Mission
Submission
Films
Schedule
Tickets
Map
Special Screenings
Sponsors
Traveling Festival
Support
Volunteers
Press
Links
Awards
Contact
Home
True Whispers
(59 minutes) USA
Director: Valerie Red-Horse
Producers: Valerie Red-Horse and Gale Anne Hurd
Description:
True Whispers tells the moving and personal story of the World War II Navajo Code Talkers. Recruited as teenagers from harsh government and mission schools where they were forbidden to use their native language, they served as U.S. Marines and used that very language to transmit vital coded messages that were key to victory in the Pacific. The wartime contributions of these Native Americans went unrecognized for over fifty years. This documentary, uniquely positioned from their point of view, including cultural, personal and intimate moments, provides a part of the long overdue tribute they deserve. The film is narrated by noted actor William H. Macy, and features original Navajo music.
Biography:
Valerie Red-Horse, of Cherokee heritage, graduated from UCLA's Theater Arts Department and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. She began her career as an actress and turned to writing, developing, and producing in 1993.Her original screenplay Lozen, based on the life story of an Apache woman warrior, was selected for the Sundance Institute's Writers Lab in 1995. That same year, Ms. Red-Horse created the story for the Emmy-winning CBS Special, My Indian Summer. Dedicated to accurate portrayals and quality material, Ms. Red-Horse formed Red-Horse Native Productions, Inc. Ms. Red-Horse was awarded the "Eagle Spirit Award" and "Producer of the Year" by the American Indian Film Festival. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America, and the Directors Guild of America.
Gale Anne Hurd has produced more than two dozen feature films that have generated billions of dollars in revenue, and earned Oscar nominations and scores of awards. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Hurd began her career as an executive assistant to Roger Corman. In 1984, Hurd earned a place in film history with the first of many event-films she would produce: Terminator, which she also co-wrote, directed by James Cameron. Hurd serves as a Board member of the Producers Guild of America and as an Advisory Board Member for Global Green USA, Heal the Bay and Reef Check. For the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Hurd serves on the Executive Committee of the Producers Branch and has chaired the Festival Grants Committee and the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship Committee.She also served on the steering committee for Hollywood for Habitat, a local outreach program of Habitat for Humanity. Hurd received the Award for Entertainment Industry Environmental Leadership from former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev's Global Green USA.
Contact Information:
Valerie Red-Horse
6028 Calvin Avenue
Tarzana, CA 91356
redhorse88@aol.com
____________________________________________________
©2006 United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF)
FILMS
America's Brutal Prisons
Are the Kids Alright?
Baghdad ER
Between Two Stones: Nepal's Decade of Conflict
Beyond Iraq
Beyond the Call
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Blowing Up Paradise
Busting Out
Bystander
Epitaph
In the Tall Grass
Independent Intervention
Interview with an Executioner
La Sierra
Lessons in Fear
Lima's Streets
Malaria: Killer Number One
The Man Who Saved a Million Brains
The Peacekeepers
Pilgrimage
Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border
Rosita
The Shape of Water
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
Small Town Gay Bar
They Chose China
Thin
The Tribe
True Whispers
The Tsunami Generation