3 Questions With Silver Bullet Productions’ Pamela Pierce

Perhaps in New Mexico we’re a little more conscious about who owns what land—and what was stolen from whom—than in other places. Make no mistake, friendos, you’re living on land that is not yours, and the fact remains the same: Indigenous folks lived on and cared for the land we today call America for hundreds of years before things like colonialism and industry turned it into whatever we have now. And in case you hadn’t heard, things aren’t going so great, what with climate change, fires, floods and so on. Recently released documentary However Wide the Sky: Places of Power from Santa Fe-based nonprofit educational film studio Silver Bullet Productions, however, aims to look at that issue through the prongs of use, stewardship, cultural meaning and those who still feel a connection. Through interviews with historians and tribal members, plus gorgeous footage of areas throughout New Mexico, it just might help reframe the conversation from whether land use is about ownership or stewardship, though it leans toward the latter. Oh, and by the way? It just won a dang Rocky Mountain Region Emmy. Narrated by Tantoo Cardinal (Cree and Métis) and produced by folks including Jhane Myers (Comanche and Blackfeet; Prey), also the president of Silver Bullet’s board, However Wide the Sky is viewable through PBS in all of its sweeping drone-shot beauty. We caught up with Silver Bullet Productions founding partner and CEO Pamela Pierce to learn a little more. (Alex De Vore).

What made this a story Silver Bullet wanted to tell?

Well, first of all, you have to establish that the history and spirituality of Indigenous people is deeply rooted in the land, that’s a given. But in 2016, changes in presidential policies put tribal lands at risk, and the land was being attacked, the land was being treated as a commodity, something to own, to abuse, to be mined. At the time, Silver Bullet began conversations with tribal leaders about the importance of education and education about the land and the roots of and threats to that land. When we started, we figured that’s pretty succinct, that’ll be it, and there were so many lessons that came out of the film. It isn’t my film, it’s [Indigenous people’s] film, we just get to be the catalyst. It was something that was important to tell, and we know that film is a powerful tool to motivate, to get people voting.

The people who are speaking in the film, the tribal advisers—and for this film there were 27 advisers—are historians, leaders, educators...it’s not our story to tell, we just help them to tell it. But having said that, it’s a universal concern. The need to protect the land and resources shouldn’t be on one people. It’s something all of us need to take on. And as much research as I do when we start a film, I never know as much as when we end.

Did your perspective change in any way while working on the film?

Absolutely. As I said, as much as I research every topic, and I pre-interview, there are so many epiphanies that come and add to the joy of making any film, but especially this one. Some are the distinction between stewardship and ownership, the difference between being from a place and of a place; that land is a living thing; that there is no part of the land that’s ever abandoned.

Film can, of course, be so powerful. Can you speak to whether—and how—you believe However Wide the Sky will impact our area, our country, our world?

Well, it is going out nationally and internationally, that’s kind of a given when you’re doing this kind of film, and I give [director] David Aubrey so much credit for the quality of this work. But let me come back to grass roots: When we show this film, like when we showed it at the Lensic to a sold-out house, there were Native people in the audience, of course, and they brought other family members who had maybe disconnected from their tribe, who no longer followed the traditions, the language, and they made a point to tell me—and these are different people talking about family members—when the film ended, how that particular family member was crying; how they felt reconnected; how they said they didn’t realize how much they were losing and had already lost. That said so much.

In other circumstances, there are other non-Natives, and this film is meant to educate non-Natives, who said they had no idea about the Taos Blue Lake, the Zuni Salt Lake, what those are like, about what Santa Fe is like, even. We, of course, also want all the tribes to have a copy, and for the school systems to have a copy, so they’re able to watch it in the privacy of their communities. We hope it’s seen by family members, teachers, students, tribal leaders and non-tribal leaders. It’s a great way to spark discussion, and we include with every film a discussion guide to make it easy to facilitate long discussions that are open-ended.