Trudell follows the extraordinary life of Native American poet and activist John Trudell, from his impoverished childhood in Omaha to his leadership in the American Indian Movement (AIM), and his reincarnation as an acclaimed musician and spoken word poet.
The film begins in the late 1960s, when Trudell and a community group, Indians of All Tribes, occupied Alcatraz Island for 21 months in a symbolic effort to claim the island for the Indian people. The event brought international attention to the Native American cause.
After the Alcatraz occupation, Trudell went on to become national spokesman of the American Indian Movement, earning a reputation as one of the most volatile political “subversives” of the 1970s. The FBI dossier on Trudell exceeded 17,000 pages, one of the longest in the bureau’s history.
In 1979, Trudell’s controversial career in politics came to a sudden end. Hours after he burned an American flag in protest on the steps of the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., Trudell’s pregnant wife, three children, and mother-in-law were killed in a suspicious house fire on a Nevada reservation.
After years outside the public eye, in 1983 Trudell began to put his poems to music with the help of friend and fellow activist Jackson Browne and Kiowa guitar legend the late Jesse Ed Davis. The recordings drew the attention of musicians, activists and critics and put Trudell into the realm of social theorist and philosopher. In his musical and film career, Trudell has worked with the likes of Robert Redford (Incident at Oglala), Sam Shepard and Val Kilmer (Thunderheart), Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. Angelina Jolie produced Trudell’s most recent album, Bone Days, and executive produced Trudell, the documentary.
Combining interviews with with archival footage, concert clips and abstract imagery, Trudell tells the story of a fascinating man and a complex artist whose impact continues to grow.
The Filmmaker
In her career in film, Cherokee filmmaker Heather Rae has worked in some producing capacity on more than a dozen documentaries and half a dozen features. Trudell is the culmination of 13 years of Rae’s work as a filmmaker and activist. It has played in more than 50 film festivals worldwide, garnering accolades such as Best Documentary Feature at the 30th Annual American Indian Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival.
From 1996 to 2001, Rae ran the Native Program at the Sundance Institute and was a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. After leaving Sundance, Rae worked for one year as senior vice president of production for Winter Films. In 2003, Rae independently produced the feature film American Monster starring Adam Beach, Gary Farmer and Udo Kier. She is currently producing A Thousand Guns starring Michael Robinson (Trans, The Slaughter Rule) and directed by Julian Goldberger (Trans, The Hawk is Dying) and The Space Between All Things starring Yvonne Russo (Naturally Native, True Whispers) and directed by Randy Redroad (The Doe Boy). Rae also co-produced Backroads, directed by Shirley Cheechoo, which premiered at Sundance in 2000.
Prior to 1996, Rae worked on documentary films including CBS’s 500 Nations, Turner Broadcasting’s The Native Americans, and PBS’s Storytellers of the Pacific. She produced a documentary on the making of Smoke Signals for the Sundance Channel and was an associate producer on Silent Tears. Rae currently teaches film studies at Boise State University and sits on the board of directors for the True West Cinema Festival and TVTV, Boise’s community television outlet. Rae resides in Idaho with her husband and three children.
Co-Producers
B. Russell Friedenberg
Rob Ganger
Lara Hill Dempsey
Associate Producer
Faye Brown
Written by
B. Russell Friedenberg
Cinematography by Gilbert Salas and Heather Rae
Edited by Gregory Bayne and Heather Rae
Sound Design by Kent Sparling
Music by John Trudell and Bad Dog
Project Advisors
Merata Mita
Marc Levin
Wilma Mankiller
Additional Camera Work
Peter West
Gregory Bayne
Jullian Goldberger
Duane Humeyestewa
Josh Homnick
Jennifer Marquesas West
Rongotai Lomas
Syd Klinge
Calum Grant
Dain Pape
Giovani Lampassi
Leanne Whitney
Chris Landrey
Laura Curry
Production Interns
Jaki Covington
Jory Sutton
Archivist
Elyse Katz
Researchers
B. Russell Friedenberg
Sheila Han
Jennifer Villalobos
Archival Sources
ABC News Video Source
Columbia Pictures
Courtesy of BBC Worldwide
Courtesy CNN and CNN Exclusive Video
Echo Films
Getty Images
Idanha Films
Instead of Prisons courtesy of Shaw Community Cable
KRON 4 Archives
Christopher McLeod Earth Images
Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) and Green Mountain Post Films
NBC News Archives
Pacifica Radio Archives
State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City, KCRG-TV Collection
StudioCanal Image
Palomino Concert courtesy of Taj Mahal and Kelly Davis
UCLA Film & Television Archive
Shoshone-Pauite Tribe, Duck Valley NV
Archive.org
Still Photographs
Larry Gus
Michelle Vignes
Dick Bancroft
Abe Perlstein
Agnes Patak
Ilka Hartman
“Voices Catching Up”, “Crazy Horse”, “Lucky Motel”, “Fables”, “Living in Reality”, “Putting A Face On God”, “Undercurrent”, “Bone Days”, “Listening”, “I Went So Willingly”, “Tina’s Smile”, “The Ones Who Knew Me”, “Shaman Make A Chant”, “Hanging On The Cross”
Lyrics by John Trudell
Music performed by John Trudell & Bad Dog
Traditional Song by Quiltman
Slide Guitar by Mark Shark
Cajon & percussion performed by Ricky Eckstein
Bass Guitar performed by Bobby Tsukamoto
Electric Guitar performed by Billy Watts
Published by Poet Tree Publishing
“One Journey/Children of Earth”
Performed by Sage Trudell and Quiltman
Guitar by Mark Shark
Published by Poet Tree Publishing
“To God Poetry”
Performed by John Trudell
Traditional Song by Quiltman, Madeline and Bark
Words by John Trudell
“Beauty In A Fade”
Music performed by John Trudell & Jesse Ed Davis
Lyrics by John Trudell
Published by Poet Tree Publishing
“Living In Reality”
Music performed by John Trudell and Quiltman, Madeline and Bark
Lyrics by John Trudell
Published by PoetTree Publishing
Music From “Palomino”
Music Performed by John Trudell w/Jessie Ed Davis and guests
“Children Of Earth”
Vocals by Star Trudell and Quiltman
Guitar Mark Shark
Bass Ricky Eckstein
Published by Poet Tree Publishing
“Paint Yourself”
Music Performed by Robbie Robertson
Permission by Medicine Hat Music
Published by Warner/Chappell
SPECIAL THANKS
Chema, Emilio & Johnny Sequoyah
The Manning Family
Oliver Russell Agency
JuriFilm
Bird Runningwater
Carol Cornsilk
Hanay Geiogamah
Sherman Alexie
Randy Redroad
True West Cinema Festival
Jackson Browne
Donald “Buddha” Miller
Cree Clover-Miller
North By Northwest
Custom Recording and Sound
Paul Trejo
Sam Hurwitz Productions
Chris Russo
Ro Parker
Birchbark Books
Minnesota Film Arts
Lamphouse Theater
The Great State of Idaho
Funding for this program provided by
Angelina Jolie
Marcheline Bertrand
Chief Harry B. Wallace
James Haven
Bonnie Raitt
Seventh Generation Fund
Geralyn Doyle
Mike Biskey
Ed Gelin
Morgan Shastal
Effective Records
This program was produced by Appaloosa Pictures which is solely responsible for its content.