Monday, August 6, 2012

2012 Navajo Oral History documentaries completed!

The films about Navajo elders that are part of the 2012 Navajo Oral History project have been completed. 

Congratulations to the student teams who have worked hard to create accurate, meaningful, important and tactful pieces that tell the life stories of five Navajo elders.

After two-and-a-half weeks of field work collecting the material for the documentaries (photos, video and audio), the teams have spent about a month working with each other to refine, edit, proofread and produce their documentaries.

The teams are made up of students from both Diné College of the Navajo Nation, and Winona State University of Winona, Minnesota.

The films have been mastered to DVDs and are now off at a production facility that is recording, duplicating and printing professional DVDs.  The finished DVDs should be back in time for the two Premiere-Reception events planned in mid-September to debut the films and celebrate the students' accomplishments. 

The Winona reception is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 13, at 5 p.m. (place on campus to be determined). The reception at Diné College's Tsaile, Arizona, campus will be held Monday, Sept. 17, at 5 p.m. in the Student Union Building.

Refreshments will be served at the beginning of both receptions; a traditional Navajo meal at Diné College.  Each student-produced film will be shown, followed by comments from the filmmakers.  For the Diné College reception, the featured elders have been invited, and will have a chance to speak about their participation in the projects.

We hope parents, family members and friends of all involved will attend to help the student's celebrate the culmination of their summer-long project.  The 
reception events are free and open to the public.