Green Reckoning is a 90-minute feature documentary intended for limited theatrical release, national broadcast on PBS, and streaming services.
The film is a deep exploration of forgotten and deliberately buried chapters in the history of National Parks. Built upon sound scholarship that includes familiar historians as well as Indigenous authors who are writing new chapters. Acting together, they provide a powerful foundation for reconsidering the myth of national parks as ‘America’s best idea.’
David Vassar is an award-winning filmmaker who spent his life making movies that celebrate the beauty, wonder and exceptionalism of national parks. Dina Gilio-Whitaker is a Native American scholar and Colville Confederated Tribes first line descendant.
At the core of the film is the spirited dialogue between David and Dina. The tension lies in the presence of a Native voice amidst established but misinformed Euro-American narratives. If David represents the colonial point of view, Dina provides an Indigenous world view.
Extending far beyond the storied landscapes that national parks protect, Green Reckoning sheds light on the hidden and often painful histories of Indigenous people who’s cultural heritage and ancestral homelands were demolished by the establishment of national parks.
Central to Green Reckoning is the question: Pride or Pain?
Do national parks represent spaces of noble beauty and source of American pride? Or do they serve as painful reminders of historical injustices? Throughout the film, David and Dina challenge the ideological assumptions that underpin the appreciation of these magnificent parks, revealing a complex tapestry woven from both admiration and critique.
Dina, along with others, shifts David’s perspective — and that of the audience — from themonumental scenery within national parks to the Indigenous people who hold them as center of the universe, origin of existence, and foundation for a vibrant future.
