Synopsis

"THE SNOWBOWL EFFECT"
When Recreation and Culture Collide

A documentary by Klee Benally

Approximate Run Time: 55 Minutes
Format: Digital Video


The San Francisco Peaks stand high above the northern Arizona landscape, a
forested refuge rising over 5,000 feet above the Colorado Plateau, south of
the Grand Canyon and just north of the small city of Flagstaff.

Since time immemorial the San Francisco Peaks have been held sacred by over
13 Native American tribes. These nations have revered "the peaks" as the
home of their deities, a place to gather special herbs, a place of emergence
and, for tribes like the Navajo and Hopi, this mountain is deeply rooted in
essence of their ways of life.


In spite of strong tribal opposition, The San Francisco Peaks have endured a history of development. Although tribal leaders, environmentalists and then Secretary of the
Interior, Bruce Babbitt, successfully stopped mining activities in the late 1990s, the
struggles to protect the sacred mountain are not over.

Today, the sacred mountain is part of public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which
includes winter recreation in its mission by leasing out 777 acres
of the mountain to the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort.

The Snowbowl Effect explores the controversy surrounding the recently proposed
ski resort expansion and snowmaking with wastewater on the San Francisco
Peaks as Native American tribal officials and spiritual leaders, Forest Service officials, and concerned citizens discuss the issues: sacred lands protection, public health concerns associated with groundbreaking studies on wastewater, economic misconceptions, threats to the environment, global warming and a small community caught in the conflict.

With input from biologists, economists, tribal officials and traditional
practitioners, ski resort representatives, environmentalists and a former
U.S. secretary of the Interior, The Snowbowl Effect is a clear and moving documentary that is sure to inspire and inform.

Director/Editor Klee Benally (Project Director of Indigenous Action Media,
Guitarist/Vocalist of the award winning group Blackfire, and dancer with the
internationally acclaimed Jones Benally Family) offers a compelling and moving view of
contemporary conflicts between the U.S. Forest Service, Native American
sacred sites, the environment and business interests.