Saturday, 10/27, 5:15pm (Session XXIX)

Director/Producer: Anne Makepeace 

Description: 

Celebrated every Thanksgiving as the Indians who saved the Pilgrims from starvation, and then largely forgotten, the Wampanoag Tribes of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard are now saying loud and clear, and in their Native tongue, “As Nutayuneân,” meaning We Still Live Here. Spurred on by their celebrated linguist, Jessie Little Doe Baird, recent winner of a MacArthur “genius” award, the Wampanoag are bringing their language home. The story begins in 1994 when Jessie Little Doe, an intrepid, thirty-something Wampanoag social worker, began having recurring dreams: familiar-looking people from another time addressing her in an incomprehensible language. Jessie was perplexed and a little annoyed– why couldn’t they speak English? Later, she realized they were speaking Wampanoag, a language no one had used for more than a century. These events sent her and members of the Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanaog communities on an odyssey that would uncover hundreds of documents written in their language, lead Jessie to a Masters in Linguistics at MIT, and result in something that had never been done before – bringing a language alive again in an American Indian community after many generations with no Native speakers.

Biography:

Anne Makepeace has been a writer, producer, and director of award-winning independent films for more than twenty-five years. Makepeace’s last film, I.M. PEI: Building China Modern, was broadcast on American Masters the documentary followed the world renowned architect I. Makepeace’s previous feature documentary, Rain In A Dry Land, chronicles the journey and resettlement of two Somali Bantu refugee families from Africa through their first two years in America. Rain In A Dry Land received a limited theatrical release through Emerging Pictures, was nominated for an Emmy, and was broadcast nationally as the lead show on the PBS P.O.V. series. In 2005, Makepeace completed a short film about the indomitable Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt: Close to Home is shown repeatedly in her Val Kill home, now a museum in Hyde Park. In 2003, Makepeace completed Robert Capa in Love and War for the American Masters series. Makepeace won a national prime-time Emmy and the Voice for Humanity Award at Telluride MountainFilm for CAPA, among many prizes. Coming to Light, Makepeace’s documentary about Edward S. Curtis, the preeminent photographer of Native Americans, was short-listed for an Academy Award in the feature documentary category. She has twice been a writer/director fellow at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, and served on the Sundance Film Festival’s documentary jury. 

Contact Information: 

E-mail: info@MakepeaceProductions.com
Web site: www.MakepeaceProductions.com