Emmy® Award Winning Documentary Films
Welcome to the visionary space that is the global home to 4 Feature Films, 17 Shorts, 16 Television “Journeys,” 12 Music Videos, and 74 “Cinema Verite Radio Documentaries.”
Emmy® Award Winning Documentary Films
Welcome to the visionary space that is the global home to 4 Feature Films, 17 Shorts, 16 Television “Journeys,” 12 Music Videos, and 74 “Cinema Verite Radio Documentaries.”
The noted artist John Baldessari was quoted as saying “I don’t want no retrospectives,” snd so Robert Lundahl, writer, artist, filmmaker, journalist, and storyteller, values an ongoing spirit of artistic freedom and intellectual inquiry, normally unavailable. He has contributed both commercial filmmaking and unrestrained creative exploration to a large and unique body of work that has always been ahead of its time, however necessary in the moment.
His films are thus “markers of transition,” remembrances of being.
It is of global importance, how the story of the restoration of the Elwha River and fisheries came to be told. To this date, full ecosystem restoration at this scale has occurred only once. We are looking at the prime and only example of large scale remediation to the river ecosystem including the landscape, fisheries, culture, spirit and economy of a Pacific Northwest Region. In restoring the Elwha, we have a pattern for other endeavors and a seed for success.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, “Ecological restoration is the process of reclaiming habitat and ecosystem functions by restoring the lands and waters on which plants and animals depend. Restoration is a corrective step that involves eliminating or modifying causes of ecological degradation and re-establishing the natural processes — like natural fires, floods, or predator-prey relationships — that sustain and renew ecosystems over time.
It is important to introduce the concept that ecological restoration is worthy of consideration in addressing landscape level issues having to do with water, toxic substances, ecosystem health and the health of people..
With regard to the public/private process to restore the Salton Sea, reintroduction of water to the system allows ecosystems to be supported and to become more fecund, making for a cleaner and healthier environment and thus stabilizing the region.
The removal of water from the southern San Joaquin Valley similarly sees soils become salted, non-productive, and subject to conversion from agriculture to energy production (fracking) and other industries. Toxic compounds compile at specific locations, affecting wildlife and avian species, and human beings, through blowing dust and particulates. The lesson of the Elwha is “Let nature run its course.”
Unconquering the Last Frontier shows the debate, framing the story of a waterfront mill town as it ponders its future while confronting its past. Other stories from these pages reflect on the application of restorative principals to other bioregions and specific places, while reflecting on the way human beings use the land and waters and identify and interact with their environment and ecosystems and with their communities.
Technical: 156 400’ camera loads exposed, 62,400 ft. Kodak 7293 Film. French-made Eclair 1.5, ARRI Mount Angenieux 10-150 mm. Zoom, ARRI Mount Angenieux 12-120 mm. Zoom,, ARRI Mount Angenieux 9.5-57 mm. Zoom, Century 600 mm Prime, Double System Nagra 4.2 S, Center Track Time Code. Shoeps Microphones.
Independent filmmaking
**NOW** For Projection/Theater ReadyEXPAND TO FULL SCREEN
Unconquering the Last Frontier (97 Min.) chronicles the historic saga of the damming and undamming of Washington's Elwha River. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the ongoing salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest, the film tells the story of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe's struggle to survive in the shadow of hydropower development. PBS.
It is the only film to address the historic trauma of Native American peoples, incurred during the early period of industrial colonializatioh and destruction of resources and environmental integrity in the Pacific Northwest.
Liner Notes:
On the the occasion of what would have been Grateful Dead occasional keyboardist, and solo rock impresario Merl Saunders’ 75th birthday, the San Francisco music scene converged at the Great American Music Hall to celebrate the noted local.
Saunders had grown up in the city nearby to friend Johnny Mathis and was seduced into the Rock and Roll world. Son, Tony Saunders, the Dead’s Bob Weir, Dino Valente Jr., son of Quicksilver Messenger Service frontman Dino Valente Sr., and others joined up on stage to pay tribute.
Tony Saunders (on bass) scored the soundtrack to Robert Lundahl’s film, Unconquering the Last Frontier, along with members of Oakland’s Tower of Power, in a remarkable testament to the musicianship and range of styles and capabilities of the Saunders extended family. (See Music).
PBS, Free Speech TV, Theatrical, Washington, California
Song on the Water 4K Feature Trailer
Song on the Water (Promo)
60 minute documentary. In the 1960's Native Americans in the state of Washington were forbidden from fishing in their traditional areas, off the reservations. In what became know as the “Fish Wars,” tribal fishermen were harassed and sometimes beaten by State Police.
When the Boalt Decision passed in the U.S. federal courts in 1976, the federal government guaranteed the rights to fish in “usual and accustomed grounds.” But the state often denied access. Finally in a compromise, the state agreed to allow tribes to access traditional fishing grounds if they demonstrated they could access them by traditional means, ocean going canoes.
Lundahl’s award winning ethnographic documentary, “Song on the Water” (2005), takes viewers along with 50 indigenous canoes, their crews, and communities on a modern-day voyage to a traditional potlatch. Filled with beautiful photography and inspiring Coast Salish and Nuu Chah Nulth songs and cultural expressions, the one-hour film explores what the voyage means to the “pullers,” ground crews, and elders who share the waves, the traditions, and a vision of a positive future for Coast Salish and other Native youth.
PBS
Technical: Sony DSR-500 WS DV-Cam, Single and Double System, Sony Walkman Portable DAT. Sennheiser Wireless and Shotgun Mics.
Who Are My People? 4K Feature Trailer
In the Mojave desert, the world’s energy companies converge to produce power. 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 have met their match in a small group of Native American elders, in the hottest desert on the planet.
Theatrical 5 States–Oregon, South Dakota, Arizona, Nevada, California
Technical: Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 HD Camcorder, Audio Technica Shotgun Mics. Sennheiser Wireless.
Harvest Dreams 4K Feature Trailer
Harvest Dreams profiles four farms and four farming families on Washington’s beautiful Olympia Peninsula, as agriculture there transitions from commodity products to niche and organic produce.
The film was shot over the course of a year to reveal activities through the change of seasons. It is at once touching and tragic as generations transition and farming practices in general face competition from increasing land costs and housing development that forces some out of the business forever.
Theatrical, Washington
Technical: Sony DSR-500 WS DV-Cam. Sennheiser Wireless and Shotgun Mics.
The Battle of Blythe 4K Short *Best Documentary Film, 2020
The Battle of Blythe
Following a career working as a commercial filmmaker in Silicon Valley and around the world, making the film, “Who Are My People?” represented a homecoming of sorts. After a prologue by Preston Arrow-weed (Quechan/Kamya), the film begins with a journey down the roads of his past, to a cherished location in the desert comprised of a collection of small cabins.
There, as child, he would gaze toward the far away mountains and imagine what, and who was on the other side. Upon return he ventured over the mountains, where he met Alfredo Acosta Figueroa (Yaqui/Chemehuevi), colleague and compadre of Cesar Chavez, head of the UFW, United Farm Workers.
Failure to Consult
Together and along with La Cuna de Aztlan Sacred Sites Protection Circle, they would file a legal challenge to several large solar facilities scheduled to be built on "pristine desert ecosystems", and, on, around or nearby Native American sacred sites, based on Failure to Consult as mandated by Setion 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Asked if he wanted "Whistleblower Status," Lundahl deferred, saying instead, he would serve as Figueroa's (volunteer) "PR guy."
Lundahl says he was shocked by racism directed toward Figueroa and his family by white "environmentalists," particularly since Figuera had notably worked with a young Governor Jerry Brown to expand access to California universities for Chicano/Indigenous youth via Proposition 48 and the Affirmative Action Plan.
The Figueroa Famity faced racism at home as representatives of the Blythe, California UFW, in the primarily agricultural Palo Verde Valley, an area dominated by large growers.
He and wife Demesia were instrumental in founding the first Chicano Indigenous school in the country, Escuela de la Raza Unida. From a closet filled with news clippings and VHS tapes the short film, “The Battle of Blythe” was created.
Lundahl worked with Alfredo and Demesia to create the commemorative film on the occasion of the school's 40th anniversory. The 19 minute ahort was awarded "Best Documentary Film" from the Tulalip Tribes' Hibulb Cultural Center and Museum Film Festival, 2020.
Technical: Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 HD Camcorder, Audio Technica Shotgun Mics. Sennheiser Wireless.
CONTACT:
Robert Lundahl FilmMaker, 415.205.3481, robert@studio-rla.com
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