FILM PROGRAM

6:30 pm - DEMON MINERAL

USA, 2022, Director: Hadley Austin,

Producer: Nevo Shinaar. Cinematographer: Yoni Goldstein, Impact Producer: Emma Robbins, CoWriter: Tommy Rock, Documentary, 95 mins. English, Navajo.

DEMON MINERAL is a new documentary about life in the radioactive desert of the Navajo Reservation in the American Southwest. Spanning a landscape perforated by uranium mines, the film follows a group of indigenous scientists, engineers, and activists as they work to secure a vital living space in the Navajo Nation. It is an antiWestern exploring the legacy of uranium mining in Diné Bikeyah, the sacred homelands of the Navajo. There, 523 unremediated mines scatter across an area the size of West Virginia. Water, air, traditions, and livelihoods have been threatened by contamination for the last four generations. Some Diné adhere to the tenets in the following origin story: there is a demon who lives in the earth. He is content enough there, and will bother no-one unless disturbed, having been laid there by a formidable warrior. Uranium, for millions of years to come, is perhaps this demon made real. Film info: https://www.redfordcenter.org/films/demon-mineral/