Standing on Sacred Ground: Fire and Ice

Christopher McLeod | 2013 | 56 min.

2014 Official Selection

Award Winner: 2014 John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award

Mountain cultures around the world protect their ecological heritage with help from a new generation of scientists. In the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia, spiritual traditions that long protected trees, meadows and mountains are under attack by evangelical Christians. Tensions erupt into a riot as Protestants break ground for a church in a sacred meadow. In the Peruvian Andes, Q’eros potato farmers face global warming that is melting the glaciers—their water source. An annual pilgrimage through stunning landscapes offers rare insight into common threats facing far-flung indigenous cultures.