Voices from the Earth

I grew up learning to respect every tree, every mountain, every lagoon, and every being that inhabits the forest, because in it we find the food that nourishes us, the medicine that heals us, the strength that sustains us, and the wisdom that guides us from generation to generation.

Too often perceived as relics of the past, we, Indigenous peoples, are in fact alive and present carriers of cultures, languages, and knowledge that contribute every day to protecting biodiversity and our planet. From Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I share this deep connection that binds us to the Earth and remind the world of the importance of our voices in building a sustainable future.

Yurshell Rodríguez – The work I do every day at INUTW, training filmmakers, building residency programs, mentoring community storytellers across continents, is, at its core, an act of redistribution. Of who gets to shape a narrative. Of who gets to decide what’s worth documenting, and how.

Lucia Ixchiu – After returning from our gathering in Oxford, I embrace the opportunity to share and champion alternative forms of filmmaking and storytelling. A Day on Earth and the voices of diverse Indigenous women took center stage and brought strength to this dialogue about renewal that springs from the wisdom of the earth.

For decades, we were led to believe that it was impossible for Indigenous women to make films, as if we did not come from a millennial, ancestral tradition of storytelling. The most surprising thing of all is that we believed it, but in the midst of it all, with slow but steady steps, these imaginaries built on ignorance are being dismantled.

Whitney Snow traveled from the wide open skies of Montana to the concrete jungle of New York City — and came back changed. As one of 76 directors behind A Day on Earth, her experience at New York Climate Week was more than a premiere: it was a homecoming of a different kind.