Wayne Co. native takes part in film on Ecuador tribe

~ "End of the Spear" is about the murder of five missionaries and the tribe's redemption.

Dianne Becker's travels have taken her far from the small town of Williamsville, Mo., in Wayne County where she grew up.

In more than two decades of working in broadcast news and filmmaking she has been all over the United States and to such remote locations as the jungles of Central America and Southeast Asia.

Southeast Missouri residents may know her from her time as a KFVS12 reporter and producer from 1981 to 1985, but one of her proudest accomplishments is much more recent -- working as an assistant to the producer on the new feature film "End of the Spear," which opens in Cape Girardeau today.

The film tells the story of the Waodoni people of the Ecuadorean jungle, the murder of five missionaries at the tribesmen's hands in the 1950s, and the tribe's journey to redemption.

The Waodoni had a nasty reputation for murder when the missionaries were killed, with a 60 percent homicide rate within the tribe, said Becker. The Waodoni were known as one of the most violent cultures in the world, spearing themselves to extinction. But now killing is almost non-existent thanks to the work of missionaries who followed the fatal excursion and persuaded the tribe to change its ways, she said.

Some of those missionaries were the descendants and widows of the five men who were killed, including Marge and Steve Saint, wife and son of slain pilot Nate Saint.

"It's really a story of forgiveness for all these family members who have lost loved ones, both in the tribe and the missionaries," said Becker, who is now based in St. Louis. "When someone hurts us, we want to hurt them back, and that's the way the Waodoni lived."

Becker and the rest of the roughly 200-member crew and cast filmed in Panama from January to April 2004. Panama was chosen as the film site instead of Ecuador because it offers more access to modern accommodations for the crew than the Amazon jungle where the Waodoni live.

Dangers on the set included land mines found in areas of filming. Bomb-sniffing dogs had to be brought in to prevent a horrible accident.

Becker later visited the tribe in its home territory for the filming of her own documentary series, a work in progress called "Journey into the Amazon."

"You're sitting in camps, and you're thinking 'That guy killed her husband," Becker said. "It was really surreal."

But the culture has long since changed its violent ways, said Becker.

Local dentist Dr. Dan Cotner can testify to the tribe's change from a violent culture to a peaceful one. He and his wife, Paulette, visited the Waodoni in 1999 to do missionary work for about a month. Their only access to the Waodoni was by single-engine airplane, and the amenities were few.

The couple slept on wooden floors in primitive houses, said Cotner. The Waodoni were nothing if not hospitable, he said.

"They were really very nice people," Cotner said. The tribe even offered its guests a popular local food -- grub worms. The Cotners respectfully declined, choosing to dine on chicken and wild turkey instead.

The culture's violent past was never mentioned, said Cotner.

Becker said the Waodoni were so ashamed of what had happened they initially didn't want the movie to be made. But then they heard about violence in America like the Columbine shootings and saw that even Americans have violent tendencies. At that point they decided the story needed to be told, Becker said.

"I think there's always been a lot of regret," Becker said.

"End of the Spear" opens at Cape West 14 Cine today.

msanders@semissourian.com

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