Nisha Rathode (Editor)

Standing Silent Nation

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
8
/
10
1
Votes
Alchetron8
8
1 Ratings
100
90
81
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate This

Rate This

Director
  
Suree Towfighnia

Duration
  

Music director
  
Andrew Shapiro

Language
  
English

7.8/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Documentary

Running time
  
53 minutes

Producer
  
Courtney Hermann

Standing Silent Nation movie poster
Release date
  
October 27, 2006 (2006-10-27) (Native Voice Film Festival)

Cast
  
Alex White Plume, Ramona White Plume, Deborah White Plume

Similar movies
  
Exotic World and the Burlesque Revival (2012), In the Light of Reverence (2001), Four Days in Chicago (2013), The Return of Navajo Boy (2000)

Standing Silent Nation is a 2006 documentary film about Alex White Plume, a resident of South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. After a great deal of research, Alex and his family planted industrial hemp, under the incorrect assumption that tribal sovereignty laws would allow the production of this non-psychoactive relative of marijuana, and the film details the consequences of his actions.

Contents

Standing Silent Nation was directed by Suree Towfighnia and aired as part of PBS's Point of View series in 2007.

Standing silent nation preview


Background

When the Oglala Sioux tribe passed an ordinance separating industrial hemp from its illegal cousin, marijuana, Alex White Plume and his family glimpsed a brighter future.

Having researched hemp as a sustainable crop that would grow in the inhospitable soil of the South Dakota Badlands, the White Plumes envisioned a new economy that would impact the 85% unemployment rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

They never dreamed they would find themselves swept up in a struggle over tribal sovereignty, economic rights, and common sense.

From the hemp fields of Pine Ridge to the US Federal Court of Appeals, the one-hour documentary Standing Silent Nation tracks one family’s effort to create economic independence for themselves, their reservation, and their future generations.

The hemp plant is like a new buffalo for the Lakota: a resource whose many uses from food to fuel to fiber, could enrich their sovereign nation. For three years, Alex White Plume and his family planted industrial hemp. But each year, their harvest was disrupted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which claims that hemp is marijuana despite the absence of marijuana’s psychoactive properties.

Project funders

Standing Silent Nation is made possible with the support of Native American Public Telecommunications, the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, the Playboy Foundation, and many others who have donated to the project over the years.

References

Standing Silent Nation Wikipedia
Standing Silent Nation IMDb


Similar Topics