On Tuesday, July 22, at 6:00 p.m. the Cuba Historical Society will meet for a screening and discussion of the film, Lake of Betrayal. Filmmaker and SBU Professor Scott Sackett will join us to discuss the process of creating and filming this documentary.
Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania was a flashpoint in history for the Seneca Nation of Indians. Completed in 1965, the dam was to mitigate flooding in Pittsburgh, 198 miles downriver, but the 27-mile reservoir that formed above it inundated vast tracts of the Seneca Indians’ ancestral lands, forcing their removal in breach of one of the United States’ oldest treaties. Set against a backdrop of a federal Indian termination policy, pork-barrel politics, and undisclosed plans for private hydropower, Lake of Betrayal reveals an untold story from American history—a one-sided battle pitting a small Native American nation against some of the strongest political, social, and commercial forces in the country. Although the Seneca suffered irreplaceable cultural losses, the Kinzua crisis became a turning point to build a stronger Seneca Nation.
Lake of Betrayal is produced by Toward Castle Films and Skipping Stone Pictures and is a presentation of Vision Maker Media with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding provided by the Seneca Nation of Indians. Produced in association with the Center for Independent Documentary. © Copyright 2017 Toward Castle Films, LLC & Skipping Stone Pictures, Ltd.
Scott Sackett is a non-fiction filmmaker and public media producer with a background in radio journalism. His work has appeared nationally on PBS, APT, NETA, Indigenous Connections, NPR, Public Radio International, AP Network News, Amazon Prime, and in film festivals in North America and Europe. He is also a lecturer in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University and serves as manager of the Bob Koop Broadcast Journalism Laboratory and faculty advisor to the student-run radio station, WSBU-FM, 88.3 The Buzz.
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