Film Overview
THE DOCTRINE is a documentary film about the Doctrine of Discovery by award-winning filmmaker Gwendolen Cates featuring Indigenous advocates in the U.S., Aotearoa New Zealand, Guatemala, New Caledonia, and Puerto Rico. The film exposes how 15th-century laws of conquest and colonization issued by the Vatican codified slavery, racism, and the exploitation of natural resources for profit. These international laws impact Indigenous communities and enable corporate forces that are driving the current climate crisis.
Why it Matters
Environmental justice and racial justice are inseparable. Our planet is on life support. The Doctrine of Discovery is deeply embedded in modern legal systems and ideologies that directly affect the planet and all of us. Environmental justice is critical to a habitable future. While Indigenous Peoples are now less than 5% of the global population, Indigenous territories contain 80% of the planet’s remaining biodiversity. Traditional Indigenous worldviews and stewardship of biocultural diversity hold the key to our collective survival.
Project Status and Fundraising Efforts
2023 is the 200th anniversary of the 1823 Supreme Court case that incorporated the Doctrine of Discovery into U.S. law. As we mark this significant anniversary, our aim is to generate awareness and activism with film festival and community screenings, broadcast, streaming, and educational distribution.
We have launched this fundraising effort to support recording an original soundtrack, filming in Puerto Rico, final editing and other post-production costs, festival and distribution expenses, and an impact marketing campaign launch. The soundtrack will be created by Pura Fé, an internationally renowned Indigenous musical artist who is Tuscarora and Taino. The additional filming will feature Pura Fé and Taino women leaders, to include the story of these first Indigenous Peoples in the Western hemisphere who experienced colonization and genocide authorized by the Doctrine of Discovery.
This feature-length documentary film project endeavors to be a catalyst for generating broad activism, awareness, and change, but we need your support to reach our goals.
Ways You Can Help
- Make a contribution.
- Spread the word by sharing this page.
- Follow us on Facebook.
Thank You for Your Support!
In appreciation of your donation and commitment to Indigenous rights and climate activism, your name will be added to the film credits unless you wish to remain anonymous.
- Donations up to $500 will receive a Special Thanks credit.
- Donations between $500 and $1,000 will receive a Sponsor credit.
- Donations over $1,000 will receive an Associate Producer credit.
Additional information about the project is in the film teaser description on Vimeo.
Testimonials
I can’t imagine any other documentary filmmaker who could deal with this complex subject and make it legible through images and characters than Gwendolen Cates.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, historian and author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
Gwendolen Cates has the skills, empathy, and networks to communicate what is required for this vital message to be delivered when it is needed most. Please support this project to fruition – it is a vital dimension of discussions around justice and planetary crisis that is currently missing.
Tina Ngata, Indigenous and environmental rights advocate, and trustee of Te Karu o Te Ika Voyaging Trust
About the Filmmaker
Gwendolen Cates is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, photographer, and author. Her first multi-award-winning documentary film Water Flowing Together about Navajo-Puerto Rican New York City Ballet star Jock Soto premiered nationally on PBS Independent Lens in 2008. Other productions include We Are Unarmed (2020), a fresh look at the peaceful resistance to the DAPL pipeline at Standing Rock, and The Good Mind (2016) which follows Onondaga Nation leaders as they fight for environmental sovereignty of ancestral lands stolen by New York State in violation of a 1794 treaty with George Washington. Originally a photographer, her portraits of luminaries from Rosa Parks to George Clooney were featured in national and international magazines. Her critically acclaimed book Indian Country (Grove Press 2001) inspired Oprah Winfrey to begin a series on Native Americans. The daughter of a linguist who was fluent in Diné Bizaad (the Navajo language), Gwendolen lives in New York City.
The Good Mind https://www.thegoodmindfilm.
Water Flowing Together https://www.pbs.org/
Indian Country http://www.publishersweekly.com/9780802116963
We Are Unarmed https://www.siskelfilmcenter.
