About the Film
Across three days, Jasper Young Bear, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, tells his people's Creation Story, and in the process, shares his most profound teachings in unprecedented detail.
Synopsis
In the summer of 2022, Jasper Young Bear, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, invited three friends from outside of his community to a unique ceremonial offering that took place in a medicine lodge on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota. Across three days, Jasper tells his people's Creation Story and in the process shares his most sacred teachings in unprecedented detail.
The Creation Story Jasper tells is the story of the universe and is as old as time immemorial itself. Previously preserved and passed down from generation to generation in an oral tradition that Jasper was born into, his reasons for committing it to film for the first time in history soon become apparent, and are as urgent and pertinent as the story itself.
The result is a film like no other. Primarily a kind of ethnographic record that will preserve this story for the ages, it has now been thoughtfully married to a cinematic experience, to create a new kind of genre — a medicine film.
In recognition of the revolutionary cultural and historical significance of sharing this story, the film will be released into the world without any credits on screen. The intention here was to highlight that this story and its message transcends any individual contribution, with the true credit for this offering belonging to the invisible and forgotten storytellers who kept this oral tradition alive over thousands and thousands of years.
That said, Jasper and the team behind the film also want to recognise the unique individual contribution many different people made as collaborators on The Creation Story.
What People are Saying
What is The Creation Story?
In my tradition, our story of creation is one that takes four days to tell.
Often people think it is a quaint little story, but it’s not. It's a sacred truth, and at its center is this most crucial concept: that you are the universe and that everything the creator went through, you’ve gone through too. Most people struggle with this.
Most aren’t ready to accept that they are the sacred center. But it’s an important shift to what’s called whole-to-part thinking, where all the dichotomies of the universe are cast aside. Where there is no male and female, no black and white, no division of any kind.
When you use whole-to-part thinking, the sense of self is much deeper, more expansive. In our sacred ceremonies, we play this out starting as a baby, when we get an Indian name. In this ceremony, they put us in the center of the universe and have us turn to face all directions. When we get named, we are the light. We are the beginning. We are one with time and space. We go forth, and we vibrate with our names, attracting what others have instilled, attracting what is already inside of us.
Right now, people feel trapped by the systems. The current political system. The distribution of land. People don’t feel like they have enough. They don’t get to see a rolling river; they can’t go pick juneberries, plums, or chokecherries, which all grow wild here where I live, or go fishing in Lake Sakakawea. There’s nowhere they’re told how nature and community can be in harmony.
But we can create a new world—we must create a new world. All it takes is a mustard seed of faith. We must believe that we are not separate, we are John or Amy or Ken. I am not Jasper Young Bear. I am the creator, and believing that I am the creator is the only way I can do this work. It’s the only way I have the strength to say, “How dare you hurt the earth? How dare you hurt my people? How dare you hurt each other?”
If there is any time that God is listening, if there is any time to pray, it’s now.
– Jasper Young Bear
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Presented by Quiet Films
Quiet is an artist-led organization committed to learning and building community through creativity, care, and empowerment. Quiet’s mission is to support artists’ path towards sovereignty and wellbeing through mentorship, collaboration, gatherings, and access to resources including financial and spiritual support.
Since 2017, Quiet has focused on for-profit and not-for-profit projects that live at the intersection of art, social justice and artistic empowerment. By asking questions, building relationships, and creating outside traditional frameworks, Quiet has grown into a community of over 200 artists. To date, the community has produced 500+ projects across most creative disciplines. Quiet was founded by Sol Guy and James M. Walton.