When the movie "Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope" is screened Thursday in Durango, don’t expect to hear words that became popular from the movie – like galaxy, storm trooper or lightsaber.
Instead, Sǫʼtah Anaaʼ: Siih Náhásdlįį will be presented in the Navajo language at Fort Lewis College in Durango.
Navajo entertainment consultant Manuelito “Manny” Wheeler from the Arizona side of the Navajo Nation decided to dub the groundbreaking film from 1977 into the language of his nation.
“The film is the same as the original, but with Diné voice actors dubbed in with English subtitles,” according to the Curator of Exhibitions and Educational Outreach at the Center for Southwest Studies at the college.
Once Wheeler got funding, he got the script translated in 36 hours; that was near the tail-end of a decade-long project close to his heart and his people, featuring 70 Dine voice actors performing the parts of the characters in the world-renowned film, he said on the Moth podcast two years ago:
“What I’m most proud of it was mostly done by Navajo people. We really got together and made this happen,” said Wheeler, who is also the former director of the Navajo Nation Museum.
Wheeler is scheduled to be on campus to talk about the film at 6 p.m. at the Center, which is a part of the college of about 3,000 and one of several nationwide that enroll Native American students who can attend without paying tuition.
"Star Wars" was a profitable endeavor. The two-hour film, which came out in 1977, cost about $11 million to make, but the profits were much greater: “Putting aside all of the TV spinoffs, theme parks, video games, toys, and beyond, the live-action Star Wars films are the real Jedi Masters of earnings — grossing more than $10 billion worldwide globally at the box office (unadjusted for inflation) across four decades and counting,” Entertainment Weekly reported this summer.
The screening in Navajo, which begins at 7:30 p.m., won’t add to the profit’s bottom line: it’s being shown for free.
