'Homeland' to Have World Premiere at Santa Barbara International Film Festival

'Homeland' to Have World Premiere at Santa Barbara International Film Festival Documentary Feature Details Environmental Devastation and Nationwide Battle to Save Native American Lands LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- A feature-length documentary telling the story of some of the most grievous but little-known environmental and human rights violations in America today, "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action" will make its world premiere at the Santa Barbara Film Festival on Thursday, February 3rd. The movie, produced by the Katahdin Foundation, uncovers the reality of life on Indian lands across America: children playing near radioactive waste, tribes forced to fish in poisoned rivers, and reservations hemmed in on all sides by strip mines and factories whose smokestacks spew noxious fumes. "Homeland" tells this story through the eyes of four activists, presenting dramatically different first-person narratives set against the backdrop of some of the country's most spectacular landscapes. Gail Small, an attorney from the Northern Cheyenne nation, is leading the fight to protect the Cheyenne homeland from 75,000 proposed methane gas wells that threaten to make much of the reservation unsuitable for farming or ranching. Evon Peter is the former chief of an isolated Alaska community of Gwich'in people, who are working against current efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Mitchell and Rita Capitan founded an organization of Eastern Navajo people whose only source of drinking water is threatened by proposed uranium mining. And Barry Dana, the former chief of the Penobscot Nation in Maine, is battling state government and the paper companies that have left his people unable to fish or swim in or harvest medicinal plants from the river on which they've depended for 10,000 years. The film is aiming for PBS broadcast in November, 2005, accompanied by an extensive outreach campaign that will include collaborations with a network of Native American organizations, social justice and human rights groups, and environmental organizations. "Homeland" was shot on film by cinematographer, Dyanna Taylor; directed by veteran documentary filmmaker, Roberta Grossman, executive produced by Lisa B. Thomas and produced by the Katahdin Foundation. Composer Todd Boekelheide created the music for the film. The world premiere of "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action" will take place at the 20th Anniversary of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Thursday, February 3rd at 6:30 p.m. at Victoria Hall. The film will also screen on Saturday, February 5th at 7 p.m. Source: Katahdin Foundation CONTACT: Jane Ayer, jane@janeayerpr.com, or Irene Dean, both of Jane Ayer Public Relations, +1-310-581-1330, for Katahdin Foundation ------- Profile: International Entertainment