Beyond Recognition
Directed by Michelle Grace Steinberg
Underexposed Films , 2014 , 25 minutes Reviewed by Ishmael Elias
directed and co-produced by Oakland-based independent film maker Michelle Grace Steinberg , the documentary short Beyond Recognition spotlights the quest of two Indigenous activists to preserve Indigenous homelands and cultures amid rampant development in the San Francisco Bay Area .
The film opens with wide , vibrant shots of Bay Area landscapes before cutting to the concrete and metal of moving , growing cityscapes . Somber piano and soft percussion play background to the voiceover of Corrina Gould ( Chochenyo / Karkin Ohlone ): “ When I look at the Bay Area , it ’ s always home — and when I say home I mean I was originally planted there ; my ancestors have been there since the beginning of time . So , I ’ m always home . So that ’ s a blessing , but it ’ s a double-edged sword . This other piece of me has to deal with seeing bulldozers pulling up the street and not knowing if my ancestors are going to be there as well .”
Johnella LaRose ( Shoshone-Bannock ) appears onscreen next , speaking briefly about the advent of and the necessity for Indian People Organizing for Change , a community group she started with Gould in 1999 to advocate for cultural and environmental justice for the Bay Area Native American community .
The path leading up to Beyond Recognition ’ s 2014 release began nearly three years earlier when Steinberg worked with Gould and LaRose through the Committee to Protect Glen Cove . The group organized the 109-day spirit encampment of Sogorea Te to protect shellmounds ( sacred burial sites of the Ohlone people ) from a plan by the City of Vallejo and the Greater Vallejo Recreation District to construct a park with bathrooms .
Beyond Recognition does much in its twenty-five-minute runtime , managing to intertwine federal tribal recognition fallout and the colonization of Native California with highlights from Gould ’ s and LaRose ’ s recent work within the Bay Area Native community , such as the Emeryville Shellmound protest — which not only raises awareness of the destruction of over four hundred regional shellmounds but , specifically , the three-story shellmound razed to make way for the Bay Street shopping mall — and the establishment of an urban , Indigenous , women-led land trust . Through interviews , artwork , and grand shots of Bay Area landscapes , Beyond Recognition tells a universal story of the natural versus the industrial and advocates for a positive , yet urgent need for decolonization in the Bay Area and beyond .
Beyond Recognition won Best Short at the 2015 San Francisco Green Film Festival ; showed last year at the American Indian Film Festival , Human Rights Film Festival , Cinequest Film Festival , Wild & Scenic Film Festival , Cine Las Americas International Film Festival , and the Native Spirit Film Festival in London ; and has been broadcasted on several public television stations . Visit the film ’ s website at www . beyondrecognitionfilm . com for information on future showings .
SPRING 2016 ▼ 33