THE HISTORY OF ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION • 2012
Written and directed by Ain Gordon
In collaboration with filmmakers Ramona Emerson and Kelly Byars
With Joe Cross, Derek Lucci, and Stacey Sargeant
The History of Asking the Wrong Question theatrically explores any relationship Native Americans have to a history dominant culture has too often written for them. Wrong Question... is a live fictitious documentary, including actual filmed interviews with more than a dozen Native People from multiple Nations, fusing them with imagined interviews with some of the long-dead men and women who moved to historicize Native Culture in the 19th century. Cutting back and forth between live and recorded action, the piece questions notions of self-presentation, performed truth, and the fictional fame imposed by any effort to re-tell any event. Wrong Question... is a Pick Up Performance Co(s) Production written and directed by three-time Obie-Award winning writer/director/actor Ain Gordon, featuring work by Albuquerque filmmakers Kelly Byars and Ramona Emerson of Reel Indian Pictures and a multicultural cast of three actors from New York City. Wrong Question... has been commissioned by North Fourth art Center and supported in part by the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund and the Leon Lowenstein Foundation.
Photos by R Malcolm