SURVIVAL PRAYER
“The images remind me of the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich.”
About
Directed by Benjamin Greené
70 minutes
On a remote archipelago in the Pacific Northwest, an uncommon abundance of wildlife has sustained the Haida people for countless generations. Here, a last speaker frames a moving portrait of these sacred food systems at risk. Rich with dreamlike scenes of the North Pacific coastline and details of wild food gathering and preservation, Survival Prayer is a story of possibility amid deep loss.
Team
Co-Producer/Editor: P. Corwin Lamm
Co-Producer/Sound: Christina Greené
Associate Producer/Music: Michael Beharie
Producer/Camera: Benjamin Greené
Produced in part with a grant from the Suquamish Tribe and in cooperation with the Council of the Haida Nation, Skidegate Band Council, & Old Massett Village Council.
Distributed by The Cinema Guild and Benjamin Greené Studio LLC
Selected Screenings and Awards
-Audience Favorite, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near, MoMA
-Winner, Special Jury Prize for Direction, Sarasota Film Festival
-Official Selection, Vancouver International Film Festival
-Official Selection, Banff Mountain Film Festival
-Official Selection, Camden International Film Festival
-Official Selection, Haida Gwaii Film Festival
Reviews
“Greené plays extreme close-ups of ... faces and weathered hands against wide, panning shots of the mystical landscape to mesmerizing effect.”
“A wonderful film, and a moving portrait of a people struggling to keep their traditional hunting and gathering ways alive to inspire new generations of Haida men and women.”
“The scenes, sounds and events captured in the film are stunning, and the stories of the people who struggle to keep their food traditions vibrant are compelling and inspiring.”
“Survival Prayer conveys the wisdom behind the gathering of native foods by Haida people, laying it out carefully in a stream of exquisite images, perfectly placed. The film, attentive in a tender and respectful way to a tradition older than the Babylonian and Inca empires, gently frames a profound question: In the days ahead, when we’ll really need it, will the Haida’s wisdom still be available to us?”