THE STORY
Our film documents the stories of four well-known Native environmental spokespeople who are at the forefront of a perspective shift in the identity of their people, from forgotten voices to powerful and influential leaders. They have struggled with feelings of isolation their entire lives and are now discovering the power of their shared voices to bring change to the entire world.
With the continuous expansion of pipeline projects throughout the Americas these Indigenous women and men represent the last remaining landholders who refuse to sacrifice their territories to transnational oil companies.
Their unification in New York first and later in Paris are among many similar and burgeoning initiatives, mostly led by Indigenous women, that have inspired people around the world to rise for the protection of the earth and give life to the climate justice movement.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo and Bryan Parras’s lands were devastated by the oil industry and it has remained an acceptable secret, with no coverage from the media, and limited support from their governments.
Even as her people were dying in the Alberta tar sands, Melina’s sister was recently murdered: violence against the Earth, begets violence against women. This tragic event set into motion her quest for justice, which will lead her half way across the globe.
Bryan has always lived in the energy capital of the world, Houston. He grew up uprooted from his Indigenous origins until the day he met with other Indigenous people who vowed to bring back respect for the land and ancient cultures. So begins his journey to rediscover his true self, the meaning of being Indigenous.
THE PROPHECY
Ancient native prophecies say: “When the Eagle of the North and the Condor of the South fly together, Indigenous peoples will unite the human family”.
“And while I stood there, I saw more than I can tell and understood more than I saw, for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit and the shape of all shapes as they must all live together as one being.”
Black Elk
“Indigenous knowledge keepers will come together with world leaders to define a path of healing for all the humans and the planet – Mother Earth.”
- Check the outstanding work done by Brother Phil Lane Jr. and the Four Worlds International Institute.
- Watch the video we produced on Phil Lane’s poem “The Sacred Tree”.
Filmed in the verdant jungles of the Amazon (Ecuador and Peru), the brightly colored cultures of the Pan American First Nations communities (Vancouver, Alberta) and the United States Indian tribes (Oklahoma), viewers glimpse extraordinary beauty in the places, faces and regalia of traditional people.
The Indigenous heartfelt pursuit for self- discovery, self- reclamation, and a way of life, is chronicled as they build alliances around the world (in Peru, Ecuador, Paris, Vancouver, Alberta, Washington, New York, etc.) because to them a crime against Mother Earth is a crime against humanity.
The Condor & The Eagle follows the protagonists as they develop a resistance strategy that matches the level of their opponents – taking their effort to South America, Europe and beyond. Their task is to make local battles an International concern and finally expose criminal corporations responsible for serious crimes. The film promotes an intercultural dialogue by showing how non-Indigenous and Indigenous people come together.