Private Project

Prayer Run for the Santa Ritas

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.

  • Leslie Ann Epperson
    Director
    Celebrate Now, Many Bones, One Heart
  • Leslie Ann Epperson
    Writer
  • Leslie Ann Epperson
    Producer
  • Austin Nuñez
    Key Cast
    "Non-fiction"
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 32 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 15, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    4k Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Leslie Ann Epperson

Independent Documentary Director Leslie Ann Epperson began creating natural history and cultural documentaries at WILL-TV, an Illinois PBS station. Her PBS career continued at AZPM in Tucson, AZ, where she created the Emmy Award-winning Divine Mission San Xavier del Bac. Divine Mission was nationally broadcast by the PBS network and continues to show daily at the church museum at San Xavier.

Recent projects and awards include:

• Wildlife Disappearing at the Border, documentary short, National Geographic YouTube channel, Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor
• Taste Bud Memories, documentary short, Story Editor/Sound Design/Graphics, Impact Doc Award, and screened at the Refugees Welcome Film Festival and other festivals.
• Celebrate Now, documentary short, Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor, Heartbeat of the Festival, #JustBeLove Film Festival.
• Many Bones, One Heart, feature documentary, Director/Producer/Editor, Best of Arizona, Arizona International Film Festival.

Epperson has produced videos for the University of Arizona and taught video and art classes at the university and at Tohono O’odham Community College in Sells, AZ. She continues producing independent documentaries exploring the challenges faced by wildlife and people in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands.

Epperson received an MFA from the University of Arizona and a BFA from the University of Illinois. She has exhibited multimedia artwork nationwide and in Britain. Her artist's book, Another Day, resides in the University of Arizona Special Collections Library.

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Director Statement

Prayer Run for the Santa Ritas takes you on a journey through the stunning beauty of the Santa Rita mountains, the Cienega Creek Watershed, and a Tohno O'odham reclamation project for the Santa Cruz River. Your guides are descendants of the first people to live here, the Tohono O'odham. The imminent threat of open-pit mining represents a folly hard to comprehend. Southern Arizona needs clean water sources far more than it needs more copper. Yet the mining company, Hudbay Inc., continues its relentless destruction. This short film is about Marlinda Francisco's run. Future stories in development will present more about people, place, and the proposed mine.