It’s been about two months since Deidra Peaches’ Voices of the Grand Canyon premiered in a sold-out screening at the Indie Film Fest in Phoenix. The documentary is still making waves, with a showing slated for this year’s Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival.
The Diné director filmed the 12-minute piece over the course of about two years and one important Colorado River trip with late co-collaborator and best friend Jake Hoyungowa. Voices of the Grand Canyon features interviews with Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Zuni and Hualapai tribal members. It represents another chapter in Peaches’ ever-expanding canon chronicling the histories of colonialism, resource exploitation by white settlers and the ongoing struggles of Native people as they relate to land and the environment...