(WINNER) Return of the Sacred Red Rock

Documentary Film • 55m • Edited in Tulsa, Oklahoma • English • Screen 2 & Screen 3

$12 members, $15 non-members. Includes post-film Q&A in the lobby.

Directed by: Jeremy Charles

After nearly a century apart, the Kaw (Kanza) Nation brings their sacred stone home.

In'zhúje'waxóbe, the Sacred Red Rock, is a massive quartzite boulder that sat for decades in a Lawrence, Kansas park, where it was moved in 1929 to serve as a monument to the city's early founders. In 2021, the Lawrence City Commission unanimously approved the unconditional return of the stone to the Kaw Nation. This film traces the journey home, as the Red Rock travels from Lawrence back to Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park near Council Grove, part of the Kaw Nation's final reservation lands in Kansas before their forced relocation to Indian Territory in 1873.

More than the story of moving an object, this is the rematriation of a living relative. It marks a moment of accountability for the city of Lawrence and a step toward healing for the Kaw people, an act of cooperation between a community and its local government shaped by respect, persistence, and right relationship.

About the Director

Founder of Pursuit Films, Charles has built his career around Indigenous representation as a co-creator, director, and producer of Osiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People, Charles has earned recognition for the docu-series with 30+ regional Emmy Awards, including Best Director in 2017. His narrative short Totsu (Redbird) won top honors at the L.A. Skins Film Festival, the Phoenix Film Festival, and deadCenter Film Festival. He developed the Cherokee-language animated series Inage'i (In the Woods), is a 2020 alumnus of the Native American Media Alliance TV Writers fellowship, and served as co-executive producer on FOX's The Girl Scout Murders.

This is why Jeremy has been chosen as a recipient for a Circle Cinema Walk of Fame medallion. His work reframes and recenters Native people on screen, and along the way it has opened doors for a generation of Oklahoma filmmakers who now see that telling their own stories is possible. He has stayed and built that work here in Tulsa, and the community is better for it. We hop you will join us on the opening night of the Circle Cinema Film Festival, July 15 at 6pm, as we welcome four new honorees to our Walk of Fame, the medallions set into the concrete at our east entrance celebrating Oklahomans who have made significant contributions to the film industry. For more information on the medallion ceremony please visit us here.