Project Description
The Dudley Yazzie footage consists of two parts:
A) “Dudley Yazzie, 100 Years” is a 20-minute documentary film honoring Dudley Yazzie’s life on the Navajo Indian Reservation. It was produced as a gift to the Yazzie family by Purple Root Productions in August, 2021 on the occasion of Dudley’s 100th Birthday Celebration. The documentary has been shared on social media with accolades from the native community, and is now in the public domain. It can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/561046152
B) “The Footage” consists of the entire seven (7) hours of Dudley Yazzie film footage recorded at his family hogan in White Cone, Arizona. The footage has been meticulously translated from Navajo into English, with supertitles added to insure accessibility by non-Navajo speakers. Navajo names of characters and sacred places have been faithfully preserved, as well as Dudley’s way of speaking. The footage is provided on a flash drive, with the full written transcript provided in English with time notations.
The Production
The production began in 2020 in the midst of the Covid epidemic. Our goal was to interview Dudley Yazzie, 99 year old Navajo Medicine Man. Many medicine men on the Navajo Reservation were dying from this dreaded virus. so time was of the essence.
After filming we translated the footage into English with the help of our Navajo translators. This process took several years and in 2023 we completed the process and edited English subtitles to the original interview footage. In 2024 we have completed the website so that Dudley Yazzie’s words of wisdom are preserved in perpetuity.
