Vision Maker Film Festival: Everything is Connected – September Streaming
Published on September 1, 2026
These videos are available to view the entire month of September. Please check back each month as new titles will be available to stream.
Each month brings a new selection of powerful American Indian and Alaska Native films, available through in-person screenings at The Ross Theater in Lincoln, NE, and streaming free online worldwide. Join us and discover Indigenous stories, heritages, and perspectives that connect us all.
Streaming in September:
An immersive culinary adventure that takes viewers deep into the heart of Native America, guided by award-winning celebrity Chef Pyet DeSpain (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation). Each episode drops audiences into a new and breathtaking landscape—deserts, forests, plains, and coastlines—where Chef Pyet joins Indigenous communities to gather, fish, hunt, and cook in the spirit of ancestral tradition.
Spirit Plate Ep 1 – Yurok Secrets to Cooking the Perfect Pacific Eel: Chef Pyet DeSpain journeys to the Klamath River in Trinidad, California, where redwoods meet the Pacific, to connect with the Yurok Tribe and explore food as a path to healing, sovereignty, and belonging.
With her guide Marc “Bubba” Riggins, Pyet hopes to spear the Pacific lamprey, known as the “Vampire Fish.” She also visits a farmers market before preparing a tribal community feast in a reclaimed Yurok village at Sue-meg State Park.
This episode of SPIRIT PLATE with Chef Pyet DeSpain celebrates community, food traditions, and the enduring connections between Indigenous peoples, land, and culture.
Theme: Connected by Health & Wellness
Spirit Plate Ep 2 – 500 Dancers. One Chef. One Sacred Stew: Chef Pyet DeSpain comes full circle as she returns home to her Prairie Band Potawatomi roots in Mayetta, Kansas.
Pyet meets Randy Pool and the Nation’s land maintenance team as they tend to the tribe’s bison herd. She then reunites with her mother and grandfather to prepare a massive bison stew for attendees of the largest Potawatomi Gathering in the United States.
This meaningful episode of SPIRIT PLATE with Chef Pyet DeSpain brings together family, community, food, and culture while supporting the Boys & Girls Club at the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
Theme: Connected by Health & Wellness
Spirit Plate Ep 3 – Feasting with the Matriarchs of Onondaga: Chef Pyet DeSpain travels to Syracuse, New York, to connect with the Onondaga Nation and explore the powerful relationship between ancestral seeds, Indigenous food sovereignty, and women’s leadership.
Joining legendary seed keeper Angela Ferguson and Haudenosaunee matriarchs, Chef Pyet helps cook a 10-course feast using 3,000-year-old seeds. Together, they celebrate the rematriation of ancestral seeds and the knowledge carried forward through generations.
Through food, community, and storytelling, this episode of SPIRIT PLATE with Chef Pyet DeSpain explores how Indigenous communities are reclaiming and revitalizing ancestral foodways.
Theme: Connected by Health & Wellness
Spirit Plate Ep 4 – Cooking a 400-Pound Pig in an Underground Oven: Chef Pyet DeSpain travels to Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, to take part in a sacred coming-of-age feast rooted in family, food, land, and tradition.
Joining friend and chef Kealoha Domingo, Pyet participates in a celebration honoring Kealoha’s son, Kaiao, as he begins his journey to become a man. The feast features a 400-pound pig roasted in an imu, bringing family and community together for this meaningful occasion.
This episode of SPIRIT PLATE with Chef Pyet DeSpain reflects Hawaiians’ enduring relationship to land, water, food, and spiritual sustenance.
Theme: Connected by Health & Wellness
Spirit Plate Ep 5 – Beach Asparagus & Wild Salmon in Alaska: Chef Pyet DeSpain travels to Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, to explore the relationship between Indigenous food, the cycles of nature, and living in harmony with the land and water.
Joined by Gabrielle Russo and guided by Alicia Maryott, Pyet forages for sea asparagus, fireweed, and berries before preparing a coastal feast featuring salmon, herring eggs, and seaweed rice.
This episode of SPIRIT PLATE with Chef Pyet DeSpain celebrates a family meal and the sovereignty of living in harmony with the natural world.
Theme: Connected by Health & Wellness
Spirit Plate Ep 6 – Cooking Halibut in a Haida Longhouse: Chef Pyet DeSpain travels to Hydaburg, Alaska, to experience the food traditions and cultural strength of the Haida Nation.
Accompanied by Gabrielle Russo, Pyet is welcomed aboard the fishing vessel of Anthony Christianson alongside Claud Young. She fishes for halibut, witnesses a community totem raising, and cooks for Haida elders in a longhouse.
This episode of SPIRIT PLATE with Chef Pyet DeSpain is a moving reflection on generosity, cultural strength, and the shared responsibility of protecting Indigenous food traditions for generations to come.
Theme: Connected by Health & Wellness
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