Post by blackcrowheart on Oct 19, 2006 15:53:42 GMT -5
WATERBUSTER
Documentary filmmaker J. Carlos Peinado embarks on a journey of
self-discovery to his ancestral homeland in North Dakota. Living on a
sailboat in California, he discovers he has become separated from his
family home, his community and his American Indian identity. Having
traveled through many worlds, far from the Fort Berthold Indian
Reservation, the filmmaker realizes he cannot choose the shape of his
future until he understands and embraces the shape of his past. Tracing
the footsteps of his maternal grandmother Elizabeth back to the
reservation he encounters a multi-generational cast of characters.
Through interviews with them he begins to understand the proud and
resilient nature of his tribe, the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nation, their
contributions to American culture and history, and their deep attachment
to the harsh and storied landscape of the northwestern prairie—an
attachment that has often come with a heavy price.
He encounters the mournful optimism of his grandmother's generation
and learns more about the events of the 1940's and 1950's that
impacted their lives: the building of the Army Corps of Engineers'
Garrison Dam that inundated a 156,000 fertile farming and ranching acres
along the reservation's Missouri River bottomlands, and the attempt
by the federal government to eliminate sovereign Indian nations through
a policy of termination and relocation.
self-discovery to his ancestral homeland in North Dakota. Living on a
sailboat in California, he discovers he has become separated from his
family home, his community and his American Indian identity. Having
traveled through many worlds, far from the Fort Berthold Indian
Reservation, the filmmaker realizes he cannot choose the shape of his
future until he understands and embraces the shape of his past. Tracing
the footsteps of his maternal grandmother Elizabeth back to the
reservation he encounters a multi-generational cast of characters.
Through interviews with them he begins to understand the proud and
resilient nature of his tribe, the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nation, their
contributions to American culture and history, and their deep attachment
to the harsh and storied landscape of the northwestern prairie—an
attachment that has often come with a heavy price.
He encounters the mournful optimism of his grandmother's generation
and learns more about the events of the 1940's and 1950's that
impacted their lives: the building of the Army Corps of Engineers'
Garrison Dam that inundated a 156,000 fertile farming and ranching acres
along the reservation's Missouri River bottomlands, and the attempt
by the federal government to eliminate sovereign Indian nations through
a policy of termination and relocation.
Throughout, he begins to connect with his family and community,
and discovers that irony abounds on the northern plains: the Garrison
Dam reservoir—named Lake Sakagawea after the young woman who aided
Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery—is drying up. Ultimately
this story is a confrontation with identity, a bi-cultural, hybrid
identity of Indian and non-Indian, highlighting the universal struggle
we all have in 21st century America to find a sense of place, a
community and a home.
For more information about this film, please view the following link:
www.waterbuster.org/
and discovers that irony abounds on the northern plains: the Garrison
Dam reservoir—named Lake Sakagawea after the young woman who aided
Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery—is drying up. Ultimately
this story is a confrontation with identity, a bi-cultural, hybrid
identity of Indian and non-Indian, highlighting the universal struggle
we all have in 21st century America to find a sense of place, a
community and a home.
For more information about this film, please view the following link:
www.waterbuster.org/