In Between Worlds

A Documentary Film

Amidst climate chaos, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe fights to keep a sacred promise to return their ancestral Chinook salmon to California waters, just as salmon runs across the world are collapsing. Guided by Chief Caleen Sisk, they must journey to Aotearoa New Zealand where miraculously, the genetic descendants of their salmon survived.

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Heart of the story

Amidst climate chaos, the Winnemem Wintu—a tiny California tribe—fights to keep a sacred promise to return their ancestral winter-run Chinook salmon to the waters of California, even as salmon runs across the world are collapsing.

After decades of struggle and resistance, in 2004, the tribe rediscovered the genetic descendants of their salmon halfway across the world in the glacier-fed waters of Aotearoa New Zealand. This astonishing fact was foretold by a Winnemem Wintu prophecy and confirmed by genetic testing.

Now, Chief Caleen Sisk must pass on the sacred responsibility of speaking up for the salmon to the next generation of young leaders as they work to bring together two indigenous nations (The Winnemem Wintu and Kāi Tahu Māori), two governments (United States and New Zealand), and two species (humans and salmon).

This isn’t a story about a fish. It’s a story about returning home.

A Film By

Michael Preston

Masha Karpoukhina

DIRECTOR

Rose Wyatt

Masha Karpoukhina

PRODUCER

Pippa Ehrlich, Tasha Van Zandt

& Random Good Films

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Justin LaFleur

Masha Karpoukhina

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Eiko Jones

UNDERWATER

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Stills from the film

Supported by

Impact

In Between Worlds is a story at the heart of a movement led by the Winnemem Wintu Tribe of Northern California and the Kāi Tahu Maori of Aotearoa New Zealand. It means LandBack, cultural & spiritual revitalization, building a volitional passage around Shasta Dam, and the recognition of salmon as the sentient beings that they are with legal rights and protections.

“Whatever happens to the salmon, happens to us.”

CALEEN SISIK

Chief & Spiritual Leader, The Winnemem Wintu Tribe

"For too long, our voice—the true voice of our people—has remained unheard, our authentic stories untold to the wider world. This documentary is more than a retelling of events; it's an act of preservation. This story needs to be told; we have traveled the world to tell it.”

MICHAEL PRESTON

Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Co-Director of "In Between Worlds"

The Promise of Nur

Nur means Salmon.

In the Winnemem Wintu Creation Story, Nur gave people the greatest gift. The gift of voice. And in return, people promised to always use it to speak up for the salmon.

Nur are the Greatest Givers. Over 157 other species, from bears, to orcas, to humans, to redwood trees, depend on them for survival. Their effect on our planet is profound as they feed everyone along the way on their epic, thousands of miles journey from the headwaters where they are born, to the ocean, and back again.

Protect salmon and you protect forests, food, water, animals and humans.

Salmon: A vanishing species

The ancestors of today's salmon, the salmonid family, evolved 50-100 million years ago.

The Pacific Salmon as we know them today are at least 6 million years old and far predate the emergence of homosapiens.

The salmon have seen ice ages come and go and survived them, but they may not survive us.

Today, their runs are on the brink of extinction not just in California, but globally.

Urgency & Impact

In an unprecedented move, California declared the 2025 season for all commercial and recreational salmon fishing dead for the third year in a row.

Some of the last remaining salmon runs in the world are collapsing due to climate change, industrial agriculture and dams. Among them, the Nur in Aotearoa New Zealand.

To have a chance at rewilding, we must take action now.

Follow the journey

Support the community by purchasing wearable art designed, produced and created by the Winnemem Wintu.

Every piece funds LandBack, salmon return, and sacred renewal.

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