ONE SMALL CANDLE
One Small Candle is the collaboration of footage done over three missions trips to Native American reservations in New York, Florida, Arizona, and South Dakota. When I went on a trip to a native reservation in March of 2010, I was awakened to many problems that i knew were widely overlooked. I've made some awesome friends on these reservations, and I hope to be back soon. I'm not much of a film maker, but I felt God telling me to empty my life savings to buy a video camera. So that's what happened. I'm hoping to start a missions organization around the concept of going to reservations to socialize more than evangelize, and to truly attempt to love the Native Americans instead of pushing ultimatums on them.
This film was difficult for many reasons. First, planning fruitful missions trips while being a full time college student and trying to pay my bills. Secondly, Native Americans are extremely camera shy for many good reasons. Many people have pretended they were helping or doing a service in some way, but many of them end up making films or news reports on Native Americans that only show the negative side of everything on the reservation. So naturally, it’s difficult for them to trust us. I was also using a DSLR camera, primarily used for taking pictures. I’m also not an experienced videographer/director or filmmaker by any means. So filming and editing was quite a learning experience!
I really hope this film changes the world. I want so badly for Native Americans to be loved, and not viewed as such a fringe of society or second class citizens. In the bible, there’s talk about the importance of healing our land, and I believe this reconciliation is an important part of the process..
steven berkenkemper,
director
