Friday, October 17, 2008

Comanche Nation College and Film Festival Shuns Yeagley, Embraces His Critics

Much like Yeagley has been shunned by the Comanche Nation tribal government, Business Committee, Constitution Committee, and Comanche Nation Museum, add the tribal college and its annual invitational festival to the growing list of Comanches who want nothing to do with white supremacist David Yeagley, despite years of his attempting to infiltrate.

And let's not forget the Comanche people overwhelmingly rejected Yeagley in his run for vice president, where he only managed a humiliating one percent of registered Comanche voters, by one account all absentee and from outside the tribal homeland.

Yeagley's "score" for the old silent film Daughter of Dawn was conspicuously absent. Widespread disgust for Yeagley may not be the only reason the film was not wanted. Both Yeagley and the Oklahoma Historical Society face potential legal problems over the use of libel and threats that caused Yeagley to get the composing job in the first place.

Notice that the listings for the works shown at the film festival include a number of Yeagley critics and relatives of Yeagley critics. (Which, admittedly, is not difficult to do, since he has so many, and so few Native supporters.)


------------------------------

COMANCHE NATION COLLEGE
5TH ANNUAL INVITATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
1608 SW 9th Street, Lawton, OK 73501
October 17 - 18, 2008

Funding for this Program has been made possible through the generosity of the Comanche Nation College, National Endowment of the Arts, The City of Lawton Arts and Humanities Council, The Oklahoma Arts Council, Buffalo Boys Media, Comanche Nation Higher Education Program, and the Comanche National Museum. Contact: Juanita Pahdopony, 580.591.0203 x 115, jpahdopony@cnc.cc.ok.us


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17

9:00-12:00 — Steven Judd: Screenplay Writing for Television and the Independent Movie

This workshop provides an overview of the screenplay and script. Judd will acquaint you to the screenplay format, writing rules, and etiquette needed to write a professional screenplay. Participants will learn and understand the industry standards. Judd will also discuss the 2008 ABC/Disney Writers Fellowship and how to apply. The workshop will provide tips on a successful application process.

Steven Judd is Kiowa/Choctaw currently living in Los Angeles, California, as a staff writer on the TV show Mongoose and Luther, which will air February 2009, on the new network Disney XD. The series co-creators are (Even Stevens) and Tom Burkhard. The last short he wrote and co-directed with Tvli Jacob, MAC V PC with a Native Twist, and was a 2007 semi-finalist of NBC/Universal’s Comedy Short Cuts, and a part of the 2008 Comedy Caravan that screened daily at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He is a fellow for the 18th Annual Writing Fellowship program sponsored by the Disney-ABC Television Group and Walt Disney Studios, in partnership with the Writers Guild of America. He is a member of the WGA’s American Indian Writers committee, which is dedicated to finding the next generation of Native American writers. He was nominated as a 2008 Distinguished Alumni for the University of Oklahoma.
1: 00-3:30 — Thomas Yeahpau: No Budget Filmmaking, Poor Man’s Road to Hollywood

Yeahpau will discuss script writing, special effects editing, camera tricks, editing, working with first-time actors, and scoring your independent movie.

Thomas M. Yeahpau is a member of the Kiowa Tribe and resides in Weatherford, Oklahoma. A graduate of Riverside Indian School and Haskell Indian Nations University, Thomas was awarded the 2006 ABC/Disney Studios Writing Fellowship, where he spent a year in Hollywood, writing scripts for TV shows such as The George Lopez Show, Lost, Medium, and My Name Is Earl. He is a published author. His First book “The X-Indian Chronicles” was published in October 2006. He is currently finishing the 2nd book of “The X-Indian Chronicles” of that trilogy. He is a producer for the HipHop group N.D.N.S. Sponsors for the workshop: Hokte Productions and Juanita Pahdopony


SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18

10:00-10:15 — Opening and Welcome

10:15-12:00 — Films: COMANCHERIA (30 min) / BACKROADS (15 min)

COMANCHERIA — Fiction starring Patrick Attocknie, Martin Flores, Mame-Neta Attocknie, Wallace Coffey, and Joe Elm in Oklahoma. Documentary combines natural elements into a poetic glimpse juxtaposing tradition and contemporary Comanche ways.

Norhagen Productions, Directed by Marthe Thorshaug, who lives and works in Hamar, Norway. She graduated from the Art Academy in Oslo in 2003. Her first solo exhibition in Norway was Comancheria at Fotogalleriet in Oslo spring 2007. She is currently working on the manuscript for a film project entitled The Legend of Ygg, a Norse Thriller.
BACKROADS — A tragic event haunts an Oklahoma backroad.

Thomas M. Yeahpau is a member of the Kiowa Tribe and resides in Weatherford, Oklahoma. A graduate of Riverside Indian School and Haskell Indian Nations University, Thomas was awarded the 2006 ABC/Disney Studios Writing Fellowship, where he spent a year in Hollywood, writing scripts for TV shows such as The George Lopez Show, Lost, Medium, and My Name Is Earl. He is a published author. His First book “The X-Indian Chronicles” was published in October 2006. He is currently finishing the 2nd book of “The X-Indian Chronicles” of that trilogy. He is a producer for the HipHop group N.D.N.S.
12:00-1:30 — Lunch (CNC Student Government Association Indian Taco Sale)

1:30-10:00 — Films: RACCOON & CRAWFISH (8 min) / RIDING WITH MY UNCLE (11 min) FRY BREAD BABES (30 min) / THE GUARDIAN (12 min) / ANTICIPATION OF LAND IN 2089 (11:30 min) / A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF BRILLIANCE (12 min) / LADONNA HARRIS: INDIAN 101 / MEKKO PERSPECTIVE (30 min) / THE FLYING HEAD (3:40) / SINEW (23 min) LOST IN OKLAHOMA: CHAPTER ONE (15 min) / FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND (1:21).

RACCOON & CRAWFISH — Based on an Oneida story animation of how hungry a raccoon can get and is sure to win the audience. This story was the featured animation at the Cannes Film Festival, in France. It also won the Audience Choice award at the Moondance Film Festival.

Brent Michael Davids produced the original music score. Composer Brent Michael Davids is an enrolled citizen of the Mohican Nation. Davids’ career spans 30 years, including awards from ASCAP, NEA, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Davids holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music Composition from Northern Illinois University and Arizona State University respectively, trained at Redford’s Sundance Institute, and apprenticed with film composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare In Love) on the TV-Miniseries Dreamkeeper (Hallmark and ABC). Davids has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, PBS and NAPT. The National Endowment for the Arts named Davids among the nation’s 29 “most celebrated” choral composers in 2006, in its project “American Masterpieces: three Centuries of Artistic Genius” in all 50 states.

RIDING WITH MY UNCLE — A lighthearted nostalgic ride with the filmmaker’s Uncle as he shares stories of his work life on the police force. (mild profanity)

Weyodi Grandbergs is a published and award-winning Comanche poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker who has lived most of her life in Lawton, Oklahoma. Like many people, she grew up without a father, but throughout most of her childhood, had close contact to her mother’s older brother who lived next door.

FRY BREAD BABES — Six American Indian women use candor and humor to discuss body image and identity and how the lack of American Indian women in mass media impacted each of them. This documentary features Elaine Miles, (Cayuse- Nez Perce) best known for her role as Marlyn Whirlwind on the television series “Northern Exposure” as one of the six interviewees. CNC Film Festival Co-founders Arkeketa and Pahdopony are included.

Steffany Suttle is an enrolled member of the Lummi Nation of Washington State. She was born and raised in Texas. She received her B.A. from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. Steffany completed the Native Voices Documentary Filmmaking Program at the University of Washington – Seattle, and earned a Master’s of Communication (M.C.).

THE GUARDIAN — An American Indian man decides, on his 100th birthday, to meet the Guardian that stands on top of the Oklahoma State Capital.

Tvli Jacob is a Choctaw Indian from Oklahoma. He worked on several documentaries, movies and television shows, and published in magazines and other collections of creative writing. As a child, he continued to tell stories even when teachers advised him to stop. Currently, he's a freelance videographer, editor, director, writer and producer.
Steven Judd is Kiowa/Choctaw currently living in Los Angeles, California, as a staff writer on the TV show Mongoose and Luther, which will air February 2009, on the new network Disney XD. The series co-creators are (Even Stevens) and Tom Burkhard. The last short he wrote and co-directed with Tvli Jacob, MAC V PC with a Native Twist, and was a 2007 semi-finalist of NBC/Universal’s Comedy Short Cuts, and a part of the 2008 Comedy Caravan that screened daily at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He is a fellow for the 18th Annual Writing Fellowship program sponsored by the Disney-ABC Television Group and Walt Disney Studios, in partnership with the Writers Guild of America. He is a member of the WGA’s American Indian Writers committee, which is dedicated to finding the next generation of Native American writers. He was nominated as a 2008 Distinguished Alumni for the University of Oklahoma.

ANTICIPATION OF LAND IN 2089 — Tribes participate in a land-run, where they define rules by which to live on acquired lands. A young Comanche woman (Jan-Marie Sapcut) fills out her paperwork with a government agent (Seth Joseph) who is also an ex-boyfriend. It is creates a conflict when her rules and relationship.

Sunrise Tippeconnie is a film director and writer of Numunuu and Dine decent. He has an MFA from Temple University’s Film and Media Arts program in Philadelphia and was a Co-Director of the Nextframe Film Festival. Sunrise has taught at the Temple University Film Program and recently offered Filmmaking I & II at the University of Oklahoma. He freelances in film and television and worked for Lucasfilm, Ltd., Bunim/Murray on the The Real World: Philadelphia. Tippeconnie worked as Director of Photography for Concrete Pictures HD channel Moov and as gaffer on the Yen Tan feature Ciao. He was nominated for a 2007 Re:New Media Fellowship, and selected artist for the Untitled [art space] show”Looking Indian” and for the OklaDaDa Oklahoma centennial art show “Current Realities.” Other film productions include Contest which have shown at the deadCenter Film Festival, the Heard Museum and ImagineNATIVE, and the National Museum of the American Indian. A Comanche Saw Swindle was shown at the Untitled[artspace]. Sunrise currently lives in Oklahoma City and developing feature films and a television pilot.

A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF BRILLIANCE — An American Indian reporter struggles with guilt when given damaging evidence that could ruin his best friend’s political career.

Roderick Pocowatchit is Comanche, Pawnee, and Shawnee. He lives in Wichita, KS. As director, screenwriter, producer and editor, he made seven short films and two independent digital features. Dancing on the Moon and Sleepdancer. He has won several awards, including recognition from the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, the Los Angeles American Indian Film & TV Awards, and support and training from the Sundance Institute. Rod appear s as an actor in the upcoming feature film The Only Good Indian starring Wes Studi and directed by Kevin Willmott (the Sundance favorite “C.S.A: The Confederate States of America”). Rod is currently in pre-production on his next feature script, The Dead Can’t Dance. He serves on the advisory board for NativeVue, a national organization that supports and promotes Native Americans in the media.

LADONNA HARRIS: INDIAN 101 — A trailer of the upcoming documentary film about Comanche activist, LaDonna Harris. Held in the highest regard by her colleagues for her numerous historic achievements, LaDonna is now passing her knowledge to a new generation of emerging Indigenous leaders by instilling the importance of traditional tribal values.

Julianna Brannum is a Comanche documentary filmmaker. She lives in Los Angeles and her film credits include the PBS film, “The Creek Runs Red” which was in last year’s CNC Film Festival. She is also working with the upcoming PBS Series, “We Shall Remain” – a 5-part historical series on American Indian history.
MEKKO PERSPECTIVE — Included in the OklaDaDa Oklahoma centennial art show “Current Realities” exhibit held at the IAO Gallery in Oklahoma City. A documentary of tribal leaders featuring Martha Berryhill, Lt. Governor Jefferson Keel, and Principal Chief of the Cherokees, Chad Smith and their responses to the Oklahoma Centennial.

Annette Arkeketa (Otoe-Missouria and Muscogee Creek) is a graduate from Texas A & M University at Corpus Christi, Texas and holds a Master of Arts. She is the Founder and President of Hokte Productions; a published poet, playwright and a speaker on issues concerning American Indian rights and issues. Hokte productions was formed to promote and document American Indian leaders, educators, activists, artists, and issues. She teaches at CNC.

THE FLYING HEAD — Stories told to the youth to encourage them to come home before dark.

Shelly Niro is a member of he Six Nations Reserve, Mohawk, Turtle Clan, she graduated from the Ontario College of Art with hours in visual arts. In 2001 she became the Eiteljorg recipient at the Museum of Western and Indian Arts, Indiana, Indianapolis. She participated in the Women in The Director’s Chair Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts, 2003. In the fall of 2006, Shelley was selected as a fellow in Women in Film and GM Accelerator Grants. In March, Nero exhibited the photographic exhibition Contemporary Voices’ with Jeffrey Thomas at Canada House, Trafalgar, Square, and London, England. Recently Niro prepared a sole exhibition at Oboro, Montreal titled “Almost Fallen” for April 2007. Niro’s short film “Tree” was selected for screening at the Images Festival in Toronto. In the summer of 2007, Niro collaborated with performance artist Lori Blondeau, artist/curator Ryan Rice and academic/curator Nancy Marie Mithlo at the Venice Biennial’s “The Requickening Project.”

SINEW — A powerful and courageous award winning documentary film of Betty Cooper, a Blackfeet activist and Tribal Council Woman’s life story as documented by her daughter, and film producer Patty Collins.

Patty Collins is a graduate of the Native American Studies Program from UC Berkeley. She has spent her life as a traditional healer helping families heal from historical and personal traumas.

LOST IN OKLAHOMA: CHAPTER ONE — The first segment of a 1-hour program currently in production. Chapter One was originally produced for Current Realities: a dialogue with The People, presented by OklaDADA. That exhibit was conceived as a forum for Oklahoma’s Indian artists, writers and filmmakers to ensure that Native perspectives would be clearly heard during Oklahoma’s Centennial year.

Producers: Mary Helen Deer (Kiowa/Creek), Vicki Monks (Chickasaw) , Christopher Smith (Kiowa/Creek), Richard Ray Whitman (Euchee), Written and directed by Vicki Monks, Narration: Mary Helen Deer, Richard Ray Whitman, Camera: Christopher Smith, Vicki Monks.

FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND — After his father's untimely suicide, Cufe leaves his home on an American Indian reservation to search for a more fulfilling life.

Director Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek) was selected in 2006 as one of the inaugural recipients (and the first Native American recipient) of the prestigious United States Artists Fellowship, which is supported by a consortium of major foundations. He was selected for a 2006 Media Arts Fellowship from Renew Media (now a fellowship program of the Tribeca Film Institute). Also in 2006, Harjo won the top Creative Promise Award from Tribeca All Access for his script Before the Beast Returns (working title). Harjo's first feature film Four Sheets to the Wind premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was widely screened nationally and internationally at film festivals and art cinemas. Harjo was selected in 2004 as one of the Sundance Institute's first five Annenberg Film Fellows, a multi-year program launched to provide filmmakers with financial support and full involvement in Sundance's professional workshops. Harjo's short film Goodnight, Irene, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, was cited for Special Jury Recognition at the Aspen Shortsfest. In 2008, he served as a member of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute film and video faculty. Harjo grew up in Holdenville, Oklahoma, and lives in Tulsa.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Yeagley Insults Memory of Comanche Code Talkers

Beverly Isaac (Comanchemoon) left this signed comment to the previous post, accusing Yeagley of hypocrisy.

Yeagley has long had open contempt for veterans, especially Native veterans. But to accuse them of not deserving medals or recognition, to insult the memory of honored and deceased heros may be a new low for him. It echoes the insults his fellow white racist did towards the memory of Lori Piestewa.

---------------------

Sitting accross the arena from Yeagley Saturday afternoon, I wondered what is going thru his mind....the speaker was proudly speaking of the Comanche Code talkers and their brave heroic accomplishments in the midst of danger, under fire, in foxholes amongst the enemy and using their Native Lanquage to beat the enemy during World Wars I and II. Their service on the front lines was the first ever of its kind, the enemies could not break the Code and language of the Comanche, Choctaw, Navaho and other Tribes. They truly helped win the Wars.

The Comanche Nation was anxiously awaiting word last week, then the House passed the legislation unanimously.

Yeagley says "using ones one's language is not an act of particular heroism, which is what the Congressional Medal of Honor is awarded for". He was against this act.

I wondered during the speech from a Comance Warrior who was still fighting for this recognition and award for these brave veterans (now all deceased), what was going thru this educated many degreed, non-vet Yeagley's brilliant mind?

He learns so much just being around the People, but he will never apologize for his goofy statements against his own People. He is safe from them, they don't read his statements. He does this for his white posters. Yes, he was dancing with the true Warriors, and pretending to Honor them......I was amazed, he seemed proud of himself.............

COMANCHEMOON