Native Nations, Native Voices: The Movie

[Gordon Bronitsky]

Small world!  Sure--try jon.reyhner at nau.edu.

Gordon
On Aug 26, 2004, at 6:20 AM, Anonby wrote:

> Hi!
>
> John help me "publish" my thesis.  When I was in Flagstaff, I tried to 
> phone
> him, but couldn't get a hold of him.  Would you happen to have some 
> contact
> info for him?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Stan
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gordon Bronitsky" <g.bronitsky at att.net>
> To: <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 12:34 AM
> Subject: Native Nations, Native Voices: The Movie
>
>
>>
>> I wanted to share with you the good news that we are going to create a
>> documentary film about Native Nations, Native Voices!  This is a
>> project I have wanted to do since I began thinking about honoring
>> contemporary Native language writers.  Below is the e-mail I just
>> received from Rebecca Jo Dakota, who will be the Director of
>> Photography for the documentary.  We have already asked a Navajo
>> filmmaker here in Albuquerque to serve as Associate Producer and of
>> course, we’re hoping she says yes—I’ll let you know.
>> I must confess that searching for funds for film projects is a new
>> experience for me, so I would certainly welcome any suggestions you
>> might have, either for filming the actual Native Nations, Native 
>> Voices
>> festival or the segments in the writers’ home communities.
>> In other news, Jonathan Reyhnman at Northern Arizona University in
>> Flagstaff has produced several very successful conferences over the
>> years on the theme of Stabilizing Indigenous Languages.  It is one of
>> the few annual conferences I know dealing with Native languages so I
>> asked him recently about attendance.  He told me that about 400-500
>> people attend the conference each year so that gives some idea of what
>> might be possible for the festival.  I’ll keep you posted.
>>
>> Gordon Bronitsky
>>
>> PS:  I will be in Mongolia September 2-13, as I’m touring the Fernando
>> Cellicion Traditional Zuni Dancers from New Mexico and Compagnie 
>> Solim,
>> a dance group from Togo (West Africa) to a festival there, so I will
>> probably only have sporadic access to e-mail at best while I’m there,
>> should anyone want to contact me (hopefully with funding suggestions).
>>
>>
>> VISIONS
>>   Videography and Consulting
>>   Rebecca Jo Dakota
>>   rebdakota at aol.com
>>   505.858.1868
>>
>>
>>
>>   August 25, 2004
>>
>>   Gordon Bronitsky, PhD
>>   Bronitsky and Associates
>>   3715 La Hacienda Dr NE
>>   Albuquerque, NM 87110
>>
>>   Dear Gordon,
>>
>>   It was great to meet with you and discuss the Native Nations, Native
>> Voices festival to honor contemporary Native language writers. I agree
>> that a documentary film will be essential and I'm delighted to be on
>> board as the Director of Photography. This festival of Native language
>> writers is crucial, timely, huge. Every language carries its own
>> truths, insights and values - its own culture. When languages are not
>> used, they are lost, and that culture goes, too. We are on the cusp of
>> losing many Indigenous languages.
>>
>>   I can see a documentary film, yes, and also shorts for cultural
>> workers to use in sustaining indigenous languages and artists, plus
>> educational pieces for museums such as the National Museum of the
>> American Indian.
>>
>>   It is essential that we involve Indigenous people in this creative
>> process, from concept to production and beyond. To that end, I
>> recommend that we immediately engage professionals to join us as
>>   Associate Producer, Director and/or Scriptwriter (and I'll begin
>> looking for people who would be interested in working with us). If we
>> can find funding, I want to film segments in the writers' home
>> communities and create an internship in each of the writer's home
>> communities, as well, as we create the documentary. This can provide
>> Indigenous young people in these communities with hands-on experience
>> and skills in digital filmmaking. I have considerable experience
>> working with Native American and other minority youth which I will
>> bring to bear on this project. And of course we'll want indigenous
>> music for the film soundtrack.
>>
>>   Thank you for this unique opportunity.
>>
>>   Sincerely,
>>
>> Rebecca
>>
>>   Rebecca Jo Dakota
>>
>>
>> "A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head 
>> of
>> a poet." Orson Welles
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 4298 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20040826/7ab27c2d/attachment.bin>