Synopsis
FILM Q&A: Director Mark Vasina and Frank LaMere will conduct a Q&A after the 7:00 screening of BATTLE FOR WHITECLAY on Friday, January 30th.

MOVIE TALK: There will be a Friends of the Ross Movie Talk for THE BATTLE FOR WHITECLAY on Sunday, February 1 at 3 p.m. following a 1 p.m. screening. The Movie Talk is free and open to the public, the film screening is at regular Ross prices.

ONE WEEK ONLY! Forty thousand of the poorest people in America call the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation home. In this impoverished South Dakota community, jobs are scarce. Life expectancy is lower than that of Haiti.

For generations tribal elders have understood the destruction visited by alcohol upon the health, society and culture of the Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge. Since their reservation lands were established in 1868 the Oglalas have banned the sale and possession of alcohol. But they can't stop a tiny Nebraska border town from selling 11,000 cans of beer a day to people who walk or drive from the reservation.

This Nebraska village, population 14, is called Whiteclay.



The Battle for Whiteclay follows Native American activists Frank LaMere, Duane Martin and Russell Means through the streets of Whiteclay to the halls of Nebraska's State Capitol in their campaign to end alcohol sales in the place Nebraska newspapers have dubbed 'Skid Row on the Prairie.' The film documents a little-known social disaster in which families are torn apart and advocates for the Indian way of life confront state and local authorities. Filmmaker Mark Vasina has devoted 5 years to filming and reporting on this tragic and compelling story.