A new film, \u2018The Blessing,\u2019 from directors Hunter Robert Baker and Jordan Fein, follows Lawrence, a Navajo coal miner, who struggles with working for one of America\u2019s largest coal producers and keeping true to his culture as his job makes him a part of the destruction of Black Mesa, a mountain sacred to his people.<\/p>\n
As a single father who was forced into a fostering program with a white family when he was 9-years-old, the film captures Lawrence\u2019s efforts to build a stronger relationship with his sensitive and quiet daughter who juggles high school life and academic dreams with deep secrets about her own identity.<\/p>\n
Fein said the film captures more or less the last years of the Navajo Generating Station and the Kayenta Mine \u2014 the directors spent many hours in both places with Lawrence \u2014 and, with the political climate around coal and its demise, they knew there would be a story there, but what they show is not the political side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what you\u2019ll see in our film is where it hit closest was home and in the personal,\u201d Fein said. \u201cI think that\u2019s why people have really been drawn to this film. It\u2019s not necessarily an overview of politics\u2026 or of economic issues. It\u2019s about where do people intersect with those issues. What happens to communities that have change happen through external forces?\u201d<\/p>\n
For the directors, it was not so much about why they wanted to tell the story. For them the question was, why did Lawrence want to tell his story?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you make a documentary, it\u2019s about trust,\u201d Fein said. \u201cWhy does someone let you into their homes, into their lives, into the intimate corners of their minds?\u201d<\/p>\n