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The Return of Navajo Boy (2000)

The Return of Navajo Boy (2000)

Documentary
Release Date: 2000, January 28
Directors: Jeff Spitz
Cast: Lorenzo Begay, Elsie Mae Cly Begay, John Wayne Cly

Overview:

An official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and PBS, The Return of Navajo Boy is an internationally acclaimed documentary that reunited a Navajo family and triggered a federal investigation into uranium contamination. It tells the story of Elsie Mae Begay, whose history in pictures reveals an incredible and ongoing struggle for environmental justice. A powerful new epilogue (produced in 2008) shows how the film and Groundswell Educational Films outreach campaign create news and rally supporters including Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA). The Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform mandated a clean-up plan by the five agencies responsible for uranium contamination. Ironically, the US EPA's Comprehensive Five-Year Plan did not include Ms. Begay's backyard, until she travelled with this film to Washington, DC and screened it on Capitol Hill in September, 2008.