“Sand Creek Massacre film aimed to screen at Jackson Hole Film Festival”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Sand Creek Massacre film aimed to screen at Jackson Hole Film Festival”

May 8, 2008 — CENTENNIAL, CO — “The Sand Creek Massacre”, an award-winning film
as told from the perspective of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, has been accepted
as an entry in the MovieHatch.com online competition. The top selection will be put into
production of up to $5,000,000 for a film, and a $1,000,000 production budget
for a tv show. There will also be screenings at the Jackson Hole Film Festival for the final
film production June 5-9, 2008.

Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek, the producer of “The Sand Creek
Massacre”, says this is a wonderful opportunity to help create awareness for all
native people and to share in an educational journey for everyone.”

One simply needs to go to http://moviehatch.com/jackson/, view the film, click on
vote and click on the number of stars you want to give it. That’s all there is to it
and it gives you an opportunity to participate in this compelling film project.

Vasicek added, “If ‘The Sand Creek Massacre’ wins, I will put a feature film
about the Sand Creek Massacre into production and also a mini-series
about the Sand Creek Massacre. Get out there and vote folks and pass
the word along to all others including your kids.”

Sandcreekmassacre.net provides detailed information about the Sand Creek Massacre
including the award-winning six-minute Sand Creek Massacre short film and
a variety of still images, witness accounts, video and commentary about the Sand Creek Massacre.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality products that serve
to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
The Writer/Filmmaker Whisperer
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
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“Sand Creek Massacre story hits air waves”

“From an early age the majority of Americans have imprinted on their brain the image of the ‘savage’ Indian. In any textbook, the Indian is portrayed hostile and ready to take a life. From books, paintings, and Hollywood movies, one can easily come across the image. This image was used to dehumanize a group of
people in order to justify taking their lives for land. Unfortunately, this disturbing portrayal of the Native American people has been accepted and promoted in our educational system and entertainment industry.
When one race is portrayed only in the positive, at the same time another race is portrayed only in the negative. It is imperative to recognize these racist and stereotypical portrayals and correct it by teaching the truth. American Indians are people, not, mascots, not savages, not an option for a Halloween costume.”

Thoughts from the Producer, Donald L. Vasicek

When I walk at Sand Creek today, I step carefully.

My size ten and a halves sink into the sand. Where there is grass or plants, Canadian thistle or tamarisk or sage or some other one of the numerous types of grass and plants at Sand Creek, it catches my clod hoppers, just before they sink into the sand.

Stepping beside the gnarled and stately cottonwood trees, roots feel hard under my Reeboks. The roots catch my feet, perhaps, like guardian angels, but yet, possibly parts of human remains. I know not where to take the next step, or how.

I fear that I will step on someone who died here, whose remains are permanent parts of the sand, the grass, and the trees. I wonder if I am walking in the buffalo wallow where this woman died. I step carefully because I feel the people who died here reaching out for me and I can’t see or hear them. I don’t know how to help them. I feel their presence, their fear, their terror, their disbelief, their helplessness to save their children, their husbands and wives, their disabled relatives, their parents and their grandparents.

Just like when I sat on a curb at Ground Zero in Manhattan two weeks after 9/11, I grieve for them. I grieve for myself. I grieve because I am alive and they died agonizing deaths. I grieve because I am helpless to give something to these victims to neutralize their agony, perhaps even, to reverse their deaths.

I turn and scan the horizon. It appears like it is overlooking the Sand Creek Massacre Site. Somehow, it makes me feel better, at the least, for the moment. Then, I have to move forward. I look down and wonder, where should I place my foot next?

~Donald L. Vasicek, Writer/Filmmaker, Olympus Films+, LLC