Uranium Film Festival

LECH MAJEWSKI COMES TO WINDOW ROCK / NAVAJO NATION CAPITAL

BACK TO NAVAJO LAND

Renowned Polish film director, writer and media artist Lech Majewski is coming to the capital of the Navajo Nation in Arizona in March 2024 presenting his movie „Valley of the Gods“ that was partly shot on Navajo territory and with the participation of Navajo actors. 

In 2016, Lech Majewski shot his surreal movie „Valley of the Gods“ in the Monument Valley, Utah, on Navajo Nation land with stars like John Malkovich, Josh Hartnett and Joseph Runningfox. The movie had its world premier in Poland in 2019. Now, five years later, March 7, it will have its premiere in the capital of the Navajo Nation, Window Rock. Thanks to the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) Lech Majewski is going to present the movie for the very first time at the Navajo Nation Museum. Native American actor Joseph Runningfox (Photo) from New Mexico also confirmed his presence at this historic event. Further actors of the movie are expected. In 2019 Majewski became a voting member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences / https://lechmajewski.com. Joseph Runningfox (born 1955 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) is a Pueblo actor. He was featured in Ravenous as George (credited as Joseph Running Fox) and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Runningfox played Geronimo in a 1993 television movie of the same name.

In „Valley of the Gods“ John Malkovich plays the richest man on earth, who is dead-set on mining sacred Navajo lands for uranium. Joseph Runningfox from the Pueblo Nation also known for the movies „Geronimo“ and „Lakota Woman“ plays the part of a Navajo elder who is against that mining project.

"By screening `Valley of the God´ in Window Rock, I am fulfilling a promise I made to Lech Majewski when he presented in 2022 his film at our International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro at the cinema of the Museum of Modern Art (MAM Rio)", says festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. Lech received in Rio for his film the festival's best fiction movie award. Norbert G. Suchanek: “Lech Majewski and I have at least one thing in common: deep respect for the Navajo Nation, their spiritual culture and traditional wisdom. And we know about the suffering of the Navajo and other indigenous peoples caused by uranium mining and its deadly and dirty legacy.”

The 2010 founded International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) is now for the third time guest in Window Rock and will show March 7 and March 8 all together 11 films on nuclear issues. Suchanek: “This festival in the Navajo Nation Museum is only possible because of the fantastic commitment and partnership with Anna Marie Rondon, Dineh, Executive Director of the New Mexico Social Justice and Equity Institute, and local Native and non-Native supporters.” Like in 2013 and 2018, the festival will go on tour to other festival locations after Window Rock. But this year the festival directors Norbert Suchanek and Márcia Gomes de Oliveira have taken on a mega marathon tour across North America. More than 10 cities in 9 states. https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/usa-2024

Photo: Joseph Runningfox with director Lech Majewski on the “ Valley of the Gods” film set in Monument Valley State Park, 2016. / Photo by John Lorenz

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Contact

Norbert G. Suchanek & Márcia Gomes de Oliveira
International Uranium Film Festival
Founders & Directors
norbert.suchanek @uraniumfilmfestival.org
uraniofestival @gmail.com
www.uraniumfilmfestival.org