“Indirect Actions” is a fulldome, immersive documentary on the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests where members of the Sioux Nation at Standing Rock Reservation stood against an oil pipeline that potentially threatened their and others’ water supply and sacred tribal lands.
Step into the story and join a documentary filmmaker (Maranatha Hay) on a mission for justice at Standing Rock, where over 300 indigenous tribes stood together in solidarity. She follows social media-driven outrage to the icy prairie of North Dakota—only to discover the dangers of a single-minded perspective and some surprising unintended consequences of Internet activism.
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Theo Brown - The Hollywood Reporter - "I can promise you now, you've never seen anything like this. Straight up it's the first of it's kind and takes audiences on a wild and crazy journey."
Michael Pannell - The Telegraph - The fact 'Indirect Actions' is the first-ever feature-length documentary made for fulldome viewing makes it appealing and noteworthy. The fact the technology wasn't the main focus of the film but rather a well-used storytelling tool helps make it the compelling, important film it is.
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At the end of 2016, a TV personality with no political experience was elected to one of the highest offices in the U.S. government. It was a moment that confused and outraged many, understandably so. This was a man who had publicly bragged about groping women, and yet it did little to sway his supporters.
Around the same time, national media began covering the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in North Dakota. Footage showed Native American protesters being violently mistreated. It struck a nerve. After watching several reports, I reached out to Ryan Moore of Experience 360 — a VR company I had worked with before. Ryan and I quickly decided: we had to go. He assembled a team in L.A., and we met in North Dakota. We didn’t know what story we’d find, but we knew we had to start filming.
When I arrived in Bismarck, things felt off. On the plane, people were arguing. A local I interviewed claimed the media’s story was false — that the tribe wasn’t the victim. The cab driver refused to speak, and a woman at a gas station said she was scared to talk.
We linked up with Ryan’s team and began filming. Driving to the protest site, we passed the only gas station around — owned by the tribe. The protest camp itself was on private land that had been taken over. The deeper we dug, the more contradictions we uncovered. The pipeline route had been purchased long before. Negotiation meetings were held, but the tribe didn’t show up. Locals told us the protesters had marched through town with pig heads on sticks and sent threatening messages to police, including rape threats to their wives.
At the camp, there was also an uneasiness about being filmed. I remember dropping off water when a man got on the mic and said, “Hey, we’re out of cigarettes. Can someone go get us some?”
As the days went on, it became clear — the narrative wasn’t what we thought.
The media’s projected reality was false, and it took us a few days to understand this, and eventually, we started asking each other, ‘what the fuck is really going on here?’
This was also the first feature documentary filmed in 360 and went on to win several film festivals.
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