Reaghan Tarbell (2)
Reaghan Tarbell
“Telling the story about my family and my community was, at the same time, the most challenging and most rewarding time of my life,” says Reaghan Tarbell, a Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) filmmaker from Kahnawake, Quebec. She won widespread acclaim for Little Caughnawaga: To Brooklyn and Back, her film about the Mohawk high steel workers who helped create the New York skyline, and the women who sustained their thriving community in Brooklyn. She has collaborated with Montreal-based Mushkeg Media, notably on Finding Our Talk, a series on Indigenous languages, and has worked with the National Museum of the American Indian.
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Little Caughnawaga: To Brooklyn and BackReaghan Tarbell 2008 56 minMohawk high steel workers have a special place in North American history. The iconic New York skyline - with its great monuments to modernity - is the fruit of their labour.
While the men were scraping the skies, the women had their feet firmly on the ground - sustaining a vibrant Mohawk community in the heart of Brooklyn.
Little Caughnawaga evokes the neighbourhood's heyday - from the 1920s through to the 60s - and salutes the spirited women who kept the culture alive.
The Brooklyn Mohawks were mostly from Kahnawake, a community long associated with the dangerous world of high steel. In 1907 the small town lost 33 men in the Quebec Bridge disaster, an event that still looms large in collective memory.
Moving back and forth between Brooklyn and Kahnawake, director Reaghan Tarbell crafts an affectionate portrait of Little Caughnawaga ad a heartfelt tribute to the cultural resilience of her people. -
Le petit CaughnawagaReaghan Tarbell 2008 48 min
Dans ce long métrage documentaire, la cinéaste Reaghan Tarbell part à la découverte de ses racines en retraçant l'histoire de la communauté mohawk de Brooklyn (New York). Du début du XXe siècle aux années 1960, les Mohawks de Kahnawake, au Québec, ont participé sans interruption à la construction des gratte-ciels de la métropole américaine. Plusieurs s’y sont établis, créant une sous-culture autochtone citadine au cœur de Brooklyn. La cinéaste leur rend hommage.
