1492 Revisited
A Provocative New Documentary on the
Quincentenary, the Construction of History,
American Culture, and Much More
In the 500 years that we have been celebrating Columbus' "discovery" of the "New World," the effect of that event on America's native peoples and on other non-Europeans has been overlooked for the most part.
This compelling half hour documentary changes that by providing an alternative, "indigenous" perspective on the quincentenary of Columbus' arrival.
The film features provocative artwork from the touring national exhibition Counter Colon-Ialismo as well as challenging commentary by artisits and scholars. In addition to presenting remarkable art pieces that address various aspects of the colonial encounter in the Americas, 1492 Revisited also raises important questions about the nature of history and its construction: Is the history that we know in large part shaped by the self-serving viewpoint of those with power?
In the words of one of the artists interviewed in the program, "Is it enough in a society such as we have in the United States to look at history strictly from a single point of view? Is there a need to introduce other voices? ...Not so much for the purpose of getting at a single truth, but for the purpose of realizing that history, like everything else involving human beings, is ultimately a negotiation."
Featured in the program are Alurtista, a Chicano poet and cultural critic; artists David Avalos, Deborah Small, and Karen Atkinson; Native American writer and activist Jan Elliott, editor of the Journal Indigenous Thought; Chicano scholar and art critic Victor Zamudio-Taylor; and two of the curators of the Counter Colon-Ialismo exhibition, Patricio Chavez from the Centro Cutural de la Raza in San Diego and Liz Lerma from MARS Artspace in Phoenix.
1492 Revisited is essential viewing for anyone interested in American history, multicultural and Native American issues, social problems, ethnography, the media, or contemporary art. It was produced by Paul Espinosa for KPBS San Diego.