Film: Trudell

TRUDELL follows the life of Native American poet and activist John Trudell. The film begins in the late 1960s, when Trudell and Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz Island for 21 months.

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. He retreated from the public eye, and spent the next four years driving a car throughout North America. It was during this time that Trudell’s voice as a poet began to surface, giving him a new expression for his powerful opinions and raw emotions.

Before/after the screening join us for discussion, refreshments, and readings of John Trudell's poetry.