Little White Feather and the Hunter2

• Main Author: Lucas, Anna
• Format: Moving Image (Video)
• Language: English
• Published: Commissions East 2008
• Subjects: Pocahontas; Matoaka; Virginia; First Nations; Early Settlers; 1608; Rappahanock; Custalow; Pamunkey; Harwich; Gravesend; Essex County Council; Commisssions East; John Rolfe; Harwich Shanty Festival; Pocahontas Times; Dani Siciliano; Mara Carlyle; Bob Watson; Dennis Olding; Mattaponi; Arlington Arts Center; Paradox Now; Virginia Museum of Fine Art; Melissa Gronlund; Arlington; Mara
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2086/9518

Documentary film about Native American Princess Pocahontas, set in Essex UK and Virginia USA Little White Feather and the Hunter is a 40min, colour, stereo video and book, conceived, filmed and edited by artist Anna Lucas. Commissioned by Commissions East with Essex County Council, funded by Arts Council England for ‘Jamestown 400’ anniversary of the first English settlement in North America. Following UK screenings, further dissemination came from an exhibition/residency at Arlington Arts Centre, USA (2009).# "# The research investigates how the historical representation of indigenous and colonial narratives through fact and fiction inform current representations of knowledge and identity.# # Using her camera as research tool Lucas gathered audio-visual material from archaeological sites, museums, Native American reservations, and estuary landscapes in Virginia (USA) and Essex (UK) to re-interpret the story of Native American Princess Pocahontas.# Contextual research drew on mainstream media, including web, broadcast (Addams Family), Disney animation, cinema (The New World, Terence Malick) alongside historic engravings, written and oral accounts. Depictions of hunting as food source, trophy, ritualized event and leisure pursuit raise comparisons between contemporary and historic use of land, and became a metaphorical theme as the work developed.# "# The film challenges conventional documentary form through extended cinematic static location shots juxtaposed with its unusual soundtrack in which diverse opinions from tribal leaders, historians, re-enactors and ancestors are heard without exposing their authority or identity. The soundtrack also features existing sea shanties, hymns and commissioned folksongs sung by Dani Siciliano (USA) and Mara Carlyle (UK). The representation of Native American cultures and the impact of colonialism carried greater significance for American audiences.# "# Significantly in her publication essay ‘Failures of Fact and Fiction’, Lisa Lefeuvre, Head of Sculpture Studies, Henry ...