top of page
Ambulance Driver Distance edit.jpg

PHOENIX

FILM FESTIVAL

WINNER

BEST SHORT

Award Nominee

BIG SKY

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

RIVERSIDE IFF

WINNER

BEST SHORT

WINNER

BEST SHORT

SOUTH DAKOTA

FILM FESTIVAL

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

2021

BIG SKY

Award Nominee

“A Beautiful Story...”

"The film does such a good job at enabling people to have a place to enter a conversation..."

- Rachel Gregg, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Director

The Bears on Pine Ridge (Short)

Short Documentary   |  39 min  |  Unavailable

 

 

Directed by

Noel Octavio Bass

 

Executive Producer

Sonny Skyhawk

Co-Producer

Miroslava Gonzalez

 

"The Bears on Pine Ridge," was originally released as a compelling and poignant short documentary project, capturing a story of hope and resilience within an isolated Native American community on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This award-winning cinematic piece offers viewers unprecedented access to a State-of-Emergency unfolding in South Dakota, where the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe is grappling with a deeply troubling youth mental health crisis. With little to no assistance from the Federal Government, the burden of healing their community falls upon the resilient residents of Pine Ridge.

As a short film, TBOPR won several awards for best short documentary, including the Phoenix Film Festival, South Dakota Film Festival, and earned an award nomination from the prestigious Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The film drew the attention of Vision Maker Media, who partnered with Bass and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to help bring a longer feature film version, to be released in Fall 2023. 

Reviews

Golden Sky Background.jpg

AmDocs

2021

FILM FESTIVAL

“A Must-See”

Listed in Top 8 films out of 250 by Teddy Grouya, 2021 AmDocs Film Festival, Director

"I think it's beautiful..."

"...to see a community working to heal itself... there’s a lot of joy in your film…these youth, these young people are taking their experiences and trying to break the cycle.”

- Chloe Gbai - Director, IF/Then Shorts

LANAFF

2021

FILM FESTIVAL

PENDANCE

2021

FILM FESTIVAL

“A Powerful Film”

"This film...it's been a really big part of our film festival...it's an important film." - Robert Misovic, 2021 Pendance Film Festival, Director  

"This is a solution oriented film..."

“Thank you for sharing this beautiful and important work and I encourage everyone to go see it in the festival.” - Caitlin Mae Burke - Supervising Producer - IF/Then Shorts

“Your film honors us as Native Americans...”

"...for the depth of its message and its artistic and technological quality. Your film demonstrates clearly that there is no shortage of good people doing good things in the world."  - Carlos A. Torres, 2021 Latino and Native American Film Festival, Director  

'The Bears on Pine Ridge' (2023)

Learn more about the feature length film, releasing this Fall in 2023.

bottom of page