Evocative Trudell Movie Opens at Guild Friday

The film 'Trudell' will open at the Guild Cinema in Albuquerque this coming Friday, and will run through March 23rd. Check out the movie's terrific website that includes music/poetry and video from the film. The movie follows the life work of legendary Native American poet and activist John Trudell. You can also download a PDF press kit that provides more info on the film and on the life of Trudell.

Filmmaker Heather Rae has spent more than a decade chronicling his travels, spoken word and politics, combining archival, concert and interview footage with abstract imagery mirroring the coyote nature of Trudell himself. The documentary begins in the late 1960s when John Trudell and a community group, Indians of All Tribes, occupied Alcatraz Island for 21 months, creating international recognition of the American Indian cause and birthing the contemporary Indian people’s movement, and giving Trudell what he referred to as his “birth”.

From Alcatraz we follow John’s political journey as the National Spokesman of the American Indian Movement (AIM), this work making him one of the most highly volatile political ‘subversives’ of the 1970’s with one of the longest FBI files in history (over 17,000 pages). But in 1979, a tragic (and suspicious) fire would spark a new creative direction for Trudell, and in 1983 he began to put his words to music with the help of Kiowa guitar legend, the late Jesse Ed Davis, and Jackson Browne.

Even his early recordings reflect an articulate sensibility and eloquence about the state of the world, moving him into the realm of social theorist and philosopher. Trudell does not adhere to a dogma or school of thought but has created his own diatribe based in experience, having lived through and taken part in some of the most turbulent American political events of the past century.

In an interview with Native actor, Gary Farmer (DEAD MAN), he referred to Trudell as “the Native people’s prophet of these times, our Socrates.” Trudell’s musical and film careers have led him to work with the likes of Robert Redford (INCIDENT AT OGLALA), Sam Shepard and Val Kilmer (THUNDERHEART), Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Amy Ray and more recently Angelina Jolie, who produced his current album, Bone Days.

TRUDELL is intended to be a film that steps outside of traditional forms, even for Native films, and explores a figure of our contemporary history in a way that fairly represents the evocative nature of his work and significance.

“I'm not looking to overthrow the American government... the corporate state already has.” -John Trudell

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