[nativestudies-l] NEWS: CT Casino expansion, Abenaki filmmaker Obomsawin

[Alyssa Mt. Pleasant]

>From the H-AmIndian list-serve (more info on this list available at http://www.asu.edu/clas/history/h-amindian/)

[1]

"Connecticut casinos expand as economy slows," John Christoffersen, The
Associated Press State & Local Wire, May 17, 2008.  Copyright 2008
Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.  Full text available at:
http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-17145755.apds.m0942.bc-ct--casimay17,0,2291298.story

"Two of the world's largest casinos are getting a lot bigger this week,
betting that they can draw more visitors by becoming entertainment
destinations even as the gaming industry suffers nationally because of high
gas prices and the weak economy. Foxwoods Resort Casino, run by the
Mashantucket Pequots Indian tribe, will open its $700 million MGM Grand this
weekend. The 30-story, two-million-square-foot property includes a new
casino, hotel, a 4,000-seat performing arts theater, restaurants run by
celebrity chefs, luxury stores, the largest ballroom in the Northeast and
new convention space to accommodate thousands. Several celebrities,
including Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Josh Groban, John Mayer and
Sean "Diddy" Combs, will participate in the grand opening ceremonies.
Mohegan Sun, run by the Mohegan tribe, held a groundbreaking ceremony
Wednesday for a 39-story hotel and House of Blues music hall, part of a $925
million expansion. The projects are part of a wave of investments by casino
resorts trying to maintain and expand market share during tough times…"


[2]

"From Moose Factory to Oka to the MoMA; Native documentarian Alanis
Obomsawin feted by New York museum," Simon Houpt, The Globe and Mail
(Canada), May 17, 2008. Copyright 2008 The Globe and Mail, a division of
CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.  Full text available at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080517.OBOMSAWIN17//TPStory/Entertainment

"Alanis Obomsawin is having a very good month. Two weeks ago, the native
Canadian documentary filmmaker paid a visit to the National Arts Centre in
Ottawa, where she was honoured with the Governor-General's Performing Arts
Award for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of her more than 40 years
behind the camera. This week, the Museum of Modern Art in New York kicked
off a 12-film series running until May 26 that is the most comprehensive
U.S. retrospective of Obomsawin's work ever mounted. And later this month,
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts will screen three of her films. 'She is the
first lady of native Canadian filmmaking,' said Sally Berger, an assistant
curator in the department of film at MoMA and the organizer of the Obomsawin
series. 'She's a very important person, because she started making films at
a time when it was very difficult for an indigenous person to direct their
own films. She continued to do that, and it became her life mission.' The
MoMA program spans Obomsawin's career, from her first short, Christmas at
Moose Factory (1971), an impressionistic portrait of the Christmas season in
a small community on the shore of James Bay, told through the eyes of
children who live there; to her most recent feature, Gene Boy Came Home
(2007), about an Abenaki Nation man who left home in the 1960s at age 15 to
work in construction and ended up on the front lines of the Vietnam War…"

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