Sunrise Movement Releases ‘Gone Missing’ by LA Filmmakers, Ethan Paisley and Kiara Ramirez

Sunrise Movement releases Gone Missing, a film about Covid’s effect on missing Navajo people, created by LA Filmmakers Ethan Paisley and Kiara Ramirez

On Friday, March 19, Sunrise Movement released a short film Gone Missing created by local LA filmmakers Ethan Paisley (20) and Kiara Ramirez (22). Gone Missing follows Navajo activist Meskee Yanabah Yatsayte as she searches for her missing uncle during the peak of the pandemic, and shines a light on the intersection between disease and missing and murdered Native people.

The film was shot on-location in Gallup, New Mexico outside the Navajo Nation in August 2020, when the Navajo Nation was experiencing the highest volume of Covid cases in the country. This changed the filmmakers’ plans upon arrival. Filming was prohibited on the actual Navajo Nation, where there was an active construction site that served as a point where many locals reportedly had gone missing. The filmmakers turned to Meskee and the Gallup community to tell their stories, hoping it would fulfill their mission of spreading awareness on why missing cases are so frequent on Indigenous nations, especially during Covid.

“We’re on our own when it comes to searching for our missing. And that needs to change. Covid-19 has put so much pressure on these families because law enforcement isn’t able to provide that help …” says Yatsayte during the last 2 minutes of the film, when describing what it took to search for her uncle. Yatsayte is a co-founder of Navajo Nation Missing Persons Organization, which seeks to help other Navajo families retrace their missing loved ones. She has been recognized for her work in the New York Times and PBS.

This will be the second collaboration of Ethan Paisley and Kiara Ramirez, who produced award-winning micro-budget feature Point 453 in 2017, written about here in the SF Chronicle. 453 debuted at the Cannes Film Market and won best overall film at the San Mauro Torinese Film Festival.

Sunrise Movement is an American 501(c)(4) political action organization that advocates political action on climate change. Since the midterm elections, the organization has been working towards shifting the Overton window on climate policy to center the environmental program known as the Green New Deal. The group has been attracting media attention with their direct actions, such as the Wide Awake series of actions in the summer of 2020, marches, and recent collaboration with the Biden transition team.

FOR QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT: Ethan Paisley | 707.787.7844 | ethanbrookspaisley@gmail.com

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