Browse films

Prayer Run for the Santa Ritas

Leslie Ann Epperson
United States, 2022, 6 min.

In English with English subtitles.

Sunrise in the Santa Rita Mountains of Southern Arizona. Tohono O'odham runner Marlinda Francisco receives a blessing from Austin Nuñez, Chairman of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation. As Marlinda begins her run to protest the threat of an open-pit copper mine here, we learn about the Tohono O'odham ancestral connection to this land. Along the way, we meet Gayle Hartmann, a non-profit leader who has resisted the mining operation for years.

Director's Statement

Watching Marlinda Francisco running through the homelands of her people was a rare and beautiful experience. Knowing that El Jefe, the jaguar once prowled nearby, out of sight of humans, is a parallel rarity. The thought of Hudbay destroying the Eastern slopes of the mountain range and fouling water and air in the process seems unbearable. So I filmed it with Russ McSpadden operating a drone camera in the summer of 2022. Prayer Run is a document of the event. As Marlinda Francisco says, Respect the land.

Category: Short Doc, Arizona Film.
Themes: Environment, Native American.

More in Short Doc

  • Pride of Texas

    Pride of Texas

    Ashley Seering
    United States, 2024, 7 min.

    A look at the Texas Gay Rodeo Association and its participants who prove that rodeo, and Texas, is a place for everyone... more ›

  • I'm Still Here

    I'm Still Here

    Stephen Stinson
    United States, 2024, 26 min.

    Between 1947 and 1967, black owned homes in Birmingham, Alabama were bombed over 50 times and the neighborhood became known as ‘Dynamite Hill.’ I'm... more ›

  • Children of Agave

    Children of Agave

    Ivan Lopez-Barba
    Mexico, 2025, 22 min.

    In the agave fields of contemporary rural México, a new silhouette of masculinity takes shape. Work, fatherhood, and nature intertwine over the course... more ›