BAAM at The Gem Presents: "We Are The Warriors" and Q&A with Filmmakers David Camlin and Megan Grumbling

Please join BAAM at The Gem in welcoming filmmakers David Camlin and Megan Grumbling for a Q & A and screening of their recently released film We Are The Warriors, winner of the 2023 Maine International Film Festival’s Tourmaline Prize for best feature made in Maine. The Gem will be one of the first theaters in Maine to host a screening of this film!

This film is particularly special for us to show because Mali Obomsawin, who is the music composer and post-production consultant for We Are The Warriors, will be performing at The Gem with the Mali Obomsawin Xtet on Sunday, October 1st, at 5pm. To find out more about this event, please click HERE.

Film Synopsis:

As the harmful phenomenon of Native American mascots continues to be challenged nationally, public school systems are addressing their own use of Indigenous team names, icons, and imagery. We Are the Warriors is a documentary following residents of Wells, a small town in Maine, as they take on this polarizing issue after facing public allegations that Warriors football fans mocked Indigenous culture. The school district investigates the incident and forms a Mascot Advisory Committee to hear Wabanaki perspectives and consider the fate of their beloved mascot.

We are the Warriors reveals how difficult conversations about identity and history are key to addressing Native American mascots.  The film’s Co-Directors, both graduates of Wells High School, gathered interviews and insights from residents of Wells and Wabanaki people from what is now Maine, Québec, and the Canadian Maritimes. Revelations about the town’s brutal colonial history and difficult conversations about the actual impact of the intended honor were key to changing hearts and minds of committee members. The film highlights evolving opinions of residents with a secondary focus on the history of the region, and after months of informed consideration, the committee votes to recommend retiring the mascot to the school board and the policy is adopted.

Filmmaker Bios:

David Camlin is an independent filmmaker, editor, and video producer who is drawn to stories about human connection. His more recent work as an editor includes Welcome to Commie High (2020), a feature length documentary about the founding and legacy of an alternative public high school with an hour long PBS version that has been aired more than 1,400 times across  80% of national PBS stations. El Lobo y La Paloma (2019) is a flamenco inspired live performance about loss, grief, and our connection to the spiritual world. The film and accompanying educational material is currently available in corrections facilities nationwide via the tablet based learning system Edovo, and through online and theatrical screenings. After nearly twelve years of continually producing and editing independent documentary films, David is looking forward to a few months of downtime before finding his next project. 

Megan Grumbling is a writer, editor, teacher, and writing mentor. She earned her Master’s Degree in cultural reporting at New York University, and since then has written regularly about film, theater, and social issues for the Portland Phoenix, Dispatch, The Chart and other journals. Her recent publications include Persephone in the Late Anthropocene, a collection of poetry exploring environmental crisis and the nature of story itself; and Booker’s Point, an oral history-inspired portrait-in-verse about an old Maine woodsman and his home on Ell Pond. She also wrote and co-directed the short film Carrying Place, an allegory about cultural amnesia that was featured as part of Best of the Maine International Film Festival and screened on Maine Public Television; and she shares writer-director credit on the immersive film installation She Dives Down, about the fluid nature of narrative.

Music Composer and Post Production Consultant:

Mali Obomsawin (We Are The Warriors music composer and post-production consultant) is a citizen of the Odanak (Abenaki) First Nation. She is a musician, educator, racial justice advocate, writer, and #landback organizer. Mali plays music professionally as Mali Obomsawin (bassist, singer-songwriter, composer), and with the band Lula Wiles (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings), touring internationally and garnering acclaim from NPR Music, Rolling Stone, and Paper Magazine. Her most recent album, Sweet Tooth, is available for purchase as a digital download, on vinyl as a limited release, or compact disc. As a writer, Mali works for Sunlight Media Collective and has recently published freelance work in The Boston Globe and Smithsonian Folklife Magazine while serving as the Executive Director of the Wabanaki-led nonprofit Bomazeen Land Trust.

Doors @ 6:00pm

Intro of Film with David Camlin & Megan Grumbling @ 6:30

Film followed by Q & A @ 6:45