Benjamin Bratt is spreading his wings…

The 60-year-old half-Peruvian American actor is executive producing filmmaker Giorgio Ghiotto’s short documentary Wings of Dust.

 Bratt is among a list of new EPs that includes Peter Bratt and Alpita Patel of 5 Stick Films.

The 2023 Student Academy award-winning film tells the story of Vidal Merma, a Peruvian indigenous journalist, who risks his life daily to secure a future where his son, Erik, can savor the simple joy of drinking clean water. Wings of Dust is about a father’s sacrifice, community resilience and the unwavering human spirit in the face of environmental injustice.

The short explores how Indigenous communities, bound to their ancestral lands for centuries, face a new threat from multinational mining companies, echoing a long history of exploitation.

The short documentary won the Gold Medal at the 2023 Student Academy Awards and is being submitted for the Best Documentary Short Film category at the 96th Academy Awards.

Ghiotto is a NYU film & journalism graduate from Italy. He and Eliza Mitnick produced the film.

The Bratts and Patel said: “We couldn’t be more proud and excited to board Wings of Dust as EP’s. Giorgio’s visually stunning work and Vidal’s unflinching courage left us deeply moved and inspired to share this powerful and necessary story of indigenous struggle and resistance with the world.”

As children of the Occupation in the takeover of Alcatraz Island in 1969, the film is deeply personal for the Bratts, as it focuses on the struggle of the Quechua people, which is part of their Peruvian indigenous heritage.

5 Stick Films, which produced the Peabody award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary, Dolores, is dedicated to amplifying native and marginalized voices, believing that an authentic, culturally specific voice is ultimately a universal one.