Welcome to a special Inwood Film Festival Artist Spotlight episode featuring the post screening conversation which followed the award-winning feature documentary The Good Mind with filmmaker Gwendolen Cates, and Tom Porter, a spiritual leader of the Mohawk Community.

The Indigenous sovereign Onondaga Nation – the Central Fire of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy – follows the Great Law of Peace, never accepted U.S. citizenship, has its own passport, and still maintains a traditional government led by Clanmothers and Chiefs, one of the world’s first true democracies that inspired the Founding Fathers and the women's suffrage movement. The film spotlights the Onondaga Nation’s tireless environmental advocacy and their legal battle with the U.S. over ancestral land taken by New York State in violation of a 1794 treaty with George Washington.

For those who have not seen the film, enjoy a trailer of the film followed by a candid interview with Inwood Art Works Founder and Executive Producer, Aaron Simms which followed the 2025 Inwood Film Festival presentation of The Good Mind.