IF YOU GO
WHAT: "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action."
WHEN: Tonight at 7
WHERE: Waterville Opera House, 93 Main St., Waterville. 873-7000.
HOW MUCH: $8
ABOUT THE FILM: Documentary on environmental battles fought by four American Indian tribes, including the Penobscot Nation in eastern Maine.
SECOND SHOWING: The film, part of the Maine International Film Festival, will also be shown Saturday at 5:15 p.m. at Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville. For information on the festival: www.miff.org.
Lisa Thomas, a former CEO of the Clif Bar energy snack company, was in Maine a few years ago climbing Mount Katahdin.
She was with her brother-in-law, former Penobscot Nation Chief Barry Dana. She saw the pristine headwaters of the Penobscot River - which runs through and around Penobscot Nation lands - and heard Dana explain how the waters downstream have become increasingly toxic.
Thomas, inspired by Dana's description of the environmental battles the Penobscots had been fighting, decided the story should be told to a wider audience. She enlisted the help of veteran filmmaker Roberta Grossman, who had produced an eight-hour documentary series on American Indian tribes for CBS in 1995 called "500 Nations."
Grossman, Thomas and Dana realized that tribes around the nation were facing similar environmental challenges and that their stories were also compelling. The result was an 87-minute feature documentary called "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action."
Besides the Penobscot Nation in Maine, the other tribes featured in the film include the Navajo in New Mexico, the Northern Cheyenne in Montana, and the Gwich'in in Alaska.
The film will be shown as part of the Maine International Film Festival at 7 tonight at the Waterville Opera House. The film will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Dana, Grossman, Thomas and others.
The film is currently showing at film festivals, but the producers say it will be shown on PBS TV stations sometime this fall, though no air date has been scheduled.
The film explores what various American Indian nations have in common - trying to keep their land and their cultures intact while facing enormous economic and political pressures. With many reservations facing high unemployment rates, the financial benefits attached to using their land for a waste dump or strip mining can be hard to refuse.
"A lot of what these tribes face is economic blackmail," said Grossman. "They have been reduced to these little islands of land, now we want what's underneath the land - gas, water or storage for nuclear waste."
"Homeland" is broken down into the stories of four tribes and their biggest environmental challenges. The segment on the Penobscot, featuring Dana and other tribal leaders, shows the tribe's efforts to keep the Penobscot River clean. Their efforts include battles with paper companies and other businesses along or near the river.
Penobscot leaders who have seen the film are happy with it, and think it will help their cause.
"I think it's a great portrayal of our tribe's struggles to protect and enhance our homeland. The Penobscot Nation has been here 8,000 years, and has been greatly impacted by pollution," said John Banks, the tribe's director of natural resources, based on Indian Island near Old Town. "The film shows that (tribes) around the country have things in common and face similar environmental threats."
The current Penobscot chief, James Sappier, said he would like to show the film to American Indian groups around the country. He also thinks that the general public needs to see the film, to get a better understanding of what tribes face today.
"It'll give the non-Indian population a view of Indian country that is different from what everyone perceives," said Sappier.
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: