What Was Ours
Documentary | Mat Hames
- SYNOPSIS
A young Arapaho journalist and a teenage powwow princess travel from the Wind River Indian Reservation with a wise Shoshone elder and Vietnam veteran, to explore artifacts removed from their people in the archives of a museum. The three uncover ancestral objects kept in boxes for many years, setting each on a journey to discover their true purpose. As the elder looks to the future, the young people look to the past to revive hope for their beloved home. A beautiful, haunting and positive portrait of a place often portrayed negatively in the media.
57 minutes
Release: January 16, 2017
Expiration: January 16, 2021
Distributor: Independent Lens
About the Filmmaker
Mat Hames is an award-winning director and producer whose films have appeared on PBS and the Sundance Channel. Hames’s film. When I Rise captured the spirit of the civil rights fight in Texas by following the story of a young black music student, Barbara Smith Conrad, after she was removed as the lead in an opera at the University of Texas by none other than the Texas Legislature, before going on to become a world-famous opera singer. When I Rise premiered at SXSW, was an official selection of 11 film festivals and appeared on PBS’ Emmy winning series, Independent Lens. His film Fighting Goliath, produced by Robert Redford, was selected by 12 film festivals, then aired on the Sundance Channel.
