Pine Ridge

(In Development)

The documentary follows three young people who have moved back home to the small town of Kyle, South Dakota, a place they left behind as children. They’ve returned to connect with their Lakota roots, drawn by the pull of extended family, homesick for the huge South Dakota skies, driven by the desire to change the world around them.

They are galvanized when Cecelia Fire Thunder, the first female head of the tribe, challenges South Dakota’s attempt to criminalize abortion with a call to build a clinic on the sovereign territory of the reservation. When the tribal council impeaches Fire Thunder and bans abortion on the reservation, it sets off a chain reaction. Through a turbulent tribal election, intersecting with a statewide campaign around the ban, the three young people learn to define themselves, and their beliefs, in ways they could never have anticipated.