By Zak Hoskins
Sonya Rosario has traveled across five states on an antique Victorian sofa to bring her message to Port Angeles. The filmmaker debuted the trailer for her latest documentary “The Sofa Diaries” at Studium Generale. The film was inspired by her late mother Gloria and by family tensions Rosario experienced throughout her life.
“The sofa represents healing, sofas are were you laugh, you cry and you work out important issues”, said Rosario.
The film was partially funded by a grant from the Department of Commerce in Idaho and Texas. “Sofa Diaries,” now at the final stages of production, documents mothers’ and daughters’ trials, tribulations, and how healing occurs between them. Rosario interviewed dozens of sets of mothers and daughters in Idaho and Texas for the film.
“I had the opportunity to talk with her on the sofa, and I found her work to be profound and important,” said Leora Gansworth, Multicultural and Inclusion Service Director, also a Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg Native, ”she uses her talent as a film maker to create a platform for people’s voices without speaking for them.”
Rosario’s second film “Idaho’s Forgotten War” was shown at the longhouse. The film documents the uprising of the Kootenai Tribe one of the smallest tribes in Idaho. After living in squalor and extreme poverty on $10,000 in support annually from the United States, 63 Kootenai natives declared war on the country in 1974 led by Amy Trice, the head of tribal council. “This is a pen war, a signature war,” Trice said in the film.
Over 50 students were in attendance at the showing of the film, which was also shown at the Forks PC campus. “It was great she was inspiring you. You really wanted to hear what she wanted to hear,” said Sadie Crowe, Longhouse Coordinator.
“She always has ideas, and sometimes she needs an outside look. She also has a big group of girlfriends,” said Freddy Rosario, Sonya’s husband of 28 years and her executive producer.
“I didn’t even know I wanted to be a filmmaker. It just fell into my lap,” said Rosario.
Rosario’s first documentary, “The S-Word,” was a film looks at the negative impact of the pejorative word “squaw.” The film examines the racial and social implications of the word. According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, it means American Indian woman, or disparagingly female woman, or wife, and is derived from the Algonquian word for female creature. According to Rosario, it means whore and implies that Native women are less than others. She is trying to get the definition changed in dictionaries to a more accurate phrasing.
