Hazy Valley

Kizh Tribal biologist Matthew Teutimez, an expert on California medicinal plants, works hard to preserve native ecosystems in his homeland throughout the Los Angeles basin. His cousin Andrew Salas, Tribal Chairman of the Kizh Nation Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians, monitors an ancestral burial site, which has been discovered in Downtown L.A.. In a place famous through film and television around the world, the two cousins are fighting for visibility for over 10.000 years of Indigenous history. Far away from Kizh homeland, Matt’s nephew Joseph injures himself at the Soccer Academy of Bundesliga team Schalke 04, prompting a visit from Matt. On his stopover in L.A.’s sister city Berlin, Matt will retrieve an ancient document about the Kizh language. The Berlin Ethnological Museum is his next hot lead to the colonial transfer of Kizh heritage. The 90-min. feature documentary traces Indigenous Los Angeles through unexpected connections to Germany, challenging the ‘California Dream’ and its colonialist narratives.