Event - Film Screenings: An Irish Chocktaw Thanksgiving, Day 1
Film Screenings: An Irish Chocktaw Thanksgiving, Day 1
11.29.14, 12:30 pm
An Irish Choctaw Thanksgiving festival honors the Choctaw Nation. In 1847 the Choctaw Nation responded to a plea for help from a country far away across the ocean, by sending $710* to aid the victims of the Great Irish Famine. This immense act of human generosity, from one impoverished people to another, is a beautiful, touching moment that should never be forgotten.
The Choctaw’s enormous sacrifice, and astonishing community response to help an unknown people, is truly inspiring. Merely sixteen years previous, a forced relocation on the Trail of Tears, from their native Mississippi to Oklahoma, was imposed upon them by the American government. We would like to inspire others with this little known tale.
Over 150 years after An Gorta Mor: “The Great Hunger”, there is still an unacceptable food shortage plaguing our planet. Money raised over this weekend at events at the Queens Theatre in the Park will benefit children directly through two organizations: NYC based Hour Children and a national program called No Kid Hungry Share our Strength.
This festival will bring Irish and Choctaw talent to NYC for two days, November 29-30. This is Native American History month and a celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States. We will honor our shared history. We will be thankful. Please join us. Queens Theatre in the Park will present performances by Oklahoma Fancy Dancers, Darrah Carr Irish Dance, Celtic Cross in three shows: Saturday Nov 28 at 2pm & 7pm, and Sunday Nov 29 at 2pm, click here to purchase tickets. Queens Museum will present screenings and discussions on both days – no tickets or RSVPs required.
Schedule of Screenings at the Queens Museum
All screenings are free and open to all, no RSVP needed.
Saturday, November 29
12:30 Choctaw Code Talkers (Valerie Red-Horse, 2010, 56 mins.)
In 1918, not yet citizens of the United States, Choctaw members of the American Expeditionary Forces were asked to use their Native language as a powerful tool against the German Forces in World War I–setting a precedent for code talking as an effective military weapon and establishing them as America’s original code talkers.
Preceded by Short Film Search for the World’s Best Indian Taco (Steven Judd, 2010, 12 mins.) The whimsical story of a Choctaw grandfather who regales his grandson with tall tales about his lifelong quest for true love.
3:00 Return to the Sea (Genevieve Mcgill, 2012, 66 mins.)
This film is a temporal bricolage that documents a vulnerable, indigenous Irish speaking community on the island of Inish Bofin off the north west coast of Co.Donegal in Ireland. The film explores the notion of time, memory and fragility and investigates the past, present and future of the community portrayed within it. McGill’s film acts as a point of departure for a dialogue between film archives from two different times. Time, in the film, oscillates between a found film archive of home-movies, The Martin Archive from the 1950s and her own archive, which documents the people of Inish Bofin in the present day. The structural strategy of images on two different timescales results in a discord in temporality and creates an interstitial space where the minor voice may become heard in the gaps between then and now. The aim of the film is to bring forth the marginalised voice from the periphery of society and allow it a more prominent status in any reading of Irish Identity. Director Dr. Genevieve McGill holds a PhD in Experimental film from Central St.Martin’s in London.
4:30 A Pearl of Great Price (Scott Winters, 60 mins.)
Scott Winters is an Irish American from NYC and a graduate from Northwestern University. He has appeared in close to 100 episodes of television, two Oscar nominated films, and comes from a NYC theatrical background. Scott has written and directed screenplays and documentaries of his own including ‘A Pearl of Great Price‘, documenting his experience as an EMT in Port Au Prince, Haiti, following the epic earthquake in 2010. This documentary follows four men from NYC who journeyed on their own dime days after the epic quake to bring front line aid to the countless victims. They were ordinary husbands and fathers who felt helpless watching the television coverage and decided to do something, anything they could to help. It was at the last minute that they decided to film what they were doing in an effort to spread awareness of what had become of Haiti. The result was this powerful and moving documentary. Followed by Q&A with Scott Winters who will discuss his experience after the quake and the on going food crisis in Haiti.
Sunday, November 30
12:30pm: Choctaw Code Talkers (Valerie Red-Horse, 2010, 56 mins.)
In 1918, not yet citizens of the United States, Choctaw members of the American Expeditionary Forces were asked to use their Native language as a powerful tool against the German Forces in World War I–setting a precedent for code talking as an effective military weapon and establishing them as America’s original code talkers.
Preceded by Short Film Search for the World’s Best Indian Taco (Steven Judd, 2010, 12 mins.) The whimsical story of a Choctaw grandfather who regales his grandson with tall tales about his lifelong quest for true love.
3:30pm The Native (Tim Austin, 24 min.)
Paddy a middle aged Irish American arrives in Ireland for a business meeting, he is greeted at the airport by Duffy a Belfast Taxi Driver who has been hired to drive him around. As the journey progresses it becomes clear that Paddy is not the usual dewy eyed tourist. On his visit Paddy the active Irish American is forced to question his cultural heritage and to examine the traditional stereotypes of what it means to be Irish. Starring Nick Hardin, Patch Conally.
4pm: A Place At The Table (Kristi Jacobson, Lori Silverbush, 2012, 85 mins.)
Fifty million people in the U.S.”one in four children”don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush examine the issue of hunger in America through the lens of three people struggling with food insecurity: Barbie, a single Philadelphia mother who grew up in poverty and is trying to provide a better life for her two kids; Rosie, a Colorado fifth-grader who often has to depend on friends and neighbors to feed her and has trouble concentrating in school; and Tremonica, a Mississippi second-grader whose asthma and health issues are exacerbated by the largely empty calories her hardworking mother can afford.Ultimately, A Place at the Table shows us how hunger poses serious economic, social and cultural implications for our nation, and that it could be solved once and for all, if the American public decides “ as they have in the past “ that making healthy food available and affordable is in the best interest of us all.Preceded by introductory remarks emphasizing the current food insecurity in the United States.