Film Description

Narrated by Peter Coyote and Tantoo Cardinal, In the Light of Reverence is a 72-minute documentary on Native American struggles to protect landscapes of spiritual significance. The film tells the stories of three communities and places they care for: the Lakota at Devils Tower in Wyoming, the Hopi in the Four Corners area of the Southwest, and the Wintu at Mt. Shasta in California. The film documents obstacles to religious freedom for land-based practitioners, and impacts on sacred sites that range from mining and ski resorts to New Age practices and rock-climbing.

In the Light of Reverence was honored with the Best Feature Documentary award after a "special advance screening" at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. It recently received a Jury Award at Telluride Mountainfilm Festival.

Robert Redford says of In the Light of Reverence, "This beautifully-crafted film is a wake-up call for everyone who cares about the environment and human rights."

In the Light of Reverence is produced and directed by Christopher (Toby) McLeod, who has produced three award-winning, hour-long documentaries, all broadcast on national television: The Four Corners: A National Sacrifice Area?, Downwind/ Downstream, and Poison in the Rockies. Toby has a Masters Degree in Journalism from U.C. Berkeley and a B.A. in American history from Yale. In 1985, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for filmmaking, and his U.C. Berkeley masters thesis film Four Corners won a student Academy Award in 1983.

Co-producer Malinda Maynor is a Lumbee Indian from North Carolina, and has made several award-winning films-Real Indian and Songs of Faith-about her Lumbee heritage. She is a graduate of Stanford's Masters program in Documentary Film and Video and holds a B.A. in American history and literature from Harvard.

In the Light of Reverence is a presentation of the Independent Television Service in association with Native American Public Telecommunications with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.