In honor of Native American Heritage Month, MSP Film Society presents three documentaries by award-winning writer-director Anne Makepeace on Sunday November 4th, including a spotlight on pioneering portrait photographer Edward Curtis, in collaboration with Cardozo Fine Art.
Director, writer, producer Anne Makepeace attending!
The film screenings are in conjunction with the celebrations to mark the 150th birthday of Edward Curtis. See upcoming and ongoing Curtis events here.
All tickets are $5 in advance, or donation (pay what you wish) at the door.
We Still Live Here - Âs Nutayuneân tells the amazing story of the return of the Wampanoag language, a language that was silenced for more than a century. The Wampanoag Indians’ forebears ensured the survival of the first English settlers in America – the ‘Pilgrims,’ and lived to regret it. A century ago, after nearly 300 years of contact, their language virtually disappeared. Now, spurred on by an indomitable Wampanoag woman named Jessie Littledoe Baird, recent winner of a MacArthur genius award for her unprecedented linguistic work, the Wampanoag are bringing their language and their culture back to life.
Like many Native American stories, this one begins with a vision. Years ago, Jessie Little Doe, a young Wampanoag social worker, began having recurring dreams: familiar-looking people from another time addressing her in an incomprehensible language. Jessie was perplexed and a little annoyed– why couldn’t they speak English? Later, she came to believe that they were speaking Wampanoag, a language no one had used for more than a century. These events sent her on an odyssey that would uncover hundreds old documents written in Wampanoag, lead her to a Masters in Linguistics at MIT with Noam Chomsky, and result in her accomplishing something that had never been done before – bringing a language with no Native speakers alive again. Her six-year-old daughter, Mae Alice, is the first Native speaker in a century.
The film interweaves contemporary verite´ scenes of language reclamation with commentary and expressionistic animation that reveal dark moments in New England history– epidemics, missionary pressures, land loss, and the indenture of Native children - that nearly obliterated Wampanoag culture. Ruth Lingford’s devastatingly powerful animation provides powerful visuals as Wampanoags recount these horrific events.
The film ends on a hopeful note, with an image of Jessie’s youngest daughter, the first Native speaker in a century.
Director Biography
Anne Makepeace has been a writer, producer, and director of award-winning independent films for more three decades. Her new film, Tribal Justice, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February 2017 and screened at many festivals across the country, winning Best Documentary prizes at the American Indian Film Festival and the Charlotte Film Festival, the Rigoberta-Menchú Grand Prix at the Montréal First People’s Film Festival, the Directing Award at Cinetopia. Tribal Justice received support from the MacArthur Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Vision Maker Media, CPB, California Humanities, and private foundations. The film was broadcast on the acclaimed PBS documentary series, POV, in August 2017, and is distributed to the educational market by Bullfrog Films.
Her recent documentary, We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân, about the return of the Wampanoag language, had its broadcast premiere on the PBS series Independent Lens in November 2011. The film has won many awards, including the Full Frame Inspiration Award and the Moving Mountains Award at Telluride MountainFilm for the film most likely to effect important social change. The $3000 MountainFilm prize went directly to the Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project, enabling them to launch their first-ever language immersion camp for children. We Still Live Here was funded by ITVS, the Sundance Documentary Fund, the LEF Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, among others. Makepeace was able to complete the film with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Other recent films by Anne Makepeace include: I. M. PEI: Building China Modern (PBS broadcast on American Masters in 2010) and her Emmy nominated feature documentary Rain in a Dry Land (lead show on PBS P.O.V. 2007), which chronicles the journey and resettlement of two Somali Bantu refugee families from Africa through their first two years in America. Makepeace won a National Prime Time Emmy for her American Masters/PBS documentary Robert Capa in Love and War which premiered at Sundance in 2003. Coming to Light, her documentary about Edward S. Curtis, also premiered at Sundance, was short-listed for an Academy Award in 2000, broadcast on American Masters in 2001, and won many prizes, including the O’Connor Award for Best Film from the American Historical Association, an Award of Excellence from the American Anthropological Association, a Gold Hugo from Chicago, Best Documentary at Telluride, and many others. Her first documentary, Baby It’s You, premiered at Sundance, was broadcast as the lead show on P.O.V. in 1998, and screened at the Whitney Biennial 2000. For additional information, please explore www.MakepeaceProductions.com.
Support Provided By
Specializing in the work of Edward Curtis for four decades
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Limited engagements of independent films from around the globe, including advance releases, Twin Cities premieres, and cinematic classics.
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