Lake of Betrayal

Documentary | Paul Lamont

Lake of Betrayal explores the history of Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania and its impact on the Seneca Nation of Indians. Completed in 1965, it was originally proposed to help mitigate flooding in Pittsburgh. Yet, two hundred miles downriver, a 27-mile reservoir formed and inundated vast tracts of the Seneca Indians’ ancestral lands, forcing their removal in breach of the United States’ oldest treaty. The film looks at the Seneca Nation’s fight to protect its sovereignty against the U.S. government’s Indian termination policy and overwhelming political and economic forces following WWII.

56 minutes

Release: October 27, 2017

Expiration: October 27, 2021

Distributor: NETA

NOLA: KNAZ 00 H1

Rights: Unlimited releases over four (4) years beginning 10/28/2017;

SCH/1 year; and non-commercial cable rights granted.

Paul Lamont

Writer/Director

PAUL LAMONT has produced, written and directed numerous documentary films for national and regional PBS including in/word/out, Fading in the Mist, Enduring Faith, Driven to Play, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo, Dangerous Silence, Herbert Hauptman: Portrait of a Laureate, Elbert Hubbard: An American Original, and Glorious Battle: The Siege of Fort Erie. He has also worked on other PBS projects including the Emmy Award-winning documentary Honorable Nations. His films have been screened at festivals and institutions around the country including the Columbus Film Festival, The Chicago International Film Festival, The Silver State Documentary Film Festival, and the U.S. International Film Festival.

Scott Sackett

Producer/Writer

SCOTT SACKETT is a veteran producer with 24 years of experience creating content for regional and national audiences in the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Between 1991 and 2006, he was a member of the production and on-air radio and television staff at the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association in Buffalo, New York. In 2006, he redirected his creative energy to filmmaking and founded Skipping Stone Pictures. Its mission is to find compelling but seldom heard voices—from history and of today, and to develop them in original productions of enduring value for wider audiences. Scott Sackett continues his association with PBS as an independent producer and is a collaborative partner of Toward Castle Films and the Center for Independent Documentary.

Caleb Abrams

Associate Producer

CALEB ABRAMS is an enrolled Seneca and an emerging Native American talent in filmmaking. In 2010, as a student at Jamestown Community College, he produced a short film about Kinzua Dam titled Remembering the Removal. In July 2013, he joined our production team as a researcher and is now serving as the film’s associate producer. He is currently completing his undergraduate studies in sociology and filmmaking at the University of Syracuse.