Young Lakota
Short film Completed 2012
Directors
Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt
Doc Society helped with
Impact
Went to Good Pitch
Runtime: 75 minutes
When Cecelia Fire Thunder, the Oglala Sioux tribe’s first female President, challenges a South Dakota law criminalizing abortion, she ignites a political firestorm that sets off a chain reaction in the lives of three young Lakotas on the Pine Ridge Reservation, forcing them to make choices that define who they are.
Long Synopsis
The Pine Ridge Reservation is no stranger to strife and heartbreak, stark realities and inspired idealism. In Young Lakota, we are brought directly into the emotional and often uncertain journey of Sunny Clifford, her twin sister Serena, and their politically ambitious friend Brandon Ferguson, who all share the compelling desire to make a difference for themselves and their community.
Their political awakening begins when Cecelia Fire Thunder, the first female president of their tribe, defies a proposed South Dakota law criminalizing all abortion by threatening to build a women’s clinic on the sovereign territory of the reservation. Sunny, just back on the reservation after two years in college, Serena, unwed and with a toddler, and Brendan with two little boys, find themselves immersed in this political battle as they struggle between opportunity and principle; between selling out or staying the course through twists and turns that they could not have anticipated.
This is a uniquely sensitive portrayal of bright young people finding their way, as the film follows the surprising highs and lows of the statewide referendum on abortion and a divisive tribal election. Young Lakota tells the tale of the diverging paths Brandon and Sunny begin to take. Ultimately it is the complex interplay of personal choice, and cultural, economic and political circumstance that defines who they are and what kind of adults they are becoming. Beyond the divisiveness and turmoil, the stark disappointments and heady triumphs, Sunny’s courage and Cecelia Fire Thunder’s wisdom gives Young Lakota a sense of enduring possibility and of life being lived deeply that will resonate with any audience.
Outreach Work Supported
Coalition building, workshops, activism and youth work.
Crew
Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt
Directors
Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt, the Directors of the award-winning The Education of Shelby Knox and Live Free or Die, formed Incite Pictures/Cine Qua Non in 1991. The company produces high-profile television documentaries and accompanying engagement campaigns on subjects of social and cultural significance. Their work has been called “unique and memorable,” “pure gold,” and “balanced and truthful,” by, respectively, the Milwaukee Journal, Hollywood Reporter and The New York Times. “Their fly-on-the-wall approach fulfills one of the glorious promises of documentary – to put us in the middle of situations we otherwise might never be in,” wrote The Washington Post.
Company Bio
Heather Rae, Executive Producer, a Cherokee filmmaker, has worked as a producer and executive for more than twenty years. She was recently named one of Variety’s “Ten Producers To Watch.” She produced Frozen River, which was nominated for two Academy Awards, won two Gotham Awards and was nominated for seven Spirit Awards. She produced Ibid, which premiered at South By Southwest and Munich International, The Dry Land, Trudell which premièred at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and won numerous awards including a Special Jury Prize from the Seattle Film Festival. For six years Rae ran the Native Program at the Sundance Institute and was a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival.
Jessica Danforth, Outreach, is coordinating the community engagement and outreach with the Young Lakota team. As a national Indigenous youth organization working across issues of sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice, National Youth Sexual Health Network is supporting the film with education and information sessions, speaking engagements, community organizing and mobilization, and national and local activism initiatives.
Shelby Knox, Outreach, was the subject of the Sundance award-winning The Education of Shelby Knox. As political and emotional coming of age stories, this film, and Young Lakota are companion pieces. Today, Shelby is a widely-followed blogger, speaker and organizer for gender equity. She has made national appearances on such shows as Today, the Daily Show, Hardball and Dr. Phil to discuss sex education and youth activism and is the Director of Organizing, Women’s Rights, for Change.org.
