The award-winning documentary Powerlands is touring the UK later this month. Hosted by the London Mining Network, the film’s director, the young Dinè/Navajo filmmaker Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, is touring with it and will be speaking at every showing.

The filmmaker investigates the displacement of Indigenous people and the devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. On this personal and political journey she learns from Indigenous activists across three continents.

Ivey Camille started making films at the age of 9, through the Native youth media project Outta Your Backpack Media. At the age of 13 she made the award-winning fiction film In the Footsteps of Yellow Woman, based in the true story of her great-great-great grandmother Yellow Woman, who lived through the Navajo Long Walk of 1864-1868. At the age of 19, Ivey Camille began work on Powerlands, her first feature.

She says: “My grandmother taught me how to stand on the frontlines. She taught me about the ways that my ancestors have resisted displacement since colonial settlers came here. When thinking about how to tell the stories in this film, I think first about the storytelling traditions I have learned from elders in my community.”

The film’s producers Jordan Flaherty, an award-winning journalist, producer and author, and Ewa Jasiewicz, a writer, international solidarity activist and union organiser, will also be speaking to audiences, answering questions and meeting activists.

In Powerlands, the filmmaker travels to the La Guajira region in rural Colombia, the Tampakan region of the Philippines, the Tehuantepec Isthmus of Mexico and the protests at Standing Rock. In each case, she meets Indigenous women leading the struggle against the same corporations that are causing displacement and environmental catastrophe in her own home. Inspired by these women, Ivey Camille brings home the lessons from these struggles to the Navajo Nation.

The film focuses mainly on coal and oil, but uranium and wind power are also mentioned — not all green power is helpful if the companies producing it are not regulated or do not care about the communities they impact.

Interviewed recently, director Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso said that installing windmills in Mexico involved corrupt practices and people were often forced off their land at gunpoint. Oil from the mills dripped onto the land, polluting the water supply.

Tso grew up in Black Mesa, where she witnessed the environmental devastation wrought by Peabody Coal. The issues are similar in Colombia and the Philippines where energy extraction is highlighted in the film. In all three communities, there is an absence of running water and electricity, while large companies make vast profits from the area.

Powerlands won Best US Feature at the American Documentary & Animation Film Festival (AmDocs) in 2022. View a trailer of the film here.  

Tour and tickets

21 Sept – UCL (26 Bedford Way)
Tickets for UCL

22 Sept – Ritzy Cinema, Brixton, London (closed showing for schools)

22 Sept – Crossroads Women’s Centre, London

23 Sept – Birkbeck Cinema, Unviersity of London – 17:00 (with CILAVS)
Tickets for Birkbeck Cinema

24 Sept – Gregson Arts & Community Centre, Lancaster – 19:00 (with Many Worlds On Film)
Tickets for Lancaster

25 Sept – Square Chapel Arts Centre, Halifax – 16:00 (sponsored by Calderdale NEU)
Tickets for Halifax

26 Sept -The World Transformed Festival, Liverpool
Tickets for The World Transformed

27 Sept – Partizan Collective, Manchester – 19:00
Tickets for Manchester

29 Sept – BASE Community Co-op, Bristol – 18:00
Tickets for Bristol

30 Sept -Hamilton House, London – 17:00 (with NEU: London International Solidarity Network)
Tickets for Hamilton House

2 Oct – Pelican House, London – 17:00 (with United Voices of the World)
Tickets for Pelican House

21 Sept – UCL (26 Bedford Way)
Tickets for UCL

22 Sept – Ritzy Cinema, Brixton, London (closed showing for schools)

22 Sept – Crossroads Women’s Centre, London

23 Sept – Birkbeck Cinema, Unviersity of London – 17:00 (with CILAVS)
Tickets for Birkbeck Cinema

24 Sept – Gregson Arts & Community Centre, Lancaster – 19:00 (with Many Worlds On Film)
Tickets for Lancaster

25 Sept – Square Chapel Arts Centre, Halifax – 16:00 (sponsored by Calderdale NEU)
Tickets for Halifax

26 Sept -The World Transformed Festival, Liverpool
Tickets for The World Transformed

27 Sept – Partizan Collective, Manchester – 19:00
Tickets for Manchester

29 Sept – BASE Community Co-op, Bristol – 18:00
Tickets for Bristol

30 Sept -Hamilton House, London – 17:00 (with NEU: London International Solidarity Network)
Tickets for Hamilton House

2 Oct – Pelican House, London – 17:00 (with United Voices of the World)
Tickets for Pelican House

21 Sept – UCL (26 Bedford Way)
Tickets for UCL

22 Sept – Ritzy Cinema, Brixton, London (closed showing for schools)

22 Sept – Crossroads Women’s Centre, London

23 Sept – Birkbeck Cinema, Unviersity of London – 17:00 (with CILAVS)
Tickets for Birkbeck Cinema

24 Sept – Gregson Arts & Community Centre, Lancaster – 19:00 (with Many Worlds On Film)
Tickets for Lancaster

25 Sept – Square Chapel Arts Centre, Halifax – 16:00 (sponsored by Calderdale NEU)
Tickets for Halifax

26 Sept -The World Transformed Festival, Liverpool
Tickets for The World Transformed

27 Sept – Partizan Collective, Manchester – 19:00
Tickets for Manchester

29 Sept – BASE Community Co-op, Bristol – 18:00
Tickets for Bristol

30 Sept -Hamilton House, London – 17:00 (with NEU: London International Solidarity Network)
Tickets for Hamilton House

2 Oct – Pelican House, London – 17:00 (with United Voices of the World)
Tickets for Pelican House