Jalena Keane-Lee’s ‘Standing Above the Clouds’ Takes Audiences Beyond Headlines and Frontlines of Land-Protection Activism (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Jennie Punter Process documentaries following Indigenous land protectors are typically endurance tests for filmmakers, not to mention protagonists.

But the payoff is that these films often resonate strongly with audiences in their ability to take viewers beyond the headlines and frontlines in profound and intimate ways.

One of several strong land-activism docs looking for buyers at Hot Docs this year is Jalena Keane-Lee’s feature-directing bow “Standing Above the Clouds.” The film follows three Native Hawaiian families over six years as they work alongside a growing coalition of local and international supporters to protect Mauna Kea (a dormant volcano on Hawaii’s largest island) from further development—specifically, a project to build the massive Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on the sacred mountain’s arid summit, which is the site of the world’s largest astronomical observatory. “I was raised by an activist mom within a community of strong women, which was definitely an initial spark,” Keane-Lee told Variety in an exclusive in-person interview in advance of the film’s warmly received premiere on Sunday in Hot Docs’ International Competition program.

She and producer Amber Espinosa-Jones, who joined the project early on, are childhood friends and were both members of a Bay Area social-justice dance theater company that was the subject of a documentary. “That experience taught me the importance of communication with participants and their inclusion in the process,” said Keane-Lee.