WAR PARTY MOVEMENT
WAR PARTY RANCH - SHORT
Native Women are 10x more likely to be murdered than any race of women in our country. The red handprint covering the mouth is the symbol of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement. It stands for all the missing women and girls whose voices are not heard, and for the silence of the media and law enforcement amidst the crisis. The next time someone says one person can’t make a change, I will tell them the story of Jeremiah Wilber. Jeremiah was raised by a Mescalero Apache mother that devoted her life to helping Native women escape abusive households. He was just 4 years old when he witnessed her strength and bravery at work. She drove out to a trailer and banged on the door with a red baseball bat. He heard things crashing inside and his mom yelling, then her coming out with a Native girl and a baby. She loaded them all in the car and drove to a church. That’s all he remembers and all he needs to - she was a badass warrior unafraid of anything. With the warrior mindset in his blood, Jeremiah spent 22 years serving as a Green Beret then was helping Native families conduct investigations when he realized how broken the system was. Survivors of abuse had no safe environment to turn to once leaving their abusive household. That’s how War Party was born. Jeremiah & Mikah teamed up and started the nonprofit organization to create long term solutions & empowering female survivors of abuse to break the cycle and develop transferable, employable skills for the real world of ranching, agriculture, and horsemanship. __I couldn’t help but have my hands shaking from anger at how horrifying the statistics are behind MMIW. I never get emotional on set but I cried during every interview. The only word to describe what’s happening to these women is gut-wrenching. I wish we could have spent more time because their story deserves far more attention than this video.To all at War Party: thank you for your bravery, vulnerability, and strength. You have my utmost respect and are my greatest inspirations. Thank you to the talented team behind making this. Honored to be able to tell part of this story.
Director: Brooklyn Phillips
Production: Lesette Maxwell
Director of Photography: Max Aldrich
Color: Taylor Finlay
