We & The Water
Thursday, June 19, 2025 | 7:30 p.m. | The Hollywood Theatre
Sponsored by the Human Access Project
We proudly present the Portland premieres of seven new short films from around the living world about humanity’s relationship with water. This program includes four official selections in our Indigenous Voices series and a community conversation with special guests. (Approximate running time with community conversation: 120 minutes)
Click here to purchase tickets.
THE ENDLESS TIDE
Australia | 2024 | 14 minutes | Dir. Michael Portway, Timothy Brown
Official Selection, 2025 Indigenous Voices Series
Aboriginal rangers in the remote community of Mapoon, Australia lead efforts to clean up their ancestral shores in this heartfelt documentary that shows the power of communities working together.
DREAM TO CURE WATER
Slovenia & Peru |2024 | 22 minutes | Dir. Ciril Jazbec
Official Selection, 2025 Indigenous Voices Series
Peru is home to 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers, but 40% of their surface area has disappeared in the last fifty years alone. The glaciers are a crucial water source, and people are forced to adapt as they disappear. Two Indigenous mountain communities that depend on the water fight back against the effects of climate change through innovative adaptation, combining ancestral tradition with state-of-the-art science.
TAHNAANOOKU’
USA | 2024 | 7 minutes | Dir. Justin Deegan
Official Selection, 2025 Indigenous Voices Series
A grandmother. A source of existence. A portal to other worlds. For thousands of years, the Indigenous people of what is now known as North and South Dakota co-existed reciprocally with the Missouri River. Its waters offer life while also inspiring legends and languages. In TAHNAANOOKU’, filmmaker Justin Deegan takes an experimental approach to exploring the severed relationship between his community—the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara—and the river, the result of over 80 years of USA government efforts to control the Missouri, including the Garrison Dam.
QUILLAYUTE RIVER RESTORATION (Líť'sit yiká· xá·bil-ts:)
USA | 2024 | 6 minutes | Dir. Jennifer Moslemi
Official Selection, 2025 Indigenous Voices Series
The Quileute Tribe of Washington State is on a mission to restore the river they depend on for their food and culture.
HOW WE ARE SAVING A RIVER: RESTORING ROSS ISLAND
USA | 2024 | 13 minutes | Dir. David Alexander Baker
The Willamette River connects Portland, Oregon, both literally and figuratively. Ross Island is at the heart, holding the key to our past and future relationship with the river. However, years of industrial activity and a changing climate have created a situation where harmful cyanobacteria can build up in the stagnant waters of the Ross Island Lagoon. This can impact people and animals all along the river, posing serious health risks. Fortunately, this problem can be solved. Oregon State University has joined with other nonprofit, public, and private partners to chart a path toward a solution.
RETURN OF THE MANGROVES
USA | 2024 | 9 minutes | Dir. Leo Thom
The Bay of Jiquilisco, located on the Pacific coast of El Salvador, is home to one of the largest and most diverse mangrove forests in Central America. The mangroves in the bay cover approximately 25,000 hectares. They are critical to the health of the bay’s ecosystem and local human and wildlife communities. Despite their importance, the mangroves are still under threat. RETURN OF THE MANGROVES follows the Mangrove Action Project (MAP) to El Salvador to assess the health of mangroves in the Bay of Jiquilisco, where communities are collaborating with scientists to gain new skills and knowledge to help reverse the decline, for living and future generations.
THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
USA | 2024 | 16 minutes | Dir. Genevieve Hannelius Zulema Young-Toledo
When Shirley’s husband moves them to a burgeoning town on the Salton Sea, she begins to discover the murky truth lying beneath the shimmering waters and must decide if she is willing to shatter the mirage of this desert oasis.
