Advocate Presents Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Film Monday

In the summer of 2014, filmmaker and advocate Miho Aida bicycled more than 1,000 miles from Seattle to San Francisco, sharing her landmark film, “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins – Gwich’in Women Speak,” about the Gwich’in and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on a portable theater with people she met along the way.

This summer Miho is replicating her inspiring trek on the east coast – riding 1,000-plus miles from Washington, D.C. to Bar Harbor, ME.

This year, Aida plans to bike 1,000 miles and reach 1,000 allies. Bicycling up the East Coast means much to Aida who says that it is not only environmentally friendly, but breaks down barriers of how film tours generally operate – one woman, one bicycle.

Along the way, Miho will share her film with and engage hundreds of people if not more, asking audiences to support Wilderness for the Arctic Refuge and its Coastal Plain. The Coastal Plain is the calving and nursing ground for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, upon which the Gwich’in people have depended for millennia. To them, the Arctic Refuge truly is “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.”

Earlier this year, President Obama called on Congress to protect the Arctic Refuge as Wilderness. The Arctic Refuge is wild, spectacular and belongs to all Americans.

WHAT: “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins – Gwich’in Women Speak” film tour. An inspiring bike trek through 11 states along the northeast coast in support of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, beginning in Washington, DC and continuing through: Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine – with a stop near you!

WHEN/WHERE: Monday, July 13, 5:30 p.m., New England College Concord, 62 N. Maine St. Concord.

WHO: Miho Aida, originally from Tokyo, Japan, is a filmmaker, environmental educator and outdoor adventurer living in California. She is recognized for her inspirational project called “If She Can Do It, You Can Too: Empowering Women Through Outdoor Role Models” dedicated to promoting media representation of diverse women who develop powerful social, environmental and human rights movements within the backdrop of nature. Her first film, “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins – Gwich’in Women Speak” was produced as a part of this project. The film received first place in documentary film at the 2015 Central Illinois Feminist Film Festival, the Audience Choice Award at the 2014 Earth Port Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 2013 American Indian Film Festival.

Caption: Left to Right: Sarah James- Gwich’in Leader, Robby Romero – Native singer & songwriter, Bill Clinton & Miho Aida –director. Credit: Robert Thorpe