September 10, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I learned about the film “Gather” through Instagram friends https://gather.film/. It just was released a week ago and there is a review on the New York Times. But I heard about it on Instagram. There was a movie advertised heavily where Woody Harrelson and a super model married to Tom Brad (I forget her name, Giselle?) talk about regenerative agriculture. The movie trailer seemed very similar to 2040? I passed that one up. I think our world (and definitely for me) is past the point when Hollywood has any sort of moral authority. But then I heard the music from Raye Zaragosa and it reached me. Raye Zaragosa, folk singer with a hauntingly beautiful voice https://www.rayezaragoza.com/. She is Native American and Japanese, and I discovered her through her music as part of the new release on the film “Gather” which I watched last night. It is about fixing Native American food systems and centuries of systemic violence against the Native Americans. Took me to my mid-40s to find a musical artist that speaks to me.

If songs can teach, challenge, shame and yet give hope, than she has done it. She is a young Native American/Japanese folk singer whose music was in the film “Gather” about broken food systems in the Native American community and explains the centuries of food violence upon different tribes. The film speaks about food sovereignty. The movie just got released and it’s a profound perspective of the protangonists, that already for some of them “we are already on the other side of the apocolypse” after their culture and land and people have been decimated. And that now is the era of regeneration. The film was excellent but her music is haunting. Took me to my mid 40s to find an artists that speaks to me. Every song brings tears to my eyes. What I loved about the film is that it is about the different tribal members through their own processes of discovery and regeneration on behalf of their tribes. No colonist. No one coming in trying to appropriate the story. It’s about them. At the chef said in one scene, “did any white chef dudes come?” When she said no, there is a small smile. It’s a glimpse into this powerful community that I was so grateful to be granted from afar.

I’ve booked a digital screening through their website, and will try to host a virtual screening for everyone I know. Definitely rent it on Amazon Prime or any of the digital platforms like iTunes if you want to support their film.

Dr. Plastic Picker has officially chosen “Fight for You” by Raye Zaragosa as the official song of this blog and our environmental efforts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGupxJVfOnc