PRODUCTION
Production Companies
Sacajawea The Movie, LLC
Broken Hand Productions
Martin Nuza Productions
John Scott Productions
Temple Gate Films
Locations, Film Incentives & Rebates
Business Plan & Budget Available
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NOTE: Our teaser reel is not the film's trailer. It was created to promote the essence of the project to investors with the understanding it is not authentic. The actual film production will present authenticity and accuracy of regalia, languages, etc. for the actual time period in 1805.
DIRECTOR
SENIOR PRODUCER
Martin Nuza
Award-Winning Production Team:
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SYNOPSIS
It is autumn, 1800. The Shoshoni people are camped at Three Forks, the headwaters of the Missouri River. They are securing food for a frigid winter, by following the path of the buffalo. Among the group is a 12-year-old girl, Boinair, who is preparing for her traditional celebration of womanhood. She is betrothed to Wakini, and her future as a Shoshoni wife and respected woman of her tribe awaits.
But that evening when the men are away hunting, Hidatsa warriors attack the vulnerable village. As chaos erupts, villagers stumble down the hill to hide in the cottonwoods. Boinair hears the commotion, but she is already at the river when two warriors on horseback rush toward her, chasing her into the deeper current. She fights with all her might. But in that moment, everything changes as she is stolen away from those she loves.
In early 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissions his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition to the Pacific Ocean. By June, William Clark joins the Corps of Discovery.
At the same time, along the Knife River, Boinair is now a slave at the Hidatsa village. She has been given the name, Sacag(j)awea by the chief, which means Bird Woman. As property of the tribe, she is helplessly traded for a gun, to a brutish French trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau. She is soon pregnant with his son.
By November 1804, the Corps of Discovery arrives at the Hidatsa village. They are searching for an interpreter to negotiate for Shoshoni horses to cross the treacherous mountains. The tribe welcomes the men, their trinkets and their guns. With winter approaching, the explorers build a fort to stay until spring.
Sacagawea believes these men are her way back home. After convincing her arrogant husband that he could be important to the explorers, especially since his woman speaks Shoshoni, Charbonneau secures a place on the expedition for them both. Though Captain Lewis has tremendous doubts about taking an infant on this harrowing trek, they head west toward the distant snow-capped peaks.
Through horrendous weather, starvation and the constant threat of death, the Corps relies on Sacagawea’s memory of Beaver Head rock, and they finally reach the Shoshoni village. After five years, “Boinair” is reunited with her friends and family. But her joy and the dream of staying with her people is soon lost when she faces Wakini at Shoshoni Cove. For she and her son belong to the white man.
After blessing Sacagawea’s child, lifting him up to the Great Spirit, Chief Cameahwait, her uncle (brother), shares his wisdom with his niece (sister). He ignites Sacagawea’s spirit by giving her a gift and a new quest to reach the Great Water. Though devastated, Sacagawea trusts her Spirit’s call and accepts what seems in that moment, an unhappy fate - not yet realizing her true, timeless and consequential destiny is before her…
