Native American survivors of sexual assault fight to restore tribal sovereignty in order to end the rape of Indigenous women.
SYNOPSIS
The six main characters in Sisters Rising are powerful, compelling Native women who draw a parallel between their own survivor’s transformation and those of their tribal nations who are seeking to decolonize and recover from trauma. As one woman says in Sisters Rising, “Honestly, I don’t know a single Native woman who HASN'T been attacked.” The US Dept. of Justice reports that Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than all other American women. Amnesty International found that 1 in 3 Native women reports having been raped in her lifetime -- and 86% of the offenses are committed by non-Native men. The ongoing legacy of colonial violence towards Native Americans fuels these high rates of rape. Environmental degradation and violence against women are part and parcel of a larger colonial American legacy that continues unabated. Sisters Rising is an urgent call to action and a demand for restoring tribal sovereignty and self-determination as one of the necessary steps towards ending violence against Native women.
Supporter Statement
“I believe in SISTERS RISING because it centers Native women and their experiences within the discussion of the systemic forces which perpetuate sexual assault. This is a conversation that needs to happen now and I believe SISTERS RISING will be a powerful contributing voice.”
- Sarah Deer, Professor, Lawyer, and Sisters Rising subject
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Willow O'Feral
Willow O’Feral (Director/Producer/Cinematographer) is the award-winning director, producer and cinematographer of two feature documentary films Break the Silence: Reproductive & Sexual Health Stories and Sisters Rising, which received a Vision Maker Media grant. Break the Silence was awarded the 2018 Choice Champion Award from Planned Parenthood of New England, and the 2019 Best Documentary Feature Award at La Frontera Queer Film Festival. Willow was a Fledgling Fellow at the 2018 DX Investigative Film Festival in Washington DC. She is a member of New Day Films, the longest-running distribution cooperative for independent documentary filmmakers in the US, and a co-founder of Haptic Pictures, a production company producing beautiful original content around pressing issues of social justice.
Brad Heck (Director/Producer/Cinematographer) is a filmmaker, cinematographer, and educator. Sisters Rising is Brad’s directorial debut. He also recently co-produced Willow O’Feral’s feature documentary Break the Silence, and is a co-founder of Haptic Pictures. Previously in his career, he worked as a cinematographer on commercial and independent projects, including documentaries featuring diverse visionaries such as Barack Obama, Howard Zinn, and Miranda July, and was awarded a regional Emmy for his cinematography work for BRIC Media in NY. Brad holds an MFA in Film from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he was honored with the Emerging Filmmaker Scholarship. Most recently Brad was awarded a Community Engagement Lab Grant to develop a virtual reality project chronicling the impact of climate change in Vermont.
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Women Make Movies (WMM), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New York State and accepts charitable donations on behalf of this project. Your donation will be spent by the filmmaker(s) toward the production and completion of this media project. No services or goods are provided by Women Make Movies, the filmmaker(s) or anyone else associated with this project in exchange for your charitable donation.
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