Songs for the Returning

World PREMIERE

Doc Short | USA | 26 MIN 37 Sec | English

Director: Alana Minkler, Paul Ghusar

As a tribal leader fights to reclaim his ancestor’s sacred baskets from UC Berkeley, his struggle exposes a broader battle over repatriation of ancestral remains.

CAST & CREDITS

Director

Alana Minkler, Paul Ghusar

DIRECTORS STATEMENT

Before I attended UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, I was the first and only Indigenous reporter at the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California. When a story landed on my desk about the University of California system’s failure to repatriate sacred artifacts and ancestral remains, I noted that UC Berkeley had the biggest unrepatriated collection of any educational institution in the United States. When I decided to pursue my master’s degree in documentary filmmaking there, I realized that I needed to hold my own school accountable, later finding out that their museum holds 60 of my ancestor’s skeletal remains in their basement.

My thesis partner, Paul Ghusar, and I decided we wanted to pursue this film in a style of observational mixed with stylized elements, withholding the further voyeurism of these sacred objects.

DIRECTORS BIO

Alana Minkler is a Navajo and Jewish documentary filmmaker whose passion lies in directing and producing stories with a focus on Indigenous voices. before she received her master’s degree at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, she was an education reporter at the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California. She made the shift to visual storytelling in pursuit of more in-depth reporting and creative expression.

Paul Ghusar is a Punjabi American documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Oakland, CA and a graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. His work blends investigative reporting with cinematic storytelling focused on identity, politics, and cultural memory. He has received two Hearst Journalism Awards and an award from the White House News Photographers Association for narrative and visual storytelling.