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Prayer for Change

"Prayer for Change" follows Medicine Wheel Way as they rebuild through ceremony and community care, transforming climate devastation into collective healing.

  • Charly Louise
    Director
    In-Tune: The Ben Tucker Story, The Midwife's Shroud, Bound for Freedom, and Baby Darling
  • Charly Louise
    Writer
    In-Tune: The Ben Tucker Story, The Midwife's Shroud, Bound for Freedom, and Baby Darling
  • Lisa Shoemaker
    Producer
    The Midwife's Shroud
  • Sharon Oxendine
    Key Cast
    "Black Crow"
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    Spiritual, Climate Disaster, Appalachian, Mutual Aid, BIPOC, Cultural Revitalization, Indigenous Ceremony
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 12, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    8,900 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Charly Louise

Charly Louise is a professional documentary filmmaker and founder of Venus Rising Media, a production company dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices and fostering social change through the power of story. With over 14 years of experience, her work blends personal narrative, poetic documentary, and community-driven storytelling to explore themes of identity, resilience, and belonging.

Through Venus Rising Media, Charly creates films, workshops, and mentorship programs that use cinema as a catalyst for empathy, inclusivity, and collective healing. Her films include In Tune: The Ben Tucker Story (2018), Threshold (2022), Bound for Freedom (2023), The Midwife’s Shroud (2024) and Where the Light Enters You (2024).

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Director Statement

We began filming with Black Crow and Medicine Wheel Way a few months after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina. Our first day of production opened with a sacred pipe and water ceremony at Medicine Wheel Way. In those moments—witnessing the community gather in grief, prayer, and care—I felt both my own despair and the shared loss of our collective trauma. That moment planted the seed for this film.

It took nearly a year to grow the story: sitting in interviews, watching the land change through the seasons, and returning again and again to Medicine Wheel Way. Each visit revealed something new—life sprouting from the soil, resilience taking root, and people coming together with deeper intention. On Earth Day, in a heavy rain, a mass of people gathered to plant willows and sow seeds that would support regeneration and carry the community’s prayers into the future.

Since we began, the community has only continued to expand in spirit and in strength. Prayer for Change is dedicated to the resilience of community care, the power of ceremony, and the importance of creating belonging for the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities who are the lifeblood of Medicine Wheel Way. Prayer for Change is both a record and a living prayer, honoring how grief can be transformed into connection, and devastation into new life.