What is Stone Lifting?

Stone Lifting is a sport that exists all over the world.It’s primal and has existed for thousands of years. As long as there have been people there have been lifting stones.

It is a right of passage into adulthood, a way to determine your value on a fishing expedition, bragging rights at the local pub and more.

There are Historic Stones around the world that are steeped in legend and you have the opportunity to lift the same stones as some of the strongest people in history.

These stones are historic artifacts, and could be locked away behind glass in a museum. But they aren’t. We get to use them and shepard them for the generations to come.

Unfortunately though Stone Lifting exists around the world, there is not a record of it in the states.

Why isn’t Stone Lifting in The USA?

Our best guess is that there is a Native people’s tradition in some way, but as their histories are oral, and colonization decimated the population deep research is difficult. We’re making some in roads, but haven’t found anything yet.

We’ve also found a couple stones directly related to the slave trade, and we are NOT going to celebrate those.

Thirdly, while most other countries seem to have stories about people lifting specific stones, here we have stories about people lifting heavy stones but they then put them directly into building foundations and the like. Changing the focus from the stone to the person.

Why did you make this film?

I wanted to showcase the work being done by groups in the states, and specifically NESL to set up Future History.

We are setting stones for the next generation to come and visit. What we are lifting now is not historic, but in 40-50 years it could be.

I also wanted to make a film that captured a specific time and place, this sport is growing in leaps and bounds and it feels timely and important to catalogue it’s growth.

In a world dedicated to getting what you want as quickly as possible, it’s nice to celebrate something that takes time.