the pathstar blog

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Theater 39, The Embarcadero and Beach Street, San Francisco
Sunday, Feb. 07, 2010, 10:00 AM  - 12:30 PM
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FROM THE BADLANDS TO  ALCATRAZ

“This film invites us all to reconsider our limitations as we watch youth and elders make the impossible journey possible.” Lewis MehlMadrona, MD (”Coyote Medicine”)

Special Guest Appearances by Lakota PATHSTAR swimmers

“From the rugged sandstone of the Badlands to the broad blue expanse of San Francisco Bay, the film documents a seemingly impossible journey for young Lakota Sioux, encompassing geographic, cultural, physical, and spiritual challenges. “From the Badlands to Alcatraz” is a beautifully crafted, awe-inspiring journey, spreading hope and enthusiasm from its unlikely Alcatraz swimmers to its viewers who are sure to fall under its spell.” Judy Irving (”The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”)

Click here learn more about Pine Ridge conditions.

This is one of the most beautiful and inspiring documentaries I have ever seen!”Lynne Cox (”Swimming to Antarctica”)

From the Badlands to Alcatraz weaves the past and present of both Alcatraz and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation into a vivid depiction of the awe-inspiring journey five Lakota youth – Alkapoane White Calf, Lisa and Kelly Water, and Arlo and Philip Iron Cloud – navigate as they arrive in San Francisco from South Dakota and prepare for the extreme challenge of swimming from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco Shore in September 2005. It follows the group’s first plunge into the San Francisco bay through their personal and collective challenges, disappointments, and triumphs as they strive to conquer both the Alcatraz swim and the dispiritedness connected to conditions on Pine Ridge. Richard Iron Cloud, the first Lakota to do this swim in 2003, and these five, willing to dare themselves into achieving the ‘unachievable,’ are the stars of the film, the deserving recipients of the tribute “You are an inspiration, not only to the Lakotas, but to everyone who wishes to go the ‘extra mile’ in their lives.”

“It’s a long way from South Dakota to San Francisco. But the distance has grown smaller for Lakota tribal members featured in the film ‘From the Badlands to Alcatraz’. The flim premiered recently in Rapid City, Hot Springs and on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

On today’s Dakota Digest, SDPB’s Jim Kent visits with veterans of the Alcatraz Swim to ask why they did it, and what they learned.”

HOT SPRINGS – From the Badlands to Alcatraz, a film chronicling an intensive swim training program, will be featured at the Red Rock River Resort on Saturday, March 14, at 7 p.m. The film recounts the experiences of five young Lakota during the September 2005 San Francisco Pathstar Pine Ridge Alcatraz swim program.

Dr. Nancy Iverson, a South Dakota native, California pediatrician, and founder of the Pathstar program, has arranged for a panel discussion following the film, which will feature a fair number of former participants.

For more of this story click here.