Previous Story
Before We Began Counting Years film screening Thursday evening
Ceramic sherds with lime-filled decorations of the kind found at initial settlement sites in the Marianas. (DR. MIKE CARSON)
The public is cordially invited to the premier screening of Before we Began Counting Years, a new 50-minute documentary film on the seafaring settlers of the Mariana Islands that will be held at 6pm on Thursday, April 12, at the Visitors Center Theater, American Memorial Park.
Thousands of years before latte houses and basalt pounding stones, a group of seafarers, the ancient ancestors of the modern-day Chamorro people, first reached the Marianas aboard outrigger sailing canoes.
Others soon followed and helped to establish a few scattered settlements on Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan at such areas as Achugao, Unai Bapot, Unai Chulu, and Litekyan.
Who were these people? Where did they come from? What do we know about their lifestyle?
“Before We Began Counting Years,” produced by Fr. Francis X. Hezel, S.J. and edited by Len Tenorio, utilizes the results of recent archaeological research to address these and other questions associated with the early settlers and their culture.
Hezel’s film received grant support from the Northern Marianas Humanities Council. The screening is open to the public and free of charge. Seating will be on a first come, first served basis.
For more information, please contact 235-4785. (PR)
