From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock:
A Reporter's Journey
2019 Documentary - 89 Minutes - Color - USA

At times poignant and educational, Kevin McKiernan's documentary offers a meditative look into the complexities of revolution. Tracing the history of Native American activism from the 1970s to the present day, McKiernan repurposes archival footage to chronicle the longtime search for lost identity and reparations.

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"A humane but unflinching look at one of the most famous indigenous resistance groups in modern history."- The New Republic

 
Bringing King to China 2008 Documentary - 85 Minutes - Color - USA

Bringing King to China is a documentary film about culture, race and human rights. The film brings Martin Luther King's dream of equality and peace to China—and then brings it back to the U.S. The filmmakers are Kevin McKiernan and Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler. The film premiered in 2011 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

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"Riveting cultural exchange (set) against a father-daughter love story"- Documentary Magazine

 
Good Kurds, Bad Kurds
2001 Documentary - 81 Minutes - Color - USA

A war of national liberation or war against terrorism? Filmmaker and acclaimed freelance journalist Kevin McKiernan poses this question at the outset of this stirring, provocative film shot in part by legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler. It's all in how you define "good"and "bad". "Good Kurds" are those in Iraq: they are Saddam Hussein's victims, whom we want to help. "Bad Kurds" are those waging an armed insurrection against Turkey, an American ally: they are the receiving end of US weaponry. During the first Gulf War, McKiernan went to northern Iraq to cover the uprising against Saddam Hussein. Just a few miles away no one was covering the hidden war in Turkey. McKiernan determined he would report the story independently.

Good Kurds, Bad Kurds -- nine years in the making -- delves deeply into the U.S.'s complicity in this human rights disaster, indicting the mainstream news outlets that, by staying quiet, help perpetuate the violence. Shot in part by three-time Academy Award winner Haskell Wexler, Good Kurds, Bad Kurds travels from Santa Barbara, California, home to a small Kurdish refugee community, to Washington, D.C, where an activist struggles to gain the attention of lawmakers and the media and fight his deportation, and to Turkey, where the anti-Kurd campaign continues. Good Kurds, Bad Kurds brings sharp clarity to a complicated history, while providing disturbing insight into immigration practices and US foreign policy.

Director/Producer: Kevin McKiernan 
Cinematographers:: Haskell Wexler, Kevin McKiernan
Editor: Thomas G. Miller 
Music: Bronwen Jones

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The Spirit of Crazy Horse
1990 Documentary - 60 Minutes - Color - USA

"The heart of everything that is." These are the words that the Lakota Indians use to describe their ancestral homeland, the Black Hills of South Dakota. Those million acres form the spiritual core of the Lakota culture, and it's a land they have struggled to reclaim for a century. "The Spirit of Crazy Horse" is an eye-opening vision of their quest, which has shaped the lives and destiny of the Lakota for six generations. It is a tale recounted by Milo Yellow Hair, a full blood Lakota, whose great-grandfather fought General Custer at the Little Big Horn. While the story echoes with famous names like Wounded Knee - the last major Indian slaughter a century ago - this is more than a tale of long lost wars. The Spirit of Crazy Horse reveals the modern Lakota struggle to regain their heritage, and how places like Wounded Knee became sites for a fight that continues still. The program carries us through the militant confrontations of the early 1960s and 1970s, the explosive results of 100 years of confinement on Indian reservations. The Spirit of Crazy Horse takes us past the clichés about the problems of life on the reservation, and puts the issues in a meaningful context of Indian culture. By investigating the simmering conflict of recent decades, The Spirit of Crazy Horse also offers a clear perspective on the crucial choices that lie ahead. While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Black Hills were stolen from the Lakota, the fight for the return of the land rages on. In the shadow of Mount Rushmore, the Lakota version of their sacred homeland still thrives, and The Spirit of Crazy Horse is a moving portrait of those hopes and aspirations. In the face of hard choices, the descendants of the famous warrior Crazy Horse carry his spirit on.

Producers: Michel Dubois, Kevin McKiernan
Narrator: Milo Yellow Hair
Director and Photographer: James Locker
Editor: Nathaniel Dorsky

 
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