(Adam Mazo, Ben Pender-Cudlip, 2018)

86 minutes

For decades, child welfare authorities have been removing Native American children from their homes to “save them from being Indian.” In Maine, the first official Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States begins a historic investigation. Dawnland goes behind-the-scenes as this historic body grapples with difficult truths, redefines reconciliation, and charts a new course for state and tribal relations.

Adam Mazo is an Emmy® award-winning filmmaker and the director of the Upstander Project. He co-founded the Upstander Project with Mishy Lesser in 2009. He is the co-director and producer of the Emmy® award-winning feature-length film, Dawnland (Independent Lens, Woods Hole Jury Award for Best Documentary 2018), First Light (Camden International Film Festival 2016), Dear Georgina (Camden International Film Festival 2019) and Bounty. Adam directed and produced Coexist (WORLD Channel, Africa Movie Academy Award Nominee 2014), and he is currently co-directing and producing the upcoming Untitled Margaret Moxa Film. He is a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance, Global Impact Producers group and Temple Israel of Boston. He is a descendant of Ashkenazi Jews from Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Germany. Originally from Minnesota, he graduated from the University of Florida, and now lives with his wife and sons in the territory of the Massachusett people in the place known as Boston.