Honor The Treaties (Short-Documentary by Eric Becker and Aaron Huey English 2012)

Honor the Treaties is a short film that examines photographer Aaron Hueyʼs powerful advocacy work for Native American rights on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The film explores the idea that journalists often ʻget the story wrong. Using Aaronʼs seven-year experience as a photographer on the Pine Ridge Reservation, we examine the idea of growth and change in relationship to telling a story. Aaronʼs advocacy work began with his 2010 TED Talk calling for the return of the Black Hills to the Lakota Sioux.

Viewed online over 800,000 times, the talk caught the attention of legendary street artist Shepard Fairey, who, along with artist Ernesto Yerena, teamed up on a nationwide poster campaign based on Aaronʼs images. In November 2011, Shepard and Aaron installed a sixty by eighty foot mural, based on a collage of Aaronʼs images, in Los Angeles.

Aaronʼs movement into advocacy is shown in our film through his collaboration with Fairey. Juxtaposing the urban environment of Los Angeles against the stark, rural poverty of Pine Ridge, the film seeks to draw connections between art & advocacy, ultimately making a case for empowering individuals to ʻtell their own stories’.

A portrait of photographer Aaron Huey’s work on the Pine Ridge Reservation featuring Shepard Fairey. Credits: Aaron Huey (Director), Eric Becker (Photographer), Shepard Fairey (Street Artist), Ernesto Yerena (Artist), Educate & Take Action (Website). Music: Black Chow – Big Spider’s Back, Mélodrames Télégraphiés (in B major 7th) Part 1 – Brian McBride, I Know That You Don’t Like the Future Like I Do – Brian McBride, Hægt, kemur ljósið – Olafur Arnalds.

Website for more Informations: HonorTheTreaties.org

Aaron Huey’s effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people — appalling, and largely ignored — compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later, his haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson in this bold, courageous talk from TEDxDU.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages at http://www.ted.com/translate.

Honor The Treaties (Short-Documentary by Eric Becker and Aaron Huey English 2012):