At SIFF: bearing witness to stories of ‘cultural genocide’
A review of Dawnland and an interview with Adam Mazo, the film’s co-director.
“To watch the documentary Dawnland is to experience having your stomach clenched in a knot. Native mothers weeping about having their children taken away from them; U.S. government policies stripping Native Americans of their culture; ‘reconciliation’ staffers fully aware of their white privilege but refusing to shelf it as they do cross-cultural work.
It’s all anguishing and infuriating to take in. It also makes Dawnland a powerfully illuminating film — a history lesson that you’re ashamed to have never learned but whose truths you’ll likely never forget.
Filmmakers Adam Mazo and Ben Pender-Cudlip spent five years completing their feature-length documentary about the forced removal of Native American children from their families into White adoptive homes, non-Native foster care and boarding schools.”
Continue reading at Crosscut.
Reclaiming a culture, reclaiming a life
A review of Dawnland and conversation with film participant Dawn Neptune Adams.
“She was a 4-year-old kid named Dawn Neptune, who lived not far from here in a place called Indian Island, a reservation of the Penobscot Nation, a cultural touchstone that shaped — still shapes — who she is.
Her mother, then still a teenager, drank too much in those early days. It was an open family secret, part of an intergenerational trauma that, like her Penobscot heritage, was a critical and governing rhythm to her young life.
And then Dawn Neptune was gone. A baby sitter took her and a younger brother to a grocery store a half-hour away from the reservation. And then abruptly drove away, a cruel abandonment that served as the little girl’s entry into life in foster care, where she promptly learned a hard lesson no kid should be forced to absorb: Forget about your mom. Forget about Indian Island. Forget about being Penobscot.”
Continue reading at The Boston Globe.
CIFF42 Meet the Filmmaker: DAWNLAND
Watch Adam Mazo talk about the documentary film Dawnland and “the need to support organizations promoting truth, healing and change for victims within native tribes and nations.”
“In his #CIFF42 feature documentary Dawnland, filmmaker Adam Mazo talks about the mistreatment of Native Americans and the need to support organizations promoting truth, healing and change for victims within native tribes and nations.”
Watch at Cleveland International Film Festival.
Interview With Directors Adam Mazo and Ben Pender-Cudlip On Their New Film, “Dawnland”
Learn about the forces that drove Adam Mazo and Ben Pender-Cudlip to make the film Dawnland.
“Boston-based filmmaker Adam Mazo is quick to admit that he knew little about Native populations growing up in Minnesota.
He’s committed to changing that for future generations with “Dawnland,” the 90-minute documentary premiering this month at the Cleveland International Film Festival. The film centers on the decades of government policy that forced Native children from their families and into adoptive homes, foster care and boarding schools. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards will sponsor three screenings.
The idea for “Dawnland” was sparked from Mazo’s work on another film, “Coexist,” about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. “We were talking about how it felt wrong to not be teaching about genocide in this country’s history,” he said.”
Continue reading at Anisfield Book Awards.
Teaching about Cultural Genocide
Conversation between Upstander Project’s Adam Mazo and Dr. Mishy Lesser with Education Talk Radio’s Larry Jacobs.
Upstander Project was featured today on Education Talk Radio. Thanks to Larry Jacobs for the coverage. Listen to the archived show here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/edutalk/2016/12/12/teaching-about-cultural-genocide
WATCH: FIRST LIGHT
A review of First Light that finds the film “quiet and informative, carried by testimonials from tribal leaders, academics, and survivors of these culturally oppressive programs.” “First Light tells the story of the systematic displacement of the Wabanaki people and what the state of Maine did to help them heal.”
“‘Imagine you’re about to have a little one, the love that you have for that little one. Imagine somebody outside of your family you don’t even know making claims on your little one. They don’t like the way you live and they’re going to take your little one by force. Imagine what the loss is when this is not just your family, but your entire community.” gkisedtanamoogk
This is is the subject of First Light, a short documentary by Adam Mazo in collaboration with the Upstander Project. The film examines how the native Wabanaki people of Maine were subjected to discriminatory child welfare practices and how the state, through The Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, worked towards acknowledging those practices as wrong, quantified the effects of the discriminatory practices, and created space for people to share their stories.”
Continue reading at The Take Magazine.
Dawnland selected to participate in Good Pitch 2016 in New York
We're honored that our feature film Dawnland is among seven projects selected by BRITDOC for Good Pitch 2016!
ICTMN Exclusive: New Film Documents Maine’s Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission
First Light, the new documentary film that explores the historic Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare TRC, is making its world debut today on ICTMN.
“First Light, the new independent documentary film that explores the historic Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC), is making its world debut today on Indian Country Today Media Network. According to the film’s directors, Adam Mazo and Ben Pender-Cudlip, the short documentary film examines the historic collaboration between the five Wabanaki tribes and the state of Maine in response to the past abuses within the state’s child welfare system.
The first of its kind in U.S. History, the Maine TRC was established in 2012 in an agreement between Governor Paul LePage and chiefs from the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians, the Penobscot Indian Nation, and the Passamaquoddy at Sipayik and Indian Township.”
Continue reading at Indian Country Today.