We had the great pleasure of collaborating on ‘Here and Now’ with Annie Burke, the Deputy Director of the Bay Area Open Space Council. At the premier, on September 17th at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, she introduced the film with these words:
There are a lot of ways of starting the conversation about land and people. There are many ways to frame your thinking, many doors to walk through. We all come from different perspectives, with different histories, different ancestors. I want to acknowledge and respect the differences. I want to celebrate the differences because this would be a super boring world if we were all the same.
But really I want to dive into the commonalities. There’s tremendous value and opportunity when we start on common ground and move forward together. I believe that everyone in this room cares about people. Everyone in this room cares about land and place and home. And I believe that by working together we can create a different future. Let’s create a future where land conservation is practiced with justice and compassion. Let’s create a future where we all have a deep connection to place, and that we can actually physically go to that place.
It’s with those beliefs and hopes that I produced the film you’re about to see.
This film isn’t a comprehensive documentation of all that’s happening to connect Native Americans to land. This film is not meant to be the one and only story about the incredible partnerships that are happening.
This film is the story of the evolving field of land conservation. This is a story of social justice. This is the story of ethnobotany. Of history. Of applied science. This is the story of looking differently at the land under our feet and the people around us.
This is a story that is happening here and now.
Lights please…
Here and Now – FILM from Bay Area Open Space Council on Vimeo.