Indigenous mothers, grandmothers and others are teaming up in song, spoken word and video to push back against a new toxic, highly polluting tar sands oil pipeline. “Line 3” cuts through the heart of Native land and crosses more than 200 water bodies – including the Mississippi River twice – a drinking water source for millions of people downstream from the river’s headwaters, which begins in northern Minnesota featuring Waubanewquay, Winona LaDuke, Day Sisters, Mumu Fresh, Pura Fe, Soni Moreno, Jennifer Kreisberg, Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt and poet Joy Harjo. Song by folksinger and activist Larry Long.
The Director
Keri Pickett is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, author and artist interested in family and community which may be seen in her documentation of life’s commonalities in disparate communities. As a producer, director and cinematographer, her feature documentary films have included “The Fabulous Ice Age” which was a Netflix Original in 10 languages and “First Daughter and the Black Snake” which both won numerous awards. Her films have also been shown at the Napa Valley Film Festival, Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow and the Arizona International Film Festival, the Marfa Film Festival. Pickett is a 2017 McKnight Foundation Fellow in Media Arts and co-director with Dawn Mikkelson of the documentary feature film “Finding Her Beat” which has been premieres at Mill Valley and has been selected by Heartland, Doc NYC, Hot Springs Documentary, Sound Unseen and many other festivals in the fall of 2022. Pickett has been awarded numerous fellowships including a 2017 McKnight Foundation Media Fellowship.
|
Director Statement
With the “No More Pipeline Blues” music video, we share the beauty of the pristine waters of northern Minnesota, the inspirational leadership of indigenous women and the courage of “water protectors.” Filmed over a four-month period by Honor the Earth media artists Sarah LittleRedFeather, River Akemann and myself, Keri Pickett, the footage reflects the spiritual, serious and sometimes unconventional methods used to halt construction of the Enbridge tar sands oil pipeline. From the December 2020 arrival of more than 4,000 workers during the height of the pandemic, the film shows how severe cold, Covid-19 and the coordinated invasion of county and state police have not deterred local resistance against Line 3 by those who believe that it threatens northern Minnesota’s water supply and that ‘water is life.’ As the song sings, ‘No more, no more, no more pipeline blues. Don’t let Line 3 come through!’” – Keri Pickett, Filmmaker & Photographer.