By Patric Hedlund, TME

Eric Roy Anderson, our Piñon Pines neighbor [shown in a handsome tux at a candid Cannes moment, at right, from about 20 years ago], wants to spread the word about a short film that is up for Academy Award consideration this year.

Here’s his note. “SACHEEN: Breaking the Silence” has qualified for Oscar consideration in the Short Documentary category.

“My thanks to Sacheen Littlefeather, Director Peter Spirer and Producer Gayle Anne Kelley for bringing me along on this adventure! And thanks to our small and hardworking crew. Maybe I should send my Tux to the cleaners!”

Anderson was cinematographer. Jada Pinkett Smith was an executive producer.

On March 27, 1973, Sacheen Littlefeather, of White Mountain Apache and Yaqui descent, was a 26 year old actress. She was asked by actor Marlon Brando to attend the 45th Academy Awards on his behalf. Brando was the favorite to win Best Actor for his performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s film, The Godfather.

More than year earlier, Littlefeather had written Brando with…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Marlon Brando telling Dick Cavett he did not regret his decision

Sacheen shows Marlon Brando’s speech that she was forbidden to read on television. This event broke the media blackout on the Wounded Knee demonstration in South Dakota.

Above: In 1973, Littlefeather gave Brando’s full speech to the press. The New York Times printed it in full, turning significant attention to the protest underway at Wounded Knee. Right: in 2017, Eric Anderson (of Piñon Pines) filming in Northern California with Sacheen Littlefeather for SACHEEN: Breaking the Silence, now under consideration for an Academy Award.

Littlefeather looking through Anderson’s camera

See more about the film at www.onebowlproductions.com/sacheen

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This is part of the January 29, 2021 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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