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Historical Programming

Walking the talk — how Saints & Strangers’ native American cast learned to speak Abenaki

Saints & Strangers executive producers Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo had a quagmire on their hands. Setting out to create the most authentic retelling of the Thanksgiving story ever committed to film — on a blistering schedule — the pair also knew they didn’t want to risk stereotypes for the sake of time. Especially when it came to honoring their Native American characters. • MORE Saints & Strangers: Think you know the Thanksgiving story? We’re on set as NGC tells the real tale. “It was a big debate up until two weeks before the actors were starting whether we would […]

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Drama

Saints & Strangers: Think you know the Thanksgiving story? We’re on set as NGC tells the real tale

The two-night event Saints & Strangers premieres Sunday, Nov. 22, and Monday, Nov. 23, at 9/8CT on National Geographic Channel. Vincent Kartheiser is doing his best to be patient. Sporting coarse Pilgrim garb, a full beard and shoulder-length tresses (no Mad Men, this!) as Plymouth Colony leader William Bradford on NGC’s Saints & Strangers, Kartheiser finds the speech he is about to deliver — one arguably launching American free market commerce — interrupted by a loud buzzing sound emanating from somewhere on the Stellenbosch, South Africa, wine farm on which the project’s main sets are nestled. The buzzing stops. Kartheiser […]