Official selection of the
2010 SF Ocean Film Festival
PLEASE JOIN US
Theater 39
The Embarcadero and Beach Street, San Francisco
Sunday, Feb. 07, 2010
10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
“This film invites us all to reconsider our limitations as we watch youth and elders make the impossible journey possible.”
Lewis MehlMadrona, MD (“Coyote Medicine”)
Special Guest Appearances by Lakota PATHSTAR swimmers
“From the rugged sandstone of the Badlands to the broad blue expanse of San Francisco Bay, the film documents a seemingly impossible journey for young Lakota Sioux, encompassing geographic, cultural, physical, and spiritual challenges. “From the Badlands to Alcatraz” is a beautifully crafted, awe-inspiring journey, spreading hope and enthusiasm from its unlikely Alcatraz swimmers to its viewers who are sure to fall under its spell.” Judy Irving (“The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”)
Click here learn more about Pine Ridge conditions.
This is one of the most beautiful and inspiring documentaries I have ever seen!”Lynne Cox (“Swimming to Antarctica”)
From the Badlands to Alcatraz weaves the past and present of both Alcatraz and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation into a vivid depiction of the awe-inspiring journey five Lakota youth – Alkapoane White Calf, Lisa and Kelly Water, and Arlo and Philip Iron Cloud – navigate as they arrive in San Francisco from South Dakota and prepare for the extreme challenge of swimming from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco Shore in September 2005. It follows the group’s first plunge into the San Francisco bay through their personal and collective challenges, disappointments, and triumphs as they strive to conquer both the Alcatraz swim and the dispiritedness connected to conditions on Pine Ridge. Richard Iron Cloud, the first Lakota to do this swim in 2003, and these five, willing to dare themselves into achieving the ‘unachievable,’ are the stars of the film, the deserving recipients of the tribute “You are an inspiration, not only to the Lakotas, but to everyone who wishes to go the ‘extra mile’ in their lives.”