Anangong Miigaading (Star Wars- A New Hope) premiers TONIGHT at the State

Theresa Eischen records Princess Leia’s lines in a studio in Winnipeg, Manitoba. (credit: Lucasfilm, Ltd. / Disney)

The State Theatre in Traverse City is hosting a premier of the original Star Wars film from 1977 dubbed entirely in the Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) language. The Ojibwe dub brings together a talented cast of Anishinaabe speakers was directed by Ellyn Stern Epcar and produced by Michael Kohn. Points North from Interlochen interviewed Theresa Eischen (voicing Princess Leia) about what drew her to the project:

Theresa Eischen would visit her grandparents every summer. They lived on a remote First Nations reservation in Canada. One of her favorite memories was their epic movie nights.

“I think they were the only family in Little Grand Rapids that owned a film projector,” remembers Theresa.

Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins would all pile into one of the small houses on the reservation. They’d cover the windows with towels or sheets to make the living room dark.

“I remember sitting down with her and watching movies that were very entertaining,” she said. “But I wasn’t sure of how much she actually understood of the movie.”

That’s because Theresa’s grandma didn’t speak English. She’s Ojibwe and spoke Anishinaabemowin – the endangered indigenous language of the Great Lakes region.

Theresa dreamed of the day her grandma could watch a film in her own language.

The language of Theresa’s grandmother is also the language of the original people of this place so that day is here! (in Traverse City at least). The film is supposedly on Disney+. I wasn’t able to find it on mine, but when I do I’ll update it here.