Film Series Examines Racial Justice Amid Access to Outdoor Spaces

Nature, Community and Racial Justice Intersect in Northwest’s ‘Movies with a Mission’

WE'RE EXCITED to invite you to the next installment of Northwest's “Movies with a Mission” series! From January 20 - February 2, you’re invited to watch two films: Black Ice and Spirit of the Peaks.

The films address racial justice, access to outdoor spaces, the role of community and our responsibilities to planet earth. 

A Virtual Conversation

Wednesday, February 2, 7 - 8:30 p.m. (Zoom link »)
JOIN THE Northwest School community in virtual conversation with three esteemed panelists:

• Malik Martin (filmmaker, Black Ice)
• Connor Ryan (Hunkpapa Lakota and skier who appears in Spirit of the Peaks)
• Tasheea Nicholson (author, Camping Noire: The Black Girls Guide to Surviving a Weekend Unplugged)

Zoom Panel
The panelists will discuss the intersections of racial justice, access to outdoor spaces and experiences, and community-building through experiences in the outdoors. The online event, available here via Zoom on February 2, is open to the entire Northwest School community, including family and friends. 

Watch the Films

FREE ACCESS to the films is available at the links below beginning January 20:

• Black Ice (2020) — Told through the eyes of Malik Martin and Chris Dean, Black Ice follows a crew of aspiring ice climbers from the Memphis Rox gym as they travel to the frozen wilds of Montana, where mentors Manoah Ainuu, Conrad Anker, and Fred Campbell share their love of winter adventure in the mountains.
• Spirit of the Peaks (2021) — Spirit of the Peaks explores the struggle for balance between two worlds. Skiing in Ute tribal territory has always raised questions for Hunkpapa Lakota skier Connor Ryan about being in reciprocity with the land and its people. As a skier who connects with the land through sport, he empathizes with the injustices that have displaced the Utes amid ongoing colonization, erasure, and extraction impacting the tribe. This story connects conflicted pasts to an awakening in cultural awareness with the hope of creating an equitable future for Indigenous people and skiers.

CBS This Morning profiled Black Ice and filmmaker Malik Martin.

Watch the trailer for Spirit of the Peaks, produced by REI.

Meet Our Speakers

Johnathan “Malik” Martin is a Memphis native who has dedicated the past five years to telling different stories from his community. Every image he captures is filled with love. Early in his career, he got to ask a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer one question: "What makes a good photographer?" The

Meet Our Speakers

Johnathan “Malik” Martin is a Memphis native who has dedicated the past five years to telling different stories from his community. Every image he captures is filled with love. Early in his career, he got to ask a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer one question: "What makes a good photographer?" The photographer answered, “A great photographer photographs what he loves. Because you love it, you will never make it look bad.”

Malik's love for Memphis and his community inspires him to capture some of the city's historic moments. You can count on him to capture “the shot” as long as he still has his eyes and — more importantly — his lens.

Connor Ryan is a proud Hunkpapa Lakota and professional skier, activist, and storyteller. Connor was born and raised on the Arapaho, Cheyenne and Ute homelands at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. He considers these places among his biggest inspirations and closest relatives.

Featured in the film, Spirit of the Peaks, Connor seeks to decolonize, reconnect and learn to better honor all his relations through adventure and activism. Skiing is his dance and his prayer, a ceremony of its own. The Lakotas' traditional ecological knowledge helps Connor understand the value of the sacred land and water on which we ski, in deeper and tangible ways.

Tasheea Nicholson is a passionate entrepreneur, event planner, women’s health advocate, menstrual health educator, author and outdoor enthusiast. In 2019, after 12 years of professional success, she decided to pursue another path to broaden her reach and impact. She discovered undefined paths can give way to clarity surrounding one’s life purpose. In the first 90 days of her “new” life, she began crafting the concepts for her first book — Camping Noire: The Black Girls Guide to Surviving a Weekend Unplugged — in response to the mistaken notion that Black women don’t camp. She quickly realized that she was embarking on a movement that would help Black and Brown women reconnect with themselves while addressing mental health challenges head-on by returning to nature. 

Tasheea was born and raised in Philadelphia but has spent the last 15 years in New Jersey. She is a certified doula and proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She graduated from Villanova University with a B.S. in Business Administration. 

Goal of ‘Movies with a Mission’

The Northwest School's movie series aims to build community and belonging by creating shared experiences to pique curiosity and inspire informed action within our community. Following a shared movie experience, we engage in informal community conversations with renowned experts working on diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental sustainability, and cross-cutting global perspectives. We hope to further strengthen the connections between these areas of engagement — an integral part of Northwest's mission.

History

Our first “Movies with a Mission” event of 2021-2022 focused on the film Coded Bias, and brought together a panel of guest speakers from academia, local government and curriculum design to discuss artificial intelligence, racial bias and connections to climate change. Guest speakers included:

• Sam Cho, Port of Seattle Commissioner
• Anna Lauren Hoffmann, Assistant Professor, the Information School, University of Washington
• Belicia Smith, learning designer, facilitator and consultant in K-12 equity and anti-racism work