What if one night the story of America as “The New World” was thoroughly interrupted? What if that story was retold as a viscerally emotional experience using aggressive imagery and a lush soundtrack keyed to the inspired music of George Winston? “The Burial of Natty Bumppo” draws on 19th-century cultural images of American innocence to reveal their grotesque outcomes: the enslavement of human beings and enslavement of the land, the genocide that accompanied colonization, and the environmental degradation resulting from industrialization.

By Fred Burns (USA)