 

 Lundahl

Robert Lundahl will be at the 29 Palms Inn for this special screening at 8:30pm on Sunday, June 21,2015. For more information about Robert Lundahl visit planet-rla.com

 

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