"Weaving Worlds", a documentary film produced by Leighton C. Peterson, assistant professor of anthropology at Miami University, aired at 9 p.m. Monday, March 16, on ThinkTV 14 Cincinnati PBS. The film aired several times on PBS stations around the country through March. 

"Weaving Worlds," directed by Bennie Klain, highlights the untold stories, personalities, and characters involved in the making and selling of Navajo rugs. The film presents a portrait of economic and cultural survival through the art of weaving in the face of increased globalization.

“Producing a film is an intense, long-term endeavor, and this one took us four years,” said Peterson, who has produced several films broadcast on PBS and is working on another. “It is the ultimate collaborative research project that reaches a large, diverse audience. As an anthropologist, I am always looking at the world ethnographically, but as a filmmaker for PBS, you have to balance not only the needs and voices of the local community, but the voice and artistic considerations of the director, and the legal, business, and technical aspects of producing for public television. I was lucky to be working with an accomplished director who speaks Navajo and is from the community.”

"Weaving Worlds" premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in 2007 in Austin, TX and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Native American Film Festival in San Francisco in 2008. Among other awards, the film was also the winner of the 2nd Rigoberta Menchu Prize for social justice at the First Peoples Film and Video Festival in Montreal, and was given an “Award of Commendation” by the American Anthropological Association/Society for Visual Anthropology.