One Word Sawalmem
Nominated for Best Documentary Short
One Word Sawalmem
Directed by MICHAEL "POM" PRESTON and NATASHA DEGANELLO GIRAUDIE - For Winnemem Wintu young man Michael "Pom" Preston Sawalmem represents an entire worldview, a vital vision for healing the world and for healing from the legacy of the Shasta Dam that, since the 1940s, has harmed salmon and the Sacramento River and the Winnemem Wintu people of Shasta Mountain, California. As a student of environmental studies at UC Berkeley, Pom did not feel heard. He felt he was being told that his indigenous viewpoint was irrelevant. The time has come to listen to Pom and to the Winnemem Wintu tribe. And to observe Sawalmem. In violation of state law, against all scientific reason and risking contamination of Northern California’s water supply as well as “ethnocide” against the Winnemem Wintu people, a Shasta Dam raise is being fast-tracked by the Trump administration, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Westlands Water District. Pom's mother Chief Caleen Sisk speaks out at every opportunity and organizes Run4Salmon, an annual 300-mile prayerful journey by foot, boat, horse and canoe. Pom dances in tribal ceremonies on Mount Shasta to stay strong in this latest battle as a warrior for Sawalmem. Sawalmem… A vision of the return of the salmon to their ancestral home waters and the restoration of the largest river in California, the Sacramento. The spiritual is political. Sawalmem
One Word Sawalmem is included in the Climate program and it screens with Bad River and Indian Country: The Rise of a New Tribal Culture.