The Blessing

The Film

Personal and crucial, The Blessing follows a Navajo coal miner raising his secretive daughter as a single father, struggling with his part in the irreversible destruction of their sacred mountain at the hands of America's largest coal producer.

The Blessing is a feature-length documentary film, co-directed by the award winning filmmaking team Jordan Fein and Hunter Robert Baker. Written and Edited by world renowned Academy Member Editor Ricardo Acosta, C.C.E. (Marmato, The Silence of Others, Herman's House), Original Score by Kevin Kiner (Netflix's Making A Murderer and AMC's Hell On Wheels), and Sound Design by Emmy Award Winner Joanna Fang (Cartel Land).

Made with support from the International Documentary Association and the Points North Institute, and captured over the course of five years, the filmmakers join a Navajo family for some of the most deeply personal and important moments in the character’s lives, from a miner enduring a life threatening injury and confronting the deep spiritual sacrifice he makes to provide for his family. To a young Navajo woman discovering her inner identity and managing the expectations of her traditional father, while playing on the men’s varsity football team and being crowned homecoming queen.

First and foremost a character-driven film, The Blessing brings the search for acceptance to broad audiences through the unprecedented and intimate access the filmmakers have been given to this underreported social and environmental story on the Navajo Nation.

“Evocative…breathtakingly gorgeous…captures the instability and yearning of working-class life…has all the visual poetry of the best movies about small-town America.”

“This is a story of resilience and perseverance, but ultimately a story of pain and loss of identity. It’s haunting and powerful.”

“Exquisite…brings a bright moral compass to a dark world.”

“Inspiring”

“Wonderful”

“Poignant”

Awards

World Premiere — Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, April 7, 2018