The International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management's 4th Annual Indigenous Film & Arts Festival will take place in Denver, Colorado from October 9-14, 2007. The Festival will open on October 9th with an art exhibit. On October 10th, our opening film, “Teachings of the Tree People” will be presented as a free screening at the Denver Indian Center on Morrison Road, and will include audience Q&A with producer Tracy Rector.

Other films selected for screenings at the University of Denver (in partnership with the Native Student Alliance) and at Starz FilmCenter on the Auraria campus include:

• Clean Fight. First Nations kickboxing champion Trevor “The Red Dragon” Quince has a problem. It's not his over-protective girlfriend, his zealous trainer or his diabetic condition—it's that he won't settle for second best. After losing a major match to diabetic shock, Trevor vows to recover and reclaim his title. John, his trainer, shares this desire to regain glory and has spent long months helping Trevor to get back in the ring. Trevor has undergone rigorous physical and mental processes—even re-enacting the conditions of the fateful fight by undertaking the same regimen of food deprivation to test his body's limits. Not smart, says his girlfriend Janet - a nurse who knows a thing or two about blood sugar levels, cardiac arrest and getting out while the getting's good. She also knows that Trevor is not going to listen. Clean Fight is a witty and humorous look at facing your life, your friends and your self. The film suggests that everyone has limitations - some just have bigger ones than others. Diabetes is prevalent among First Nations people, who are 75 per cent more likely than the general population to develop the disease.
• The Ballad of Peter LaFarge is an insider's look at Peter LaFarge, a pioneering folk singer in 1960s Greenwich Village and the first Native American to gain national prominence as a songwriter. The 13-min. documentary includes information never made public and quotes from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Written and produced by Sandra Shulman (part Cherokee) of White Plains.

We'll be posting information about other selections for the 4th Annual Indigenous Film & Arts Festival to our website so check back often.

Supporting the 4th Indigenous Film & Arts Festival. We hope you will make a generous donation to Indigenous Film & Arts Festival. Your gift will enhance the quality and quantity of future programming. Your donation of any size will be greatly appreciated. You can donate by:

• Donating online by clicking here.
• Mailing your check to: IIIRM, 444 South Emerson Street, Denver, CO 80209
• Becoming a sponsor of the Indigenous Film & Arts Festival. Call Jeanne Rubin, Festival Director, at +1 303-733-0481, for information about sponsorship levels and benefits.

You can also support the Indigenous Film & Arts Festival in several relatively painless ways. We receive about a penny a search when you use goodsearch.com as one of your internet search engines. Clicking on the goodsearch.com link below lets you register to support the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management.

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And using iGive.com as your gateway to vendors ranging from United Airlines to Cabelas results in a percentage of your purchase price being donated to the Institute without any increase in price to you.

IIIRM Workshop on Using Traditional Knowledge to Protect Cultural and Natural Resources

Workshop participants Moroni Benally and Robert Yazzie of the Diné Policy Institute.	Bobby Andrew of Aleknagik Natives Ltd. also participated in the workshop.

Albuquerque. On April 30, 2007, the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management held a mini-workshop on using traditional knowledge to protect cultural and natural resources at the National Tribal Environmental Council's annual conference in Albuquerque. With sessions on intangible heritage, protected geographic indications, and indigenous adaptive management approaches, the workshop provided workshop participants updates and practical instruction on recent developments in cultural and natural resources management in Indian country and address the following questions: what is a cultural resource; what are the legal and scientific bases of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in resource management; and, how can intangible heritage be incorporated into tribal resources management?

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National Research Council Report Examines Wind Energy's Impacts on Emissions, Wildlife, and Humans

Washington. Although the use of wind energy to generate electricity is increasing rapidly in the United States, government guidance to help communities and developers evaluate and plan proposed wind-energy projects is lacking, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. To inform the development of guidelines, the report offers an analysis of the environmental benefits and drawbacks of wind energy, along with an evaluation guide to aid decision-making about projects. As a case study, the committee that wrote the report looked at the mid-Atlantic highlands, a mountainous area that spans parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The report does not examine the impact of offshore wind-energy projects.

Currently, federal regulation of wind projects on private land is minimal, the report observes. And although some states have developed guidelines, wind energy is such a recent addition to the energy mix in most areas -- the nation's wind-energy capacity more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006 -- that most states are relatively inexperienced at planning and regulation. Despite the growth in its use, wind energy still generates less than 1 percent of the nation's electricity.

Assessing environmental impacts of wind power is very difficult; negative effects are local, while benefits are regional and national. Local and state wind developers get little advice from the federal government about environmental tradeoffs. Some national-level policies to enhance the benefits of wind energy and minimize its harms would help guide state and local regulatory efforts, the report says. A boom in wind power – a Department of Energy projection sees capacity increases to 72 GW, or 7% percent of total U.S. generation by 2025 – would have little real impact on CO2 emissions, says the National Research Council report. In part because of the intermittent nature of wind resources, wind would produce a CO2 emissions drop by 4.5% by 2025, compared to a base case. The result would only slow the increase of CO2 emissions, it would not result in a decrease in the amount of CO2 emitted in the U.S.

Because of the intermittent nature wind energy, the upper limit of wind power in the U.S. national grid is probably about 20%. European countries that have pushed heavily for wind – notably Denmark and Germany – have found that the maximum penetration of wind power is about 17%, given the need for backup fossil generation to support the unpredictability of wind power.

Read the report on-line or download the report brief.

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Demonstration under Way for EERC-Developed Biomass Power Generation System

Grand Forks. The University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) will demonstrate a biomass gasification power generation system to turn a low-value waste material into valuable heat and electricity at the Grand Forks Truss Plant in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

The biomass gasification power generation system, developed by the EERC's Center for Renewable Energy through several years of projects with the U.S. Department of Energy and commercial industry, will convert the sawdust and wood waste from the building product plant into a combustible gas to produce heat and electricity. The system is designed to match typical power requirements of various manufacturing industries generating between 10 kW to 1 MW of power.

"This power system provides unique energy solutions to industrial clients by producing heat and electrical power from a variety of fuels, including waste materials and other organic feedstocks," said Darren Schmidt, EERC Research Manager. "The power generation and consumption of the lumber scraps ultimately provide a cost savings for the Truss Plant." Click here for Schmidt's paper on the new technology.

"We are very excited and proud to host a project involving renewable energy. We have a vast supply of biomass waste and continue to produce more than we can utilize in our current heating system," said Shaun Johnson, Plant Operations, Grand Forks Truss. "We were considering options to better utilize our wood waste when, by chance, the EERC came to us with the answer. It's exciting to watch a research project, developed locally, being applied and unfold before us. It is an important step forward in the global goal of better utilizing our natural resources," he said.

"There are numerous applications for biomass gasification, which is being sought by numerous corporate partners and has global implications," said EERC Director Gerald Groenewold. "This project is based on the EERC's 12 years of biomass utilization experience and over 50 years of gasification experience, as well as 2 years of development and operation of a full-scale portable power plant here at our facilities," he said.

The project is being conducted under the EERC's Center for Renewable Energy (formerly the Center for Biomass Utilization) and the National Center for Hydrogen Technology (NCHT), two of the EERC's ten Centers of Excellence. The technology also has potential applications in the production of hydrogen from other renewable and fossil fuel sources.

"From my perspective, since EERC is engaged in virtually all facets of energy technology, it is a resource that should be more fully utilized by Indian tribes as they develop their energy strategies," said Mervyn Tano, IIIRM president.

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Areya Isabel Simmons, one of the student filmmakers featured in the Youth Film & Culture Program at the 3rd Annual Indigenous Film & Arts Festival, is one of 1,000 Class of 2007 High School Graduates to become a Gates Millennium Scholar. The prize is a fully paid college education, but the benefits go far beyond the cash award. The scholarship program enfranchises a new generation of minority leaders in America. Each division has separate assessors and grantors. For Native American youth, that organization is the American Indian Graduate Center ( www.aigc.com ). Additional information about the scholarship program, including dossiers of previous scholarship winners, information on how the scholarship works, and how to nominate future scholars, is available at www.gmsp.org . The Festival screened Areya's film HG and Me, A documentary about mercury (Hg) contamination in the environment and Areya's personal experience with mercury poisoning.

Dr. Larry Lepley, the Institute's senior associate for remote sensing, has taken a position with USA Environmental. Amongst other things, he'll be on Adak in the Aleutian Islands leading teams of geophysical technicianss to precisely locate buried bombs and artillery shells using geophysical gear appropriate for the terrain. The sites generally are former military bombing ranges. The "dig maps" he prduces will be used by the UXO cleanup crews who then remove the unexploded ordnance and associated fragments.

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Public Engagement Project On Community Control Measures for Pandemic Influenza Issues Final Report

The Public Engagement Project On Community Control Measures for Pandemic Influenza was carried out in October and November 2006 to engage the public in discussions and deliberations about the economic and social tradeoffs associated with community control measures to slow the spread of the disease. The project's final report was issued in early May 2007. The project was sponsored by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and The Keystone Center, serving as a third party neutral facilitator. IIIRM president Mervyn Tano participated in the deliberations.

The draft report was one of the key documents relied upon by the developers of the Federal Interim Pre-pandemic Planning Guidance: Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation in the United States. The complete report; executive summary; and evaluation report can be found on The Keystone Center's website.

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The Indigenous Film & Arts Festival Connects with IAIA

IAIA film and art students Valentina Sireech, Jeana Francis, Nigel Long Soldier, Jolene N. Yazzie, Nolan Ukestine, and Cassandra Naranjo.

Santa Fe. On May 1st, 2007 Jeanne Rubin, IIIRM's film festival director, met with artists and filmmakers at The Institute of American Indian Arts to discuss student opportunities at the Indigenous Film & Arts Festival. “We want the Festival to be a venue for students of all ages to showcase their creative works,” Rubin told the assembled artists and filmmakers. The lively discussion included a wide range of topics, from film screenings to art exhibits to using student art for the Festival poster. The IAIA students were very excited about our proposed summer Film Camp for middle school students and how they could help us create opportunities for the next generation of filmmakers. Several of the IAIA students want to be involved in the Film Camp as aides and mentors to the kids. “The Film Camp will be a great opportunity for our kids back home. I'd like to help get kids from my Tribe involved in it,” said Southern Ute member Cassandra Naranjo.

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Rio Tinto Seeks Community Relations Professionals

Rio Tinto, an international minerals and metals company, is seeking four community relations professionals for its North American community relations team. These positions will contribute to the development and practice of the Rio Tinto Group community relations policies, corporate assurance, site support and technical advice in North America, with an emphasis on partnership with First Nations and Native Americans in the USA and Canada. Click here for more information and application procedure.

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EPA Region 8 Seeks Environmental Protection Specialist

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8 (Denver) has a Federal Career Intern position opening working in the Tribal Assistance Program. This is an excellent opportunity with career development potential. Click here for more information and application procedure.

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imagineNative Releases Call for Submissions

Entering its 8th year, the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival announces an all category ‘call for submissions' deadline of June 1st., 2007. The festival prioritizes works that balance unique content, cultural and social relevance, and a creative approach to form characterized by innovative expression, distinctive style and personal vision. The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts festival is seeking film, radio and new media (web-based art) works by Canadian and International Indigenous artists for consideration for this year's festival, scheduled for October 17th to 21st.

“The continued growth and success of imagineNATIVE is a testament to the vitality of Indigenous film and media arts in Canada and around the world. The 2007 festival will offer audiences and artists a unique forum to connect and be inspired by the diverse and exciting programming on offer,” says Interim Executive Director Kerry Swanson.

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is an international festival that celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples on the forefront of innovation. Each fall, the festival presents a selection of the most compelling, distinctive Indigenous works from around the globe. The festival's screenings, parties, panel discussions, and cultural events attract and connect filmmakers, media artists, programmers, buyers, and industry professionals. The works accepted reflect the diversity of the world's Indigenous nations and illustrate the excellence of our art and culture in contemporary media.

In the 2006 Top 10 Toronto Locals feature in NOW Magazine (January 2007), movie Critic Cameron Bailey wrote, “This year the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival officially eclipsed Sundance as North America's most important event for Aboriginal filmmaking, if not the world's.”

Each year, the Festival's Closing Night Awards Celebration recognizes achievements through a number of cash awards in various categories. Last year's awards included the Alliance Atlantis Mentorship Mentoree Program, the APTN Drama Pitch Prize, the Standard Radio Best Radio Prize, the VTape Best New Media Prize and the Movieola Best Short Drama Award. The Festival organizes panels of established industry representatives who meet, review works and recommend award winners in thirteen different categories.

For further information regarding submission categories, requirements and downloadable submission forms please visit the festival website at www.imagineNATIVE.org or contact Amye Annette at +1 416-585-2333.

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Indigenous Film & Arts Festival Internships Available

Are you interested in film? Filmmaking? Does the idea of hanging out and talking shop with indigenous filmmakers from all over the world sound like your idea of an evening well-spent? Well then, you might want to consider signing up for an internship with the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management, the organizer of the Indigenous Film & Arts Festival.

Volunteering as an Institute intern will offer you a great opportunity to experience a broad perspective on all aspects of the film festival by working closely with the festival staff. These internships afford you an excellent opportunity to acquire the necessary organizational, communication, management, and other skills required to organize and put on an international film festival. The internships require a commitment of 10 to 15 hours per week and a set working schedule for you to be in the Institute offices.