PTFF Pics is a monthly program put on by the Port Townsend Film Festival. Your ticket purchase supports our organization and the filmmaker, as half of all ticket sales go straight to the filmmaker! Thank you for supporting the arts and independent film.

A poor, rural Oklahoma town has never had running water. No kitchen faucets, no showers, no plumbing. Most houses are little more than shacks. Demoralized families don’t trust each other or even their own thinking. It’s 1980. Wilma Mankiller and community organizer, Charlie Soap, join forces to battle opposition and engage volunteers to build a 16-mile waterline. Together, they spark a reawakening of universal indigenous values of reciprocity and inter-connectedness. The project also leads to romance and sparked a movement of similar self-help projects across Indian Country that continues today. Her capacity for organizing and building bridges led Wilma Mankiller to win election as the first female to lead the Cherokee Nation.

The Cherokee Word for Water screened at the 2016 Port Townsend Film Festival and we are delighted to be offering this encore screening.

Included in this screening is a conversation with PTFF Executive Director, Janette Force, Director, Charlie Soap, and actress, Kimberly Guerrero.