Four Directions Productions Embarks on ‘Next Animated Legend’
The Oneida Indian Nation’s Four Directions Productions announced Nov. 9 that it has started work on its second 3D animated short–which is scheduled to be completed in 2011. Once again, the award-winning studio is taking one of the ancient legends of the Iroquois and bringing it to life through animation.
In April 2007, the indigenous operation premiered its first animated short, “Raccoon & Crawfish,” at the Syracuse International Film Festival. That production went on to win awards at 18 festivals around the world over the past two years, including the prestigious Moondance Festival (2007) in Los Angeles and the International Film Festival of England (2008), as well as being screened at the renowned Cannes Festival in France in May 2008.
The upcoming animated short, “My Home”, focuses on a belief especially important to American Indians, the care and protection of “Mother Earth.” The key characters in this animation are an ambitious but environmentally sloppy beaver and a turtle that takes her role seriously as a caretaker of the environment.
The newest animated story from Four Directions Productions will be introduced as it would have hundreds of years ago, with an Oneida elder telling the legend to an Oneida child. According to Dale Rood, studio operations director for Four Directions Productions and a member of the Oneida Nation Council, “These legends are how young Oneidas have learned life lessons since time immemorial–as I also did many years ago. Today, we are preserving them for future generations, as well as helping non-Indians learn about our culture, history and who we are as a people.”
Located on Nation lands near the city of Sherrill, Four Directions Productions has also produced segments for Ferris Industries as well as the Oneida Nation’s Turning Stone Resort and Casino.
About the Oneida Indian Nation
The Oneida Indian Nation is a federally recognized Indian nation in Central New York. A founding member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (also known as the Six Nations or Iroquois Confederacy), the Oneida Indian Nation sided with the Americans in the Revolutionary War and was thanked by Congress and President George Washington for its loyalty and assistance. Today, the Oneida Nation consists of about 1,000 enrolled Members, most of them living in Central New York. The Nation’s enterprises, which employ nearly 5,000 people, include Turning Stone Resort and Casino, the S vOn chain of gas stations and convenience stores, a nearly 1,500-head Angus beef herd, several retail outlets, and Four Directions Media, which includes a national weekly newspaper and a 3D animation production company. Proceeds from these enterprises are used to rebuild the Nation’s economic base and provide essential services, including housing, health care, and education incentives and programs, to its Members.
