The Project

Rising Voices / Hótȟaŋiŋpi is a documentary project produced by Florentine Films/Hott Productions, in association with The Language Conservancy. Released in 2015, the film is part of a broader, ongoing effort to understand and support Indigenous Language Revitalization.

Centered on the Lakota language, the film explores how shifts in education, media, and daily life have shaped language use across generations. Rather than focusing on loss alone, Rising Voices highlights the strength, knowledge, and commitment of Lakota speakers, teachers, and families who are working to carry their language forward.

While the experiences shared in the film are specific to the Lakota Nation, they reflect a reality faced by many Indigenous communities in North America and beyond. It also highlights the enduring work of revitalization led by communities themselves. Rising Voices invites viewers to listen, learn and better understand themselves. Rising Voices invites viewers to listen, learn, and better understand why language matters, not only as communication, but as culture, identity and relationship.

The menace is the English language, and the victim seemingly marked for extinction is the Lakota language itself – the language of the Lakota nation, once usually called the Sioux. For the Lakota people, it’s a local problem, but it’s just one instance of a massive global one – a worldwide epidemic of language extinction.