Trudell, Ishi, UmaToToDom
Sunday, September 18, 7:30 PM
St. Joseph’s Hall, Grass Valley
Featuring the powerful full length documentary, “Trudell,” the life story of the Native American poet, prophet, and activist John Trudell and his message of taking personal responsibility to the earth and to all our descendants.
The eighty minute movie includes archival concert and interview footage, with abstract imagery mirroring the coyote nature of Trudell. The movie starts in the 60′s with the twenty one month occupation by native Americans of Alcatraz, which Trudell calls his birth, and the beginning of AIM, the American Indian Movement.
n 1979, Trudell burned an American flag on the steps of the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC. Hours later, a suspicious fire burned his home in Nevada, killing is pregnant wife, mother-in-law, and three children. Over the next four years, Trudell found, through his pain, his voice as a poet and a new way to present his cause. The movie “Trudell” was ten years in the making.
John Trudell will be speaking in Grass Valley Friday, October 7, 2011, at the Grass Valley Veterans Hall, in a rare local appearance. He will be keynoting the twelth annual Indigenous Peoples Days.
Opening Maidu Movie Night September 18 will be a new 20 minute movie on “Ishi,” by a young native woman from Oroville. The story of the local Tsi Akim Maidu tribe, from genocide in the 1800′s to political support and activism today, is covered in a 14 minute film by local videographer Terra Nyssa; “Uma ToToDom”, or Gathering Together” also shows the importance of the Maidu language.
Maidu Movie Night is hosted by the Tsi Akim Maidu Tribe as an introduction to Trudell and to Indigenous Peoples Days 2011. It is open to the public by donation. For more information, call the Tsi Akim tribal office, 530-274-7497, or 913-6446.