Private Project

Time Travellers Testimony: SOVEREIGN

Sovereign is a short experimental documentary exploring an intergenerational conversation between Indigenous activists defending British Columbian land rights in the 1990s and 2020s.

Bill Lightbown of Kootenai Nation (April 14, 1927 - March 1, 2019) met his partner Lavina White, former president of the Haida Nation in 1951. They were “freedom fighters” who worked together, organizing, traveling, educating and communicating. In 1990, Bill and Lavina traveled to the armed standoff at Kahnewake, in Mohawk territory. They provided a communication link back to BC and the Indigenous grassroots community while the Canadian media aggravated tensions. In 1995, Bill and Lavina were spokespeople for the Ts’peten Defenders at Gustafsen Lake where they endured a siege by the RCMP that lasted even longer than the Oka Crisis.

Pia Yona Massie, who interviewed Bill and Lavina in 1996, shared these re-found cassette tapes with Angela Davidson aka Rainbow Eyes of Da’naxda/xw Nation and Glenn Reid, a forest guardian of the Rainforest Flying Squad. Rainbow and Glenn met in the summer of 2022 defending the Fairy Creek forests of the Pacheedaht First Nations. They became leaders and communicators of that ongoing land defense, carrying forward the courageous resilience of the elders. This time traveling intergenerational Indigenous conversation is named SOVEREIGN, with gratitude to Bill and Lavina.

  • Inanna Cusi
    Director
    walk and talk
  • Pia Yona Passie
    Director
  • Bill Lightbown
    Key Cast
  • Lavina White
    Key Cast
  • Angela Davidson
    Key Cast
    "Angela Davidson aka Rainbow Eyes"
  • Glenn Reid
    Key Cast
  • Inanna Cusi
    Media Artist
  • Inanna Cusi
    Editor
  • Inanna Cusi
    Cinematographer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    17 minutes 31 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 1, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Inanna Cusi, Pia Yona Passie

Inanna Cusi is a multi-disciplinary artist focusing on the practical and hands-on aspects of art. After studying film at Simon Fraser University, directing multiple short films and producing an indie feature, she expanded her knowledge of analog motion picture darkroom developing. Through a multi-year mentorship at Cineworks, she learned from experts in developing many 8mm and 16mm films. Her 16mm film Walk and Talk has been nominated for multiple Leo Awards, and she is now pursuing a critical ecological practice MFA at Emily Carr University aiming to combine her interdisciplinary arts with a sustainable, renewable, and recyclable approach to materials and media.

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Director Statement

Pia Yona Massie (producer) is a multi-media artist, environmental activist, and teacher. Massie’s films and art have been exhibited in museums, festivals, and galleries throughout North America and Europe, including The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts, Lausanne; and Gallery 881, Monica Reyes and the grunt gallery in Vancouver, BC. Massie's writing has appeared in: DAMP: Contemporary Vancouver Media Art; Foret-Frontiere : Une Action Art /Nature; as well as The Bulletin, Adbusters and Ricepaper magazines. Her work has received Canada Council and BC Arts Council grants, a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant and numerous other awards.

Pia has taught and mentored for over forty years, in gratitude to her early teachers, many collaborators and friends. This includes work at community centres and universities, outdoor environmental education and film schools, kindergarten through graduate school, in three countries: Canada, the USA and Japan.
Currently, 40 years of her work is being brought online for a special collections archive by VIVO Media Arts. She is collaborating with a new generation of artists on a multi-media piece called Time Travellers Testimony which brings the voices of Clayoquot Sound's War in the Woods; back full circle to the engaged creatives on the frontlines continuing the ongoing protection of our air, land and water.

Originally raised in Brooklyn, New York she has now lived half her life on the West Coast, near the Pacific Ocean, in the city of her ancestors. She is deeply grateful to work and live in the Pacific Northwest unceded traditional lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.