Fresh Film Supports Indigenous-Led Documentary The Opening Address

​Fresh Film supports The Opening Address - a powerful short documentary created pro bono in close collaboration with the Akwesasne Mohawk community and the Akwesasne Freedom School. The film has been nominated for a Conservation Award at Chile’s Santiago Wild Film Festival - Latin America’s leading environmental film festival — and will also open the Mountainfilm 2025 in Telluride, Colorado.

At the heart of the film is the Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen, a sacred Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) prayer traditionally spoken at the start and end of gatherings. Through evocative imagery, spoken word, and an original score, the film offers audiences a deeply moving invitation to pause, connect with the natural world, and reflect on our shared responsibilities to all living beings.

The Opening Address will be part of Mountainfilm’s featured panel on Indigenous-led conservation, alongside speakers including co-director Konwanahktotha Alvera Sargent of the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, activist Jade Begay, author Sherri Mitchell, scholar Kyle Whyte, and artist Clarence Lee Cruz.

Co-directed by Konwanahktotha Alvera Sargent and produced by Fresh Film, in collaboration with a team of Indigenous educators, artists, and elders, the project is a celebration of ancestral knowledge and a call for deeper reciprocity between people and the planet.

Fresh Film is honoured to support storytelling that uplifts ancestral knowledge and envisions a more reciprocal relationship between people and planet, rooted in our beliefs of family, community and caring for the planet.

Check out more from Fresh Film here.