New Media and Civic Arts Series: Myron Dewey
November 19
Screening of Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock
Followed by a conversation with Myron Dewey hosted by Lisa Parks
Collaboration with CMS/W
About the film
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a controversial project that would bring fracked gas from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and eventually to Illinois. The Standing Rock Nation and people all over the world oppose the project because the pipeline would run under the Missouri river, a source of drinking water for over 18 million people. There are thousands of miles of pipelines in the United States and they leak every single day. Since 2010 over 3,300 oil spills and leaks have been reported.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at Standing Rock to join the peaceful prayeractions. Filmmakers Myron Dewey, Josh Fox and James Spione spent months on the front lines documenting North Dakota’s violent response to the Peaceful water protectors. These artists risked their own safety to capture images of police firing mace, pepper spray and rubber bullets at peaceful water protectors, journalists and medics at point-blank range. This film is not only shows a very brutal police repression of a peaceful protest, it is also a compilation of emotional interviews with members of the camp responding to having their civil liberties trampled on. In addition, this film is a cautionary tale, as these kinds of battles against the oil industry are becoming more prevalent in the United States and the World.