Logline
Disconnected from her indigenous roots, a Seattle based podcaster returns to her maternal Rez determined to unearth the mystery surrounding her mother’s death.
Setting
The Lhaq’tmish, the Lummi People are the original inhabitants of Washington State’s northernmost coast and southern British Columbia.
Leaves Awaken is a six part series set on the Salish Sea of Sk’elotses, the Lummi Nation homeland—known for its mercurial beauty, where the forest meets the sea.
Concept
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Synopsis
Throughout the Pacific Northwest, women and girls as young as nine-years-old have disappeared from towns along the I-5 corridor. Their bones erupt from the forest floor or swim free from river beds. The forests that stretch across these regions have born silent witness to this darkness for generations.
Ninety miles to the south, in the growing density of Seattle lives NAYA ADLER, a half indigenous, Jewish, Irish-queer podcaster. When Naya is given her next podcast assignment to cover a bar known to have served infamous serial killers, she turns the job down until she discovers the bar’s close proximity to her maternal Rez, Lummi Nation.
Naya hasn’t been back to Lummi since she was a baby when her mother died. Naya’s arrival on Lummi unearths long-buried truths: PTSD from war and family separation and the disturbing mystery surrounding her mother’s death. Through the help of her Lummi family, Naya learns of the jurisdictional cracks that many Missing and Murdered Indigenous People fall into and discovers how dangerous digging up the past will be.
The Team
Leaves Awaken is a women-led, cross-cultural collaboration.
SHOW CREATOR, PRODUCER & Co-Writer, Beth BASA Pielert
Beth Basa Pielert’s career spans 28 years in the film and gaming industry as a writer/producer/director and editor.
Pielert produced and co-directed Scha'nexw Elhtal'nexw Salmon People: Preserving a Way of Life with Darrell Hillaire and Vision Maker Media. The film, licensed by GBH in November, 2024 is now airing on PBS via WORLD Local U.S.A.
Pielert formed Good Film Works in 2001 while writing & directing, Out of the Poison Tree for PBS, a documentary that explores truth and reconciliation for survivors of the Cambodian Genocide. Some of her credits include award-winning films such as The Corporation, winner of 24 international Awards, including the Sundance Audience Award, and Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial, winner of the Alternative Spirit Award and Best Documentary at the Palm Springs ShortFest.
Pielert was the Video Director at EA|Visceral Games directing behind the scenes documentaries and marketing trailers for Dead Space 2 & 3, Army of Two and Battlefield Hardline.
Pielert is a Rainer Screenwriting Fellow for her pilot script, Leaves Awaken, a thriller series set on Sk’elotses the homelands of the Lummi Nation currently in development.
CO-PRODUCER, Darrell Hillaire
Darrell Hillaire (Lummi Nation) is the Founder and Executive Producer of Children of the Setting Sun Productions (CSSP) a Bellingham based non-profit with the mission to:
create and share Indigenous stories of gratitude, generosity, respect and responsibility. We seek to empower the minds and hearts of future generations.
Hillaire produced and co-directed Scha'nexw Elhtal'nexw Salmon People: Preserving a Way of Life with Beth Pielert in collaboration with Vision Maker Media.
Prior to CSSP, Darrel founded the Lummi Youth Academy, providing live-in learning and college preparation.
Darrell and team are dedicated to creating work that reflects the beauty, times and challenges that the Salish people face which includes the play: What About Those Promises and the documentary films: Tell the Truth and the short film, The Salmon People. In addition to the books: Beginnings and Jesintel, CSSP produces the award winning Young and Indigenous Podcast (YAI) currently available on Spotify and Apple.
Co-Writer, Marie Clements
Marie Clements (Metis/Dene) is an award-winning writer, director and producer who has carved her brand of independent story-making in a variety of mediums including film, t.v., radio, and live performance.
As a writer/director/producer her films have showcased on some of the most prestigious film festivals including: The Cannes International Film Festival, The Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs International Film Festival, Imaginative Film Festival and The Vancouver International Film Festival.
Her live performance works have showcased nationally and internationally including productions at The National Arts Centre, The Festival des Ameriques, and The Push International Performance Festival. Clements is dedicated to the craft of story and brings her diverse experience as a performer, film-maker and theatre-maker to the world of inter-related voice and vision. Her company MCM is an independent media production company based in Vancouver that specializes in the development, creation and production of innovative works of media that ignite an Indigenous and intercultural reality.
Writing Consultant & Social Worker, P.C. Hillaire
P.C. Hillaire has been a social worker for over two decades, focusing on the welfare of Lummi children in the foster care system. Her work has resulted in new laws that protect both Native children and grandparents, keeping families together when circumstances mandate that a child must be removed from a parent. Hillaire is a mother, a grandmother and a poet. She brings an important perspective on the need to speak out, to stop violence against Native women, and to promote the importance of healing.
Director of Photography, Jordyn Roach
Jordyn Roach is a talented Director of Photography. She has photographed three independent feature films, working in the unpredictable Pacific Northwest including: Off the Beaten Path, Mount Adams, and Last Hero. Raised in the PNW, she has a deep-rooted relationship with the vast forests, history and rain of the region that reveals itself in the styling and details of her cinematic work. Most recently, an appetite for adventurous filmmaking sent her on a journey in 2018 through 8 European countries documenting an AI thought leader's campaign as a YouTube series Moving Humanity Forward.
writer, noelani Kanuha auguston
Noelani Kanuha Auguston (Bumatay-Jefferson) is a member of the Shxhwa:y Village of the Stol:o Nation, Nooksack and Kanaka Maoli. Wife and mother of one, she works and resides in the Pacific Northwest Coast corner of Bellingham, WA on her traditional homelands.
In 2014, Noelani received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington, Seattle. As a 2020 graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, in Santa Fe, NM, she earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing with a focus in Screenwriting.
She is a full-time screenwriter with Children of the Setting Sun Productions and runs her own business, the Noelani Kanuha Creative. Noelani writes to give an authentic worldview behind stories that represent indigenous peoples, especially those of the Salish Sea.
