So here's the latest work-in-progress cut of "All That Glitters", the indie documentary that I've been developing over the last 2 years. I've been applying to lots of grants lately. And for all you curious readers, here is the treatment:

------------------

“For generations, Alaska Natives have hunted, fished, thrived and survived on the lands surrounding Bristol Bay. As I look forward to passing on this way of life to my children and grandchildren, I find myself fighting for the future of my culture.”

– Bobby Andrew, member of Nunamta Aulukestai (Caretakers of Our Land)

Every summer for the past 300,000 years, wild salmon have been returning to Bristol Bay by the tens of millions. People have been living here for at least 9000 years. Today, 50% of the world’s supply of wild sockeye salmon is comes from Bristol Bay. Sadly, this is the last fishery of it’s kind on the planet, as most other populations of salmon have been driven to extinction around the world.

To add to the challenges that wild salmon and Native culture already face, there are other, non-renewable resources that lie beneath Bristol Bay – but to develop those resources would come at a terrible cost. Incredible wealth in the form of gold lies beneath the headwaters of the Bay, and an outside group of international mining companies wants to develop the world’s largest open-pit gold mine at Bristol Bay’s headwaters. Open-pit mining is the single largest polluter to the environment. What are the risks involved in developing a mine of this size in the headwaters of Bristol Bay? Who are the communities that would be impacted by such a project, and what do they think?

In our half-hour program we will juxtapose the open-pit Goldstrike Mine in Nevada with a portrait of Bristol Bay as it exists and has existed for hundreds of thousands of years. We will do this through the lens of a group of 12 Native Leaders as they travel through Nevada, visiting mines and Native communities.