"HEARTSONG" a film about 'Natives' and Boarding Sc

[Okwes]

We are seeking funding for this important story...would appreciate your
passing the information on to any potential funders, or tribal leaders
who might have an interest in backing this film and helping to tell this
story, or these stories. Thank you. Michelle

NDN OMNIMEDIA, INC.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE € ¦’¶ NEWS RELEASE

Media Contact:
Michelle R. Shining Elk
THE SHINING ELK ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
Telephone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

35 YEAR AMERICAN INDIAN VETERAN ACTOR, WRITER
AND PRODUCER SONNY SKYHAWK TURNS THE TABLE ON
WRITING AND PRODUCING INDIAN CINEMA

PASADENA, Calif. (Feb. 25, 2008) € ¦’¶ At a time when so many others are
telling the American Indian stories by simply re-writing their history;
or, by creating historically incorrect contemporary productions, veteran
American Indian actor turned producer, Sonny Skyhawk, is turning the
table with a screenplay he has written and will be producing entitled
HEARTSONG. HEARTSONG is a story about American Indians, written by an
American Indian, and will be produced by an American Indian.

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HEARTSONG has a production and filming schedule for late 2009, and is
currently seeking Tribal Nations, corporate or private investors to
support this project that will allow an all too familiar and
disconcerting story about American Indians in boarding schools to come
to life before the big screen and to be told from an American
Indian's perspective and direction. It is an excellent and long
overdue opportunity for Indian Nations and investors to become involved
and support films that not only re-educate the mainstream about the
truths and realities associated with American Indians, but to be
entertained as well. Through film, American Indians have discovered a
medium that relates to their storytelling ability in which they have
relied on for centuries, in order to preserve their cultural and
traditional way of life, and to document the changes and experiences
along the way.

HEARTSONG is a true story that takes place during the depression on an
Indian reservation and illuminates the redeeming power of will and
spirit, when children are forced into an oppressive way of life and
treatment through bigotry and cultural genocide. This is their story and
HEARTSONG. For nearly a century, American Indian children suffered at
the hands of Government sanctioned Boarding Schools on Indian
Reservations. Run by various religious denominations, American Indian
children became the victims of a silent, but deliberate genocide.
Nevertheless, they stood strong and courageous while facing adversity
head-on € ¦’¶ and, against all odds € ¦’¶ they retained what their
captors could not forciby remove. . .their indomitable will and spirit.

Sonny Skyhawk has established the Heartsong Foundation, a 501(3) (c) non
profit organzation. All profits from HEARTSONG, will go to benefit
existing survivors and abused or neglected American Indian children who
are descendants of boarding school survivors. The effects of that
experience did not end with the closing of those schools and funding
will cover the costs associated with crisis counseling, life management,
medical care and more.

Sonny Skyhawk is the first American Indian actor, writer and producer to
have advanced to the stature of producing independent films. An enrolled
member of the Rosebud Sioux Nation of South Dakota; he became inthralled
with the art of storytelling at an early age. Having been raised by his
Grandparents, he remembers, as an adolescent, pretending to read the
newspaper to his Grandmother, while making up the stories to fit the
pictures. Pictures told the story for him then, and pictures still tell
the stories today € ¦’¶ only today, his stories are told through film.

Sonny Skyhawk will be moderating a panel discussion entitled "American
Indians in Film" at the Native American Finance Conference at the
Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, February 27 - 29, 2008.

[Photobucket]
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