Shorts Program

Facing a climate crisis, the Reciprocity Project embraces Indigenous value systems that have bolstered communities since the dawn of humanity. To heal, we must recognize that we are in relationship with Earth, a place that was in balance until the Industrial Age. The second season of this project invites learning from time-honored and current Indigenous ways of being across seven Indigenous communities, including the mountainous Tayal homelands of Taiwan, the nightless nights and deep snows of Sámi Nation in Finland, and the vermillion dirt roads leading to the forested Limba homelands in Sierra Leone.

The Season Two storytellers and community partners are creating projects in response to a question: “What does return to land, language, practices, and reciprocal relationships mean to you and your community?”

Learn more about The Reciprocity Project at www.reciprocity.org.

Brattle Passes not accepted.

ÁHKUIN

A transcendent and playful documentary journey following three generations of a Sámi family united across time via joik – a distinct Sámi oral tradition that combines song, storytelling and reciprocity.

ARMEA

Through music and dance, Rotuman artists work with their elders to create new ceremonies and to revitalize stories of land and ocean.

ENCHUKUNOTO (THE RETURN)

Laissa Malih—the first female Maasai filmmaker—returns to the community her parents left behind in this deeply personal look at how the lands of her forefathers are being reshaped by climate change.

MA ŊAYE KA MASAALA A SE KA WƆMƐTI (FROM GOD TO MAN)

What does ‘return’ mean? Filmmaker Lansana Mansaray goes back to his ancestral village in this first-ever documentary about the Limba people of Sierra Leone.

GATH & K’IYH: LISTEN TO HEAL

In Alaska, community comes together to create music with Yo-Yo Ma as a critical part of collective healing and radical hope for the future.

TAHNAANOOKU

An artistic celebration of the environmental activism of Darline Deegan and her efforts to protect the land of her Indigenous community.

TAYAL FOREST CLUB

Is getting lost the best way to find yourself? In this coming-of-age tale from Taiwan’s first Indigenous female director, two Tayal youth learn to navigate life’s challenges by paying close attention to lessons that only the land can offer.

TENTSITEWAHKWE

Embodying the Mohawk value of Tentsítewahkwe, Jessica Shenandoah goes on a knowledge-gathering journey across all four seasons to reinvigorate the healing, land-based practices of her ancestral grandmothers, knowledge that boarding schools, forced religion, and land theft may have suppressed but could not destroy.