for friends and supporters of wgbh
fall 2008
“ You can’t understand America in the 21st century if you don’t understand the Native experience.” S h a ro n G ri m be rg E xecut i v e P ro d uce r, We S ha l l R e ma in
WGBH’s Powerful New Perspective on the Native American Experience
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or two decades, WGBH’s American Experience has been introducing audiences to some . of America’s most compelling untold stories, on air and online, winning every major broadcast industry award along the way. We Shall Remain, premiering in April, 2009, expands on this proud WGBH tradition. . The multimedia centerpiece of American Experience’s 21st-anniversary season is the most . extensive prime-time public television project on Native American history ever produced. . It establishes Native history as an essential part of US history in signature American Experience fashion: by telling a seminal story through a creative, meticulously researched lens. The tale of European settlement of North America has been told countless times, “but . never before from the perspective of the land’s original inhabitants,” says We Shall Remain Executive Producer Sharon Grimberg, who plays a key editorial role in overseeing documentaries for the American Experience series. “We Shall Remain tells the story of westward expansion not from the point of view of white people facing west, but of Native people looking east.” Rather than presenting a sweeping, encyclopedic narrative, We Shall Remain focuses on five stories, with Indian voices as their touchstone, taking viewers on a 300-year journey from the so-called first Thanksgiving in New England to the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. “In introducing these stories, we want to help re-imagine the way Americans think about Native history and contemporary Native communities,” says Mark Samels, Executive Producer for American Experience. “And no project better illustrates the singular role that WGBH and PBS play in today’s media landscape—tackling complex history and bringing it to life.” Funding such a complicated effort always is a challenge. “Increasingly,” Samels adds, “foundations whose missions resonate with our own are playing a critical role.” WGBH’s pitch to the Ford Foundation for We Shall Remain “meshed nicely with Ford’s . commitment to strengthen democratic values, question stereotypes, and build common . understanding,” he continues. “And we were thrilled and grateful when Ford supported our . work with generous grants in 2005 and 2007.” The We Shall Remain initiative—an American Experience production in association with Native American Public Telecommunications, anchored by the five-part PBS series—signals a major . collaboration between Native and non-Native filmmakers, advisors, and scholars. ReelNative, an innovative short film project, allows Native Americans to tell their own stories on film. Nationwide, We Shall Remain community outreach coalitions coordinated by 15 public television stations . will engage schools and libraries, and a companion website, pbs.org/weshallremain, will provide resources well beyond broadcast. “You can’t understand America in the 21st century if you don’t understand the Native . experience,” Sharon Grimberg concludes. “We Shall Remain is a powerful way to explore a critical strand of our history, through Native eyes.” Funding for We Shall Remain is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Foundation, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and Kalliopeia Foundation. Exclusive corporate funding for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual. Major funding for American Experience is provided by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers.
To learn more about how you can support WGBH initiatives like We Shall Remain, contact WGBH Director of Major Gifts Ellen Frank at 617.300.3809, or email ellen_frank@wgbh.org.
Sharing the Vision
Fall 2008
M i c h a e l G re ye yes a s T ucumse h
G e ro ni m o, 19 07
They were charismatic and forward thinking, imaginative and courageous, compassionate and resolute, and, at times, arrogant, vengeful, and reckless. For hundreds of years, Native American leaders from Massasoit, Tecumseh, and Tenskwatawa, to Major Ridge, Geronimo, and Fools Crow valiantly resisted expulsion from their lands and fought the extinction of their culture. Sometimes, their strategies were militaristic, but more often they were diplomatic, spiritual, legal, and political. We S ha l l R e ma in A p ri l 2 0 09 o n WGBH 2
Inside View from the President. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Nova Reaches for the Stars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ralph Lowell Society Bulletin . . . . . . . . . . . .
... 3-4 Nantucket by Night. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Giving Back...with Impact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6