Woven in Time: The Narragansett Salt Pond Preserve, is a documentary about the only surviving and recently preserved pre-contact (1100-1400) Native American village on the New England coast. A film of extraordinary beauty and poetry, Woven in Time is a story of 'place' - how land and spirit are interwoven and how uncovering this village could lead to a shared stewardship for this beautiful and bountiful territory of marshes, ponds, oceans and forests. Rhode Island PBS presents Woven in Time: The Narragansett Salt Pond Preserve on Sunday, November 22 at 6 p.m. as part of the ongoing Rhode Island PBS series, Rhode Island Stories. The film will encore Tuesday, November 24 at 8 p.m. on WSBE Learn.
This land, used for dirt biking and adjacent to a suburban housing development and shopping center, is on a pond in Point Judith, Narragansett, where the Narragansett people place their origins story. In the 1980s, archaeologists unearthed the remains of a centuries old village that managed to survive 'untouched' in a highly built section of the Rhode Island coast. The parcel then became the center of an almost 30-year battle between the right of property ownership and the social and cultural importance of preserving one of the most important archaeological sites on the East Coast of the United States. Funded by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, the Woven in Time film project does not shrink from the harsh relational reality - and ultimate cooperation - between the state of Rhode Island and the Narragansett.
Filmmaker Marc Levitt spent a year and a half interviewing more than 50 people from the Narragansett, state government officials and political figures, archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and local citizens. He has constructed the film in the same 'narrator free' style he employed in his first documentary, Stories in Stone.
Featuring drone photography, animation, music drawn from Rhode Island, national and international sources - including a recurring theme by the well known avant-garde composer, Moondog - Woven in Timeis a lyrical, thoughtful and beautifully realized
exploration of what it means to be 'from' somewhere.
Woven in Time: The Narragansett Salt Pond Preserve is directed and produced by Marc Levitt, with animation by Dennis Hlynsky, edited by Irene Su, Director of Photography Richard Goulis, additional photography by Thomas Payne and Mike Turecamo, drone photography by Kyla and Andrew Trench, and music by both local and international musicians including Campbell Brothers, Phil Edmonds, Hang Massive, Thawn Harris, Steve Jobe, Matt McClaren, Moondog, Jesse Robbins (Red Eagle), Josh Schurman, Cathy Clasper-Torch, and What Cheer Brigade. Frances Bisogno is the sound engineer, and recording took place at Jack Gauthier's Lake West Studio. The Executive Producer is Michael Hébert.
Action Speaks looks at contemporary issues through the lens of history by using under-appreciated twentieth-century dates that changed America. The Action Speaks series pairs documentary films with community discussion. This year's theme takes a look at patterns of consumption - media, technology, food - under the heading "What's Eating Us?"
WSBE Rhode Island PBS presents four documentaries (actually, we have six related documentaries scheduled) on Sunday nights at 9 PM (re-broadcast at 1:30 AM on Tuesdays). Then on the following Wednesday nights, Marc Levitt hosts a forum at AS220 (115 Empire Street in Providence) on the selected dates and events in history. Discussions include guest panelists, and the audience is invited to participate in old-fashioned, face-to-face community conversation and exchange of ideas.
October 3 at 9 PM -SEEING RED: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE MORAL DIVIDE
After the presidential election of 2004, the media announced that America was morally divided like never before, split between red and blue, between the faithful and the faithless. Bewildered and disappointed by the Democrat's loss, one Rhode Islander gathered a few friends and journeyed into red state America to meet the Evangelical Christians who supposedly single-handedly handed Bush his victory.
October 3 at 10 PM - GOOD FOOD
Something remarkable has been happening in the fields and orchards of the Pacific Northwest: Small family farmers are making a comeback. They're growing much healthier food, and lots more food per acre, while using less energy and water than factory farms.
Wednesday, October 6 at 5:30 PM (at AS220) 1926 Father Coughlin “On the Air”: The Birth of Right-Wing Radio Father Charles Coughlin was the first nationally-known conservative radio talk show host. He addressed large rallies and established a national network of listeners. Panelists ask how his methods, ideologies, and reach compare to those of today’s "right-wing" talk hosts.
October 10 at 9 PM - P.O.V. FOOD, INC.
Food, Inc. lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli — the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
Wednesday, October 13 at 5:30 PM (at AS220) 1971 Alice Waters Opens Chez Panisse Farmers’ Markets and Community Gardens are in many ways the children of Alice Waters and her restaurant, Chez Panisse. This panel looks at the economic, cultural, political, and public and private health implications of the local food movement.
October 17 at 9 PM -FRONTLINE: GROWING UP ONLINE
In Growing Up Online, FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the very public private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about how the Internet is transforming childhood. As more and more kids grow up online, parents are finding themselves on the outside looking in. At school, teachers are trying to figure out how to reach a generation that no longer reads books or newspapers.
Wednesday, October 20 at 5:30 PM (at AS220)1973 The First U.S. Mobile Phone Call Everyone has an opinion about the role of cellular phones and mobile media technology in society. Panelists will approach this topic from ethical, philosophical, political, and community activist points of view.
October 24 at 9 PM -INDEPENDENT LENS: GARBAGE DREAMS
On the outskirts of Cairo, residents of the world's largest garbage village collect 4,000 tons of trash per day, recycling nearly all of it. But when multinational waste collection corporations threaten the community's survival, three teenage boys born into the trash trade are forced to make difficult choices about their futures.
October 24 at 10 PM - PASSION FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The story describes how 14 Portland, Oregon, business leaders are applying "green" principles to address environmental concerns.
Wednesday, October 20 at 5:30 PM (at AS220) 1987 The Roaming Mobro Trash Barge In 1987, a barge filled with New York City garbage was dragged up and down the East Coast and into Mexican and Caribbean waters. Panelists relate this event to issues of consumption, disposal, and reuse.
ACTION SPEAKS is a unique television-community-radio series that looks at contemporary issues through the lens of under-appreciated dates that have changed America.
On Mondays beginning tonight at 9, and for the three additional weeks, host Marc Levitt introduces a documentary that supports and relates to the day in history under discussion. The four documentaries airing on Rhode Island PBS not only inform and entertain, but also provide additional insight and a different perspective on the event in history, helping fuel conversation.
On Wednesdays at 5:30 PM, Marc Levitt and guest panelists encourage lively audience participation in community conversations at AS220, 115 Empire Street in downtown Providence. Each panel draws three or four experts, academics, creatives, and other relevant guests into an open-ended discussion with the larger community.
On Sundays at 8 PM, a one-hour version of the previous Wednesday's community conversation will be broadcast on RI public radio station, WRNI.
April 27 at 9 PM Growing the Green Economy - The stark realities of the human impact on our planet - from global warming and depleted fish stocks, to spreading deserts and loss of species - make taking care of our environment more critical than ever. Amid - and because of - all the recent scientific evidence of environmental distress, a new more hopeful story is emerging. Growing The Green Economy covers this under-reported story of how companies, investors, pension fund managers, innovators and entrepreneurs worldwide are quietly growing a new, cleaner, greener, more ethical economy in our midst. Galvanized by the new evidence of how "business as usual" and old economic approaches to human development are unsustainable, these new leaders are busy reforming capitalism and the marketplace for healthier, more equitable, and environmentally-friendly futures for all our children.
A bit about ACTION SPEAKS AS220 and Marc Levitt began the Action Speaks series in 1995, grant supported by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (RICH). Since 2002, AS220 and RICH have worked as full partners in this yearly production. Thanks to an expansion grant from the National Endowment from the Humanities, the 2009 series will include two seasons, spring and autumn, each with four programs.
Additional information about the 2009 spring season, including topics and panelists, can be found at actionspeaksradio.org.
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