Taking its inspiration from director Werner Herzog's concept of "ecstatic truth" and recalling D.W. Griffith's silent film classic Intolerance, poet/historian Walter Hildebrandt's ambitious new book of poems is a searing denunciation of the exploitation of the poor and powerless at the hands of the wealthy. In forceful, unadorned language, Hildebrandt draws a clear line from historical outrages such as the Dakota Wars of the 19th century and the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike to injustices in present-day England, Cuba, and Canada.

Documentaries urges readers to confront stories that are hiding in plain sight, but which are in danger of being lost when their truth goes unspoken.

Historian and poet Walter Hildebrant was born in Brooks, Alberta and now lives in Edmonton. He has worked as an historian for Parks Canada and as a consultant to the Treaty 7 Tribal Council, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and the Banff Bow Valley Task Force. He is co-author of The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7 and The Cypress Hills: The Land and Its People, and author of Views From Battleford: Constructed Visions of an Anglo-Canadian West. His long poem Sightings was nominated for the 1992 McNally-Robinson Book of the Year for Manitoba. His book Where the Land Gets Broken won the Stephen G. Stephensson Award for Poetry in 2005. He is presently the Director of the Athabasca University Press. This is his seventh book of poetry.

Walter Hildebrandt's profile page