Film Screening and Artist Talk: Chantel Comardelle and Dennis Davis of “Knowledge is Power”

Join the Arts Council of Princeton for an artist talk featuring Dennis Davis and Chantel Comardelle of Our Knowledge is Power: The Cultures of Beauty and Survival in Isle de Jean Charles, LA and Shishmaref, AK, on view in the ACP’s Taplin Gallery.

Throughout the event, screenings of Preserving our Place: Our Knowledge is Power will take place in the ACP’s Solley Theater.

Executive Producers:
Chantel Comardelle, Dennis Davis, and Elizabeth Marino

Director/Editor:
Jeremy Lavoi

Producer:
Abby Berendt Lavoi

Collaborators:
Nathan Jessee, Alessandra Jerolleman, Gwen Davis

This film was sponsored by NSF award #1929145: Adaptations to Repetitive Flooding: Understanding Cross Cultural and Legal Possibilities for Long Term Flooding Risks.

About Chantel Comardelle
Chantel Dolphin Lady Comardelle has a deep passion for her community and culture. Chantel is a wife and mother of three beautiful children Isaiah, Faith, and Jake. Research and photography has always been a passion of Chantel. Being able to weld the two together in “Preserving Our Place” and other Tribal projects has been a rewarding experience.

As Tribal Secretary of the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation, she serves the Tribal Council and citizens with vigor. Chantel has served in this role since 2000, acting as a Tribal Representative while simultaneously juggling Tribal communications, archival and historical research, and grant writing responsibilities. Her current areas of focus include Federal Recognition, Tribal Resettlement and the Preserving Our Place Movement. These projects allow Chantel to use her professional and organizational skills to advance the Tribal Community.  As a lifelong bayou resident, Chantel seeks to positively impact her community for future environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability.

Education has always been important to our Tribal community. For many years our people were denied an education. Chantel is a first generation college graduate with a Bachelor of General Studies from Nicholls State University. In 2016, she started the Certificate of Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts to learn new archival and conservation skills to help the Tribe preserve their culture in light of their current environmental crisis. Chantel is now in her second year as a Master Student at IAIA in Cultural Administration. It is her hope the knowledge gained will help thrust the Tribe through the Federal Recognition process and finally reach their collective goal of acceptance.

About Dennis Davis
Dennis Davis is a self-taught Inupiat photographer that has been taking pictures and videos of the western coastline of Alaska for over 20 years. He uses an Inupiat vision of the connections between land, animals, and people to create new forms of photography and video, that offer a glimpse into the subsistence lifestyle. Dennis’ goal is to show others what his culture is all about; to highlight the risks that Arctic peoples face with the coming of climate change; and to give a voice to his people.