A troubled journalist comes face to face with a legacy of abuse as she investigates the brutal stabbing of a Japanese tourist by a Native American boy in the Grand Canyon. 

SYNOPSIS:

The true story, adapted from Annette McGivney's award-winning memoir "Pure Land," follows a relentless ten-year investigation into the tragic murder of Tomomi Hanamure on the Havasupai Indian Reservation, by a distressed 18-year-old Havasupai youth. At the bottom of the Grand Canyon, on May 8, 2006, Tomomi was stabbed 29 times, 22 times in the face, by a boy who only wanted to rob her. Annette's journalistic investigation brings her full circle to deep buried abuses by her own country doctor father. As she investigates the cycles of institutional abuse in the murder, she comes to recognize the blind spots in her own past.

A young Japanese tourist, Tomomi Hanamure, obsessed with Native American culture, travels repeatedly to the Southwest, (15 times in 9 years) finding solace in the beauty of nature. Sitting in a traditional Hogan for weeks, weaving a Navajo basket, fingers bleeding, she comes to understand a previous way of life. Her ultimate identification with the pure land allows her to forgive Randy in his moment of misplaced rage.

A young Native American boy, Randy “Redtail” Wescogame, is neglected by a system of colonialism that still pervades the reservation through drugs and alcoholism. Both parents absent literally and metaphorically, Randy’s left to fend for himself in a hostile world, ironically located in one of the most beautiful places on earth. At the infamous Havasupai falls, Tomomi and Randy meet in a communion of blood, as old as time itself.

This is a true story of three lives, three cultures and the search for heaven on earth. A compelling tale of a journalistic calling that won't let go and the power of nature to heal. A trust in destiny and a respect for Native American culture leads Tomomi to reconcile with her fate in her final breath, changing everyone in her wake. McGivney comes to incorporate Tomomi’s fearlessness, bonding with her in spirit until she becomes the hero of her own story.

The pure land is spread upon the earth, and we can't see it...