MSP Film Society honors Native American Heritage Month with Nov 4 Anne Makepeace Triple Feature

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, MSP Film Society presents three documentaries by award-winning writer-director Anne Makepeace: TRIBAL JUSTICE,  COMING TO LIGHT, and WE STILL LIVE HERE-AS NUTAYUNEAN. The event takes place Sunday, November 4 beginning at 1 pm and includes a spotlight on pioneering portrait photographer Edward Curtis, in collaboration with Cardozo Fine Art.

TRIBAL JUSTICE is a documentary feature about a little known, underreported but effective criminal justice reform movement in America: the efforts of tribal courts to create alternative systems of justice. There are more than 300 tribal courts across the country. In California, two formidable women lead the way. Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribe on the north coast, and Claudette White, Chief Judge of the Quechan Tribe in the southern desert, are creating innovative systems that focus on restoring rather than punishing offenders in order to keep tribal members out of prison, prevent children from being taken from their communities, and stop the school-to-prison pipeline that plagues their young people.

Director: Anne Makepeace Country: Turtle Island (USA) Language: English Year: 2017 

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/196530073 - Showtime: Sun Nov 4  1pm

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COMING TO LIGHT: Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) was a driven, charismatic, obsessive artist, a pioneer photographer who set out in 1900 to document traditional Indian life. He rose from obscurity to become the most famous photographer of his time, created an enormous body of work -- 10,000 recordings, 40,000 photographs, and a full length ethnographic motion picture -- and died poor and forgotten. His work was rediscovered in the 1970s and is now synonymous with photography of Indians. Coming to Light tells the dramatic story of Curtis' life, the creation of his monumental work, and his changing views of the people he set out to document. The film also gives Indian people a voice in the discussion of Curtis' images. Hopi, Navajo, Eskimo, Blackfeet, Crow, Blood, Piegan, Suquamish, and Kwakiutl people who are descended from Curtis subjects or who are using his photographs for cultural preservation respond to the pictures, tell stories about the people in the photographs, and discuss the meaning of the images.

Director: Anne Makepeace Country: Turtle Island (USA) Language: English Year: 2017 

Trailer:https://vimeo.com/156332913 - Showtime: Sun Nov 4  3:15 pm

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WE STILL LIVE HERE-AS NUTAYUNEAN 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.

Director: Anne Makepeace Country: Turtle Island (USA) Language: Wampanoag & English Year: 2010 

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/156332916 - Showtime: Sun Nov 4  5:45pm