HEALING Shorts Block
7 mins | 2024
Princess Daazhraii Johnson
Gath & K'iyh: Listen to Heal
In Alaska, community comes together to create music with Yo-Yo Ma as a critical part of collective healing and radical hope for the future.
About
Gath and K’iyh is a poetic visual exploration of a community-led creative arts project aimed at better understanding and restoring our relationship with gath (king salmon) and k’iyh (birch) relatives as we navigate our feelings around climate change in Alaska. Gath and K’iyh are words from the Benhti Kokhut’ana Kenaga’ (Lower Tanana) dialect spoken in the Interior Region of Alaska. Guided by the voice and wisdom of Ahtna Elder Fred John, this film invites viewers to pause, listen, sing, and dream together and ask how we might be in a better relationship with the natural world around us.
FILMMAKER BIO
Princess Daazhraii Johnson
Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets'aii Gwich'in) lives on the traditional territory of lower Tanana Dene lands in Alaska. She serves on the board of the Native Movement and NDN Collective - collectively, she works to protect the lands, waters, and animal and plant relatives that continue to take care of us all. She has served on the SAG-AFTRA Native American Committee since 2007 and was appointed by President Obama in 2015 to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is a Sundance Film Alum, a Nia Tero Storytelling Fellow, a former Creative Producer, and an Emmy-nominated Screenwriter for the Peabody award-winning PBS Kids series "Molly of Denali." Her 2021 film DIIYEGHAN NAII TAII TR’EEDAA (WE WILL WALK THE TRAIL OF OUR ANCESTORS) is part of Reciprocity Project Season 1. She is a producer on HBO’s 4th Season of True Detective and is in development for her first feature film based on an adaptation of Velma Wallis’ bestselling book, “Two Old Women”.
CREDITS
Director
Princess Daazhraii Johnson
Executive Producer
Tracy Rector
Executive Producer
Yo-Yo Ma
Cinematographers
James C. Johnson III, Kai MacKnight
Editor
James C. Johnson III