Prairie-Ice Director: Thoughts on Religious and Indigenous Identity

Many sources depict the spiritual identity of ancient indigenous people as existing on a spectrum; not fixed in time or space. Unlike a modern religious experience . . . fixated on one profit, messiah, or incarnation, they fluidly exist within a continuum of spiritual wisdom. This may be true of Sidney, who’s beliefs flow seamsly between Christian and Ancestral.

Religion and the Personification Cycle: Morning Thoughts of an Indie Documentary Director

This Blog was intended to begin housing the musings, rants, and ramblings that resulted from the filmmakers research and performing the intense ceremonies of the Lakota. The attempt to work this one out interrupted a morning ritual and had to be written down.

Religion and the Personification Cycle:

Humanity, or most sub-populations of humanity, put a human face on God/god. Most modern Christians assign two human faces and one rarely considered spirit face referring to , or praying to either or both seamlessly. And this blend of personified spirit-consciousness is called monotheism.

The Aboriginal-Mind however may choose to put a human, animal, or mystical face on forces of nature or a variety of incarnations of God [Chanupa-Glu-Hamani, White Buffalo Calf Maiden . . .]. But in most cases; for there are tens of thousands examples of mystical and natural religions; they are content considering the ultimate form and nature of the most powerful, conscious forces in existence to be a Great Mystery. In other words, their best descriptions relay the belief that God is one power, but that its nature, form, and will remains a mystery to the human mind.

The Native-Mind may also ascribe consciousness to every living thing and all earthly and astral matter; animism. Owners of modern-minds may love their pets, talk to plants, or feel enlivened after a walk in the woods, but rarely consider them as sentient. This denying of a conscious or spirit nature to any but humans has, at times, degenerated into all out depravity, denying it to other physical shades or forms of humans; or along ideological, professional, or religious lines.

It is said that the Indigenous Religious Identity exists on a continuum between Ancient and Christian beliefs; as a wave of conscious energy perhaps; existing just outside time-space. But perhaps there are more than two vertices to the continuum and perhaps the modern mind exists on that same multi-directional, polyphasic wave-form. Perhaps I need to take a class in Fournier’s Equations. Perhaps there are seven directions, or vertices, as the Lakota suggest.

1. Earth & Atmosphere Consciousness
2. Worldly or Culturally Conditioned Consciousness,
3. Animal Consciousness and its parallel spirit world,
4. Plant Consciousness,
5. Eco-System Consciousness,
6. Astral (Milky Way, Solar System) Consciousness &
7. Universal Consciousness & The Great Mystery

And these Remnant Medicine-Men and Shamans are out there among us, in the morass of modernity; in the moral and emotional desert we call civilization.

Medicine Man 1000-Mile Glare w/ Buffalo Skull

Directors Musings During Kickstarter Prep: Holistic Boiler Room

Welcome to the Holistic Boiler Room

We created a Holistic Boiler Room: for the Prairie-Ice Documentary about Lakota Medicine Man Sidney Hasnohorses.

The BoilerRoom is a short list of our most active supporters from the Facebook Page, Twitter Feed, and Newsletter who have been most willing to go a little deeper into the filmmaking process.

You will help us:
1: Spread the word,
2: Curate images for gifts,
3: Find new audiences, and
4: You may even be invited to special screenings
and other events.
In other words, you will begin receiving instructions, requests, and polls that will steer:
Fundraising,
Post-Production, and
Distribution Efforts.

Mitaquay Oyasin; Salvatore Consalvi, Director.

If we are wrong about your interest, feel free to opt out at any time.

Salvatore Consalvi on “Sidney Has No Horses”

#SocialMedia Coup last year, being interviewed on Indie Outlook about the #DocInProgress.

Indie Outlook

Salvatore Consalvi

Fresh off his recent trip to Antarctica, filmmaker Salvatore Consalvi stopped by Indie Outlook to chat about his fascinating new documentary, “Sidney Has No Horses.” The film is named after its central subject, an Oglala Lakota Medicine Man at South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. Consalvi’s film offers a candid look at Lakota traditions and ceremonies, such as the intense “Sun Dance,” and explores the spiritual connection Sidney shares with his ancestors and nature itself. The film’s Kickstarter page can be viewed here.

The program was produced at Columbia College Chicago. Technical producers were Rebecca Nystedt and Steve Ahlman. An Indie Outlook production.

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Salvatore Consalvi on “Sidney Has No Horses”

Last Year Matt Fagerholm of Indie Outlook fame interviewed me.

This year I was asked to start dropping names for a grant proposal . . . but here is a link to the interview.

 Salvatore Consalvi on “Sidney Has No Horses”.

Documentary Still In Progress: After a short break that is . . .

After returning from a great trip to Portland and Seattle I was drawn into some much needed Environmental Consulting work.

As a result, I’ve been very lax with the #SocialMedia projects begun after the Digital Professional Institute classwork, but plan to get back up and running.

I have not stopped work on the project however and though I do not consider the reading I do to be strictly “research”, I have continued  to find and read fantastic books from dedicated scholars that will no doubt influence the final edit of the film.

The latest is “American Holocaust” by David Stannard. In painting an accurate, well researched picture of the cultural landscape Europeans found when they arrived, and the practices they employed against them, I can better explore and understand the concept of #intergenerational trauma.

When finished I will return to more spiritual topics with Sacred Language by  William Powers and “The Ghost Dance Religion” by James Mooney; but for now the truth of our greatest cultural horror; honestly and professionally presented by an exceptional scholar; has begun to affect my thoughts and dreams concerning this #Documentary project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stannard

American Holocaust: Wikapedia

Stannard’s research on the indigenous peoples of North and South America (including Hawaii)^[1] has produced the conclusion that Native Americans had undergone the “worst human holocaust the world had ever witnessed, roaring across two continents non-stop for four centuries and consuming the lives of countless tens of millions of people.

Flesh Offerings and the Spiritual Adventure – The Director Reveals Motivation behind the Indie Documentary; by Salvatore Consalvi

Sun Dance Flesh Offering – Pulling Back on the Rope, by Thomas Mails

It’s difficult writing about oneself and I remain uncertain about how much of my participation in the rituals I should share; but my motivation for continuing this “Documentary in Progress” does speak from one heart to the next; and I’m learning from it at the deepest levels of the human experience.  We are now planning to tell an intense story about the last seven years interviewing and practicing the most grueling Lakota ceremonies at Wakpamni Lake on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

For those of us suspecting that there is far more to reality and the human experience than consumers, spirits broken by modernity, can imagine; this documentary will reveal what mystical thinkers and Native American Medicine Men have saved for all of humanity. In this way, ancient wisdom will infuse the modern experience, and begin healing the ruptures in the fabric of our shared human consciousness.

Documentary In Progress Project Summary: 2014 Year-End

2014 Year-End Project Summary

Silhouette Crew at Work – Lens Flair

It has been five years since we; filmmakers Salvatore Consalvi was invited to the Wakpamni Lake Ceremonies to conduct a short interview of iconic Medicine Man Sidney Hasnohorse. By the second year of filming we compiled over 30 hours of candid interviews covering spirituality, Lakota history, consciousness, religious identity, and life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota

So many supporters openly wondered why we didn’t just compile a 90-minute film and move on to other projects.

The Hasnohorse kitchen table and Lakota Spiritual Forum

But each year we experienced mystical phenomenon that had us running home to research what we had seen; learned of the Medicine Lineage; or felt in ceremony. Soon enough we were re-working our own understanding of reality and consciousness (#QuantumIndian). Inevitably Sidney’s teachings of Lakota cosmology and spirituality; casually discussed around the kitchen table; entwined with concepts from comparative religious studies, social justice, and even quantum physics. And each year we were allowed to participate in more intense rituals.

Inevitably, I (Director Salvatore Consalvi) asked to pay the Medicine Man and his Ancestors back in the traditional way. So in year three of filming I went “on the hill” for a 2-day Vision Quest; in thanks for the access, patience, and education we received. I attempted to give thanks in the same way a Lakota patient repays the spirit world for a cure or a Native family gives thanks for good fortune of another kind.

Being of European decent it was uncertain what the spirit world would ask of me, if acknowledging me at all. I subsequently

embarked on a four-year cycle of Vision Quest (Humbelechapi), Sun and Ghost Dances. In the first Sun Dance I gave flesh during the warrior round; in year two a celestial sign required I hang from the Ceremonial Tree; in year three I fell while giving flesh and broke my back.

This year, as my middle-aged body heals, I attempt to prepare my mind for the fourth and final year of giving back for the documentary. So, 2015 will be perfect time to begin Post-Production in earnest.

The documentary process and ceremonial mind will entangle further as we prepare to support the ceremonies while building a rough edit from nearly 80 hours of interviews. Stay tuned for our plans for next year.

 

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Documentary Trailer on Youtube:
http://youtu.be/MhmBfDNOUTU
Website: Sidney Has No Horses the Movie
http://sidneyhasnohorsesthemovie.com
Donate Now – Our Network for Good Partners:
https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/sidneyhasnohorsesthemovie

Year-End Overview: Documentary In Progress; Sidney Has No Horses

Year-End Overview: Documentary In Progress; Sidney Has No Horses

Over the years many of you, our strongest supporters, have openly asked, “When can I see the final film?” or “What will it take to finish this documentary?”

Crew at Work

So in the next series of posts, leading to the years end, we will lay out the Project History from the first interview to this very moment on the timeline. Interwoven into those posts, we will lay out our production and post-production schedules for 2015.

So in short, after the 2014 Ghost Dance in July, we spent 4-months in classes and workshops at Digital Professional Institute, associated with iconic Tribeca Academy. We learned to establish the social media platforms necessary to build an audience and fundraise.

We are now planning how to best use 2015. We’ve pulled more support from our community of artists and professionals in the form of graphic designer, Lynn Pearson, Producer Bruce Scivally, and promoter Sandra Bogan to bring this project to its completion. So the lion-share of 2015 will be spent in post production; weaving the narrative from interviews, research, sound, animation, and music into a powerful and beautiful film; one worthy of the Lakota lineage of medicine men, and you, our strongest supporters.

We intend to lay out just how we intend to bring this feature-length documentary to a screening venue near you.

Silhouette Crew at Work – Lens Flair

A #PrairieIce, #DocInProgress research j

A #PrairieIce, #DocInProgress research jewel

Of all ancient civilizations in North America, human hands have built no greater earthwork than the Monks Mound near East St. Louis, IL. The Mound Builders statesmanship, ambitious projects and workforce make them of the most important cultures of World history.

That means it is safe to double these estimates to consider the entire amount of work done at the Cahokia Mounds. Now consider that thousands of mounds were built all over the country. The sheer workforce used to build these mounds is a feat that cannot be matched by any ancient culture throughout the world. http://ow.ly/FtCUk