THIS YEAR | Documentary, Drama, History
AMERICA'S WOMAN
A JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF AMERICA'S PAST AND FUTURE Does America's future depend on its past? Will America survive?
The feature-length documentary AMERICA'S WOMAN is the first film to explore in depth a mysterious woman’s influence on George Washington, his vision for America, and its independence – a vision that can deeply influence the nation’s need for healing and unity.
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FIVE FAQs ABOUT 'AMERICA'S WOMAN'
WHY IS THE FILM CALLED ‘AMERICA’S WOMAN?’
The feature-length documentary is titled America’s Woman because a mysterious woman, who has been largely overlooked by historians on George Washington, exerted great influence at the time over Washington in terms of his vision for America as a nation, its independence, and his belief that the country should serve as a beacon of hope for the world. This happened during Washington’s assignment as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, throughout his tenure as 1st President of the United States, and even during his years in retirement. Hence, this woman, so often ignored if not dismissed, can be considered the Woman of the United States. She is not just a small part of the national memory, but a possibly active influencer upon America’s present and future. WHAT LED YOU TO MAKE THIS FILM AT THIS TIME? The overwhelming factors that helped me decide to make America’s Woman at this time were the ever-widening rifts happening recently in American society, which have deeply polarized and continue dividing up this fundamentally peace-loving nation into two bitterly opposing camps, without any meeting-ground in between. Since the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the end of the Cold War after that, America has been distinguished by its citizens’ ability to respectfully disagree about any subject under sun, including the third-wheel rails of politics and religion. Indeed, on foreign soil, this was considered one of the hallmarks of America, standing in stark contrast to the daily conflicts present in societies of many other developed and developing countries, where such divisions were often viewed as ripe opportunities for covertly or overtly suppressing one’s enemies and their supporters. That said, ever since the respective election of presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, together with the onset and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, America has become a rather volatile nation that is permeated by physical and rhetorical violence at every turn. This is not characteristic of the America that I have come to know and love over the years. Such tearing apart of America’s fabric pains me deeply, as it is the country that made me who I am today, both as a filmmaker and as a person. Therefore, after carrying out the necessary research, I was inspired to make the documentary America’s Woman, to show my country of adoption and fellow citizens that hope still exists for unifying our nation without violence once and for all. |
WHAT MADE YOU FEATURE THE WAMPANOAG NATION IN THE FILM?
The Wampanoag Indians of North America (‘People of the First Light’) have a very rich history of wisdom, knowledge, and language that has thus far been inadequately or inaccurately portrayed in film, if not outrightly neglected. Living in the Northeastern US Woodlands for about 12,000 years before the first colonialists arrived, the Herring Pond, Gay Head Aquinnah, and Mashpee Wampanoag were the main Native American tribe of Algonquins who lived in 69 villages that were spread out across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Wampanoag were the first people encountered by the Mayflower Pilgrims upon setting foot in Massachusetts. It was the Wampanoag sachem, Massasoit, and his people who helped the Pilgrims survive the dreadful winter of 1620-1621. Moreover, the first martyr of American liberty was Crispus Attucks, a Boston patriot of Wampanoag descent. The Wampanoag are thus as vital a part of American history as the Pilgrims, the Puritans, and the Founding Fathers, since without them America as we know it today would not exist. That said, the Wampanoag Nation per se was largely decimated by the leptospirosis epidemic of 1616-1619. Some Wampanoag, however, managed to survive and their descendants can still be found living on ancestral and other lands in Massachusetts. WHAT DID IT TAKE TO PUT THIS PROJECT TOGETHER? Putting together America’s Woman has taken over three years. Filming was carried out at six main locations in the US and other areas of the country. In the meantime, colleagues and I sifted through reams of archival footage, audio, documents, and still photographs from around the world, to bring to the big screen a living, breathing document of Washington’s vision for America. This led to a retrieval effort beyond anything we have done before, with thousands of hours spent on grounded research in several archives. WHAT DO YOU HOPE PEOPLE WILL COME AWAY WITH AFTER SEEING THE FILM? After seeing America’s Woman, our hope is that people will come away with their own personal experiences of the film, if not a renewed sense of hope for healing and unity throughout the nation. I say “our” and “we” because America’s Woman represents the dedication of several talented people who came together day and night to create this documentary. Indeed, without them, there would be no film. Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Therefore, we are excited about sharing this documentary with the country and the people, as we believe that every American has the right to live their life in peace, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. |
Stills
Thanks
SPECIAL THANKS
Dr. Stefan Attard, Adam Harris, Michael A. Levine,
Noam Kroll, Srinath Nagarajan, Ro Stubbs, Christopher Villiers
Dr. Stefan Attard, Adam Harris, Michael A. Levine,
Noam Kroll, Srinath Nagarajan, Ro Stubbs, Christopher Villiers
THANKS
Dave Berkebile, Hugh Brown, Gina Caruso, Stephen Coit, William Commanda, David Corporon, Anthony Crider, Adam Cuerden, Cyrus E. Dallin, Jim Emerson, Brennan Gilmore, Dr. Mark Heath, Kevin Hershberger, Carol Highsmith, Wenceslaus Hollar, Jonathan Holmes, Chris Hopewell, Mark Laganga, Jim Lo Scalzo, Luke Magelson, F. A. Martin, Tyler Merbler, Dan Meyers, Nanepashemet, Don O'Brien, Charles L. Philippi, Jon Poindexter, Steve Pruitt, Steve Pyke, Paul Revere, Ben Riesman, Karen Rinaldo, Abbie Rowe, Thomas Ruckle, Erin Schaff, Christian Schussele, Monika Sengul-Jones, Chip Somodevilla, Shannon Stapleton, Sarah Stierch, Cecil Stoughton, Thomas Sully, Michael Swan, William Talbott, James Tourtellote, John Trumbull, Kevin Westley, Anniella Weise, Stanley Wolfson, Lee Wright
Dave Berkebile, Hugh Brown, Gina Caruso, Stephen Coit, William Commanda, David Corporon, Anthony Crider, Adam Cuerden, Cyrus E. Dallin, Jim Emerson, Brennan Gilmore, Dr. Mark Heath, Kevin Hershberger, Carol Highsmith, Wenceslaus Hollar, Jonathan Holmes, Chris Hopewell, Mark Laganga, Jim Lo Scalzo, Luke Magelson, F. A. Martin, Tyler Merbler, Dan Meyers, Nanepashemet, Don O'Brien, Charles L. Philippi, Jon Poindexter, Steve Pruitt, Steve Pyke, Paul Revere, Ben Riesman, Karen Rinaldo, Abbie Rowe, Thomas Ruckle, Erin Schaff, Christian Schussele, Monika Sengul-Jones, Chip Somodevilla, Shannon Stapleton, Sarah Stierch, Cecil Stoughton, Thomas Sully, Michael Swan, William Talbott, James Tourtellote, John Trumbull, Kevin Westley, Anniella Weise, Stanley Wolfson, Lee Wright
OTHER THANKS
Albany Evening Journal Alice Augusta Rogerson Brown Photographic Collection, Digital Commonwealth at Massachusetts Collections Online Archive.org Bridgewater State College Chester County Times Das Bundesarchiv Eisenhower Media Network Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration Erie Daily Dispatch Falmouth Museums on the Green Federal Bureau of Investigation Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum George Eastman House of Photography and Film Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Harvard University Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe Indiana Historical Society Indigenous New England Digital Collections, Boston Children's Museum Kean Collection, Getty Images John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Middleton Place Foundation Minor Family Papers, University of Virginia Library Mississippi Department of Archives and History Museum of Fine Arts, Boston National Institute of Standards and Technology Native North American Indian Old Photos Collection by Jonathan Holmes New York Post New York World Telegram & The Sun Nobel Foundation Oregon Department of Transportation Parler Videos Exhibit Collection, ProPublica Insurrection Database Online Plimoth Patuxet Museums Potomac News & Messenger Portraiture Project, The Harvard Foundation Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library |
OTHER THANKS (cont.)
Rutgers University Law Review Sarasota County Public Schools Savannah Daily Herald Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Photography Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Southern Poverty Law Center State Library of Massachusetts, Boston The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The Hispanic Society of America The History List The Honolulu Advertiser The Huntington Library The Library Company of Philadelphia The Mashpee Enterprise The Massachusetts Teacher The Message Runner The Metropolitan Museum of Art The National News The New York Times The Palm Beach Post The Pennsylvania Journal & Weekly Advertiser The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Transportation Security Administration Unite Here Local 1 United States Citizenship and Immigration Services United States Customs and Border Protection United States Department of Defense United States Department of Justice United States Government Publishing Office United States Library of Congress United States National Archives and Records Administration United States National Park Service United States Navy Band University of Georgia Digital Library University of Nebraska-Lincoln Digital Commons WBZ Radio Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries |