EXCLUSIVE: Concourse Media has launched world sales rights during the virtual AFM on social impact drama-thriller On Sacred Ground, starring William Mapother, David Arquette, Amy Smart, Kerry Knuppe, Frances Fisher, Irene Bedard and Mariel Hemingway.
Directed by Josh and Rebecca Tickell, the film is based on the true 2016 events during the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline that runs through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota on land that is owned by the Lakota “Sioux” Tribe. We’re told that the filmmakers worked alongside the Sioux tribe to ensure their depiction of the events to ensure their story was accurately told.
Pic was written by the Tickells (Kiss The Ground) and Lost actor Mapother.
The film follows Daniel (Mapother), a journalist and Afghanistan War veteran, and Elliot (Arquette), an oil company executive, who find themselves on opposite sides of the fight during the construction of the contentious pipeline. As the story unfolds, Daniel starts to align himself more with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe than the oil company he was hired to write about favorably, and the two characters go down separate paths as the events unfold during one of the most heated protests and confrontation with Native American tribes in modern US history.
Protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline occurred at several places because of concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the environment and to sites sacred to Native Americans. Indigenous nations around the country opposed the pipeline, along with the Sioux tribal nations. In North Dakota, next to and on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, nearly 15,000 people from around the world protested, staging a sit-in for months.
Producers are the Tickells under their Big Picture Ranch banner and Slated. Concourse Media will presenting the film to international distributors this week, and to domestic distributors early next year in conjunction with the film’s festival play. Previously known as Heartland, producers showed an early cut of the film in 2020 at the Sedona International Film Festival.
“On the surface, On Sacred Ground is about the conflict over a cross-continent oil pipeline which crosses the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. On a deeper level, the film is about a clash of ecological and cultural issues and the powerful humanity that binds us all together. With the global climate in disarray, there has never been a more important moment to tell this story,” said directors Josh and Rebecca Tickell.
“On Sacred Ground explores the moral dilemma that divides capitalist endeavors, while delivering an enthralling dramatic thriller that will entertain and enlighten audiences,” added Matt Shreder, CEO of Concourse Media. “We look forward to presenting the film to distributors in the coming weeks.