The Impact of “The Return of Navajo Boy” 2000-2014
Since The Return of Navajo Boy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000, Groundswell Educational Films has been leveraging the story and leading the discussion about documentary films and social impact. Navajo Boy is a case study. It is used by the tribe as a tool for environmental advocacy, health promotion and cultural preservation. Each ripple effect is documented and visible in an online webisode series. The webisodes include media made by Navajo participants. Navajos travel with this film and engage audiences directly face to face in order to keep the issue of cold war uranium contamination visible in the mainstream media and in Washington DC. Impacts to date include:
– $150,000 federal compensation to Navajo uranium miner in the film
– $8 million EPA clean up of the family home area featured in film
– $110 million in federal funds to plan clean up of Navajo uranium sites
– $1 Billion dollar legal settlement for Navajo tribe from Kerr-McGee (the corporate contaminator exposed by our film and campaign).
– 100 screenings of the film at colleges and film festivals in North America, as well as Europe, South America, South Africa and India
– LA Times front page four-part investigative series about Navajos in our film and other Navajo communities affected by uranium contamination
– Navajo witnesses speak to congress and show the film on Capitol Hill
– Indian Health Service presents film in contaminated Navajo communities
– Northwestern University Chemistry Department partners with Groundswell to create new website with never-before-seen contamination data collected by EPA from hundreds of water sources on the reservation
– Thousands of DVDs to consumers, teacher and colleges,
– 30,000+ views on YouTube for ongoing Navajo Boy webisodes
– Navajo tribal college and schools use our film in uranium education
– Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now features our film on her show “A Slow Genocide” (April, 2014)