The story of three Oklahoma sisters and their mother who travel to Los Angeles through a 1950s relocation program that gave Native Americans the opportunity to become “civilized” by getting jobs in urban centres. When they arrive, they begin to understand that like many east-to-west dreams, the reality is not the new beginning they sought. Abandoned by government policy and in acute poverty, they begin to search for their own, finding community in “the tombs” – the cemented riverways of LA. It is here that tragedy strikes, and the lives of the children separate down three very different paths before emerging in 1970s Los Angeles – weaving together one telling, one flood.

Marie Clements returns to CIFF with with a film that feels like an extension of her previous film BONES OF CROWS (2022). Continuing to share multi-threaded stories of North American Indigenous life experience in the continent's not too distant past. Based on Marie Clements' play TOMBS OF THE VANISHING INDIAN, HOW WE STAND is truly epic storytelling.