How We Stand

Tombs interweaves the triangular arcs of three Oklahoma sisters and their mother as they relocate to Los Angeles under a 1950s program that offered Native Americans the chance to 'civilize' themselves by securing jobs in urban centers. Upon arrival, they discover that, like many east-to-west dreams, the reality is not the new beginning they sought. Abandoned by government policy and mired in acute poverty, they begin to search for their own home, finding it in 'the tombs'—the cemented riverways of LA. It is here a young mother is killed, and the sisters' lives split into three very different paths that emerge in 1970s Los Angeles—weaving together one telling, one flood.