Read the Mar. 3, 2008 article in The Desert Sun, which includes excerpts from the following Q&A about the directors' film, Our Land, Our Life.
• Will you be attending the Festival of Native Film & Culture?
We will definitely be attending the festival. We have found that with Our Land, Our Life, more than any film that we have done, the issue raises so many questions and the injustices portrayed instill an outrage in the audiences so that the Q&A is amazing.
• What is your film background?
From the 1970s to the 1990s, George Gage directed and Beth Gage produced thousands of television commercials. Over 200 have won major advertising awards including two honored in the U.S. CLIO Hall of Fame. During that time, they also produced and directed two theatrical feature films, Skateboard and Fear in a Handful of Dust. In the 1990s, they moved themselves and their company, Gage & Gage Productions, from Los Angeles to Telluride, Colo., to focus their energies on films with a social conscience. Since then, working together, they have produced six documentaries.
The N.Y. Times described their first effort, the award winning documentary, Fire on the Mountain, as "bracing exploits, hearty outdoorsmen powerfully captured on film." Former U. S. Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, said that Troubled Waters "opens up a brand new chapter on conservation history." Together We Can, an award winner at Mountainfilm and Lake Havasu, Calif., highlights people making a positive difference in the lives of young people overcoming physical, mental or emotional disabilities. Shot in China, Japan, Africa, India, Nicaragua and the United States, Water: A Clear Solution presents the story of a man who dreams of bringing safe drinking water to the 1.2 billion people in the world without it by staging the first ever around-the-world foot race in 2007. Based on this film, corporate sponsors were found and the race was completed. It both started and was completed at the United Nations in New York.
Our Land, Our Life, completed in 2007, has screened in the United States and Europe, winning several prestigious awards along the way: Best Feature Documentary at The San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, a Silver Remi at Worldfest in Houston, the Peoples Choice Award and the Spirit and Advocacy Award at Mountainfilm in Telluride and Best Documentary Feature at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. The Sarasota International Film Festival wrote that Our Land, Our Life "should be required viewing by every citizen in the United States."
We are currently working on a film concerning the indigenous Mayan of Belize and their struggle for their land rights. Some of our footage was used as evidence in the Supreme Court of Belize, and some people feel this presentation was influential in the historic decision favoring the Mayan People.
• How did you discover this story?
Beth saw an article in the New York Times describing an upcoming round-up of Carrie and Mary Dann's livestock by the United States. At first she was struck with the images of these weathered and interesting faces, then as she read the text she wondered why the United States government would be harassing elderly women ranchers by taking cattle and livestock at gunpoint from these grandmothers. We naively thought the mistreatment of the American Indian ended a hundred years ago. Boy, were we wrong!
• What is your connection with the Western Shoshone?
Originally, we had no connection with the Western Shoshone. We are filmmakers interested in human rights and environmental issues. Since Carrie and Mary Dann, Julie Fishel, Corbin Harney and many other Western Shsoshone have let us into their lives, we enjoy a wonderful warm relationship with them, continue to care for and support their work, and hope this relationship will continue.
• Why do you believe it is important that your film be a part of this festival?
This film needs to be seen by Native and non-natives cultures. Action against these injustices is long overdue and should be implemented.
We see this film as a call to action in many ways. We feel the Palm Springs area may be fertile ground for support for the issues raised by our film
• What is your connection to Oxfam?
We are not connected with Oxfam but certainly support the work they are doing with the Danns and around the world to eradicate poverty. As supporters of the Western Shoshone, Oxfam asked us if we would edit a shortened version of Our Land, Our Life to use in their education and organizing efforts. This short version is currently on You Tube and being distributed by Oxfam America.