EMPIRES IN THE FOREST
Jamestown and the Beginning of America

Above all else, Empires in the Forest is a national story. Now in its first season of print, Empires has won over critics, scholars, and readers—notably from the Virginia Indian community, which has embraced the book like no other. The consensus is clear. As a fresh new take on Jamestown history, there is no other book like it.  And yet, the crucial story in Empires remains one that is not taught in American schools.

Empires in the Forest won its reception, in part, by making a movie inside a book. The next step, then, is to translate the book into a film, and get it into educational hands from libraries to schools, students and teachers, and to venues dedicated to educational film. The book’s publisher, the Rivanna Foundation, is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 entity whose mission is to promote a wide understanding of the origins of American cultural identity. And so the Rivanna mission is to bring this crucial story back into American classrooms and consciousness with legacy works in print and film that will enrich readers and viewers for years to come.

Virginia legislators and members of the Federally-appointed Jamestown 2007 Committee have discussed making the book and film available to schools nationally. Outside the education system, executives at PBS in Washington have expressed an interest in airing the film on their 340 stations. The Community Idea Stations of Richmond and Charlottesville, the leading PBS stations in Virginia, will present the film to American Public Television. The film itself will find its place when finished, in the world of education.

Empires in the Forest is the story of the beginning of America: one so rarely told that its truth remains unknown to most educated Americans. Now, as our nation evolves, the time to remember its rich origins is more important than ever.