1st Amendment-1st Vote Wins at

2022 Cayuga Film Festival

1st Amendment-1st Vote’s film Honoring Sacred Ground has been named as a winner in the Open Short Documentary category by the 2022 Cayuga Film Festival.

Honoring Sacred Ground is one of five shorts in the educational film series conceived and executive produced by Melina Carnicelli, 1st A-1st V founder, to virtually connect 1stA-1stV students to 11 Central New York women’s rights sites. All video production and post-production of the award-winning series was produced by Peter Rafalow of Notion Pictures, Syracuse NY. The late GRAMMY AWARD winning artist, Joanne Shenandoah, graciously donated use of her original song, “You Can Hear Them Dancing” to the project shortly before her death in 2021.

Carnicelli and Rafalow are pleased and proud to have the project recognized by the Cayuga Film Festival. Carnicelli said, “Our goal with Honoring Sacred Ground, and the entire Virtual Video Visits series, is to educate and inspire viewers about the impact of women leaders on our democracy, especially that of Native American Clan Mothers on the formation of our US system of government. By recognizing this film, Cayuga Film Festival is helping to raise awareness of the sacred ground of Central New York cared-for and honored by the Haudenosaunee for millennia, and who’s acknowledgement as Indigenous leaders has been largely missing from the history books.”

Earlier this year the film received a Silver Telly Award for Online Video: General History. The entire five video series received a Bronze Telly Award for Online Video Series: Education and Discovery. The film series takes viewers on a virtual journey along The Central New York Women’s Rights Corridor, which is credited as the “Birthplace of Women’s Rights in America.”

The Cayuga Film Festival to screen award winning films, Saturday, October 29, Noon-4pm at Auburn Public Theater. The screening is free and open to the public. https://cayugafilmfestival.com/

Watch the Award Winning Film Below