Just a quick note to let you know about two film festivals you may want to check out. The first ever PBS Online Film Festival will include a few films produced by the Native American Publication Telecommunication (NAPT), including I Survived, The Migration, and Horse You See. And, for those of you near Palm Springs, check out the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum’s 2012 Festival of Native Film and Culture which will include Smokin’ Fish. Their website lists the program, but you can also read more about the festival here. Let me know what you think!
Category Archives: documentary
Get Smokin’ and Movin’!
Smokin’ Fish trailer
For those of you in Sitka (AK), Whitehorse (Canada), Plymouth and Palm Springs, there’s a new documentary called Smokin’ Fish coming to a theater near you. The film revolves around Cory Mann, a Tlingit man, who returns to Alaska to smoke salmon the Tlingit way and it sounds like it covers a lot more besides. Tickets at the Plimouth Museum in Plymouth MA include a tasting, are $25 or $40 for couples. If you go, let me know how you like it! (It may be a while before I get a chance to see it since I missed the NYC screening in November and don’t see one on the upcoming screening list.)
I also just noticed that @nativemedia tweeted that Good Meat will be playing on air in Alaska this Sunday at 8pm. Good Meat follows an Oglala Lakota man as he returns to a traditional Lakota diet as a way to regain his health. Let me know what you think about both. If you are interested in more Native American books and films about diabetes and health, check out my recent tweets about the Eagle Series (also an animated series) and RezRobics!
Good Meat trailer
Students Rebut 20/20 Special
More Than That by Todd County High School students
Fellow AILA member, Debbie Reese, recently blogged about the ABC 20/20 special, A Hidden America: Children of the Plains, on her American Indians in Children’s Literature blog. I missed the special but caught it thanks to her post. While I actually thought it was good to see something – anything – on Native Americans on mainstream television, the topics were predictable ones. Yes, Diane Sawyer did preface the piece by noting that it was part of a series on the “poorest populations in the country” and I agree with the first commentator on Debbie’s post that these subjects – alcoholism, unemployment, teen pregnancy, suicide – are important to discuss and tackle. But, it’s just that the one time you see Indians get that much time on mainstream T.V., you somehow want that coverage to be more inclusive of other tribes and experiences. And that they wouldn’t fade the teenage athlete and top student Robert Looks Twice’s face onto historical Indian figures or see a group of Pine Ridge residents inexplicably riding horses toward the camera.
Reese notes that students at Todd County High School created a rebuttal to the special entitled “More than That.” While I think that some of the qualities that the students highlight in the video were reflected by the youth in the special, the point is taken that people who have the power to bring portrayals of Native people to others via books and other media need to aim for more inclusivity. When a community (here I am talking more broadly in terms of Native Americans as a minority) doesn’t get all that much air time and you are taking the time to cover it, do it right. Don’t get me wrong. It was definitely a positive to hear Looks Twice say he aims to be the first Native American president or hear the kindergardeners speaking Lakota and yelling out the same future careers that any American kindergardener would call out when Sawyer asks them what they want to be when they grow up. But, don’t just show the problem issues and what may seem like the few exceptions who are overcoming their situations. Like the students say: show more than that. It’s probably impossible to cover an entire people to anyone’s satisfaction (I vaguely remember watching specials on Latinos and Blacks on other channels that were also somehow lacking), but ABC could probably afford to try a little harder. Series topic suggestions, anyone?
Grab
Grab trailer
A few weeks (June 16, 2011 to be exact) ago I had the pleasure to not only see Grab, a documentary I have had my eye on for a few months, but also to experience a first: I actually met the film’s director, Billy Luther. I was somehow already Facebook friends with Billy for a while before I knew about either Grab or his other documentary, Miss Navajo, but it was pretty cool to meet him in person. He was funny, courteous and down to earth – all things that made me feel right at home.
Grab deals with the Laguna Pueblo tradition of throwing gifts – every thing from Ramen noodles to beach balls and handmade pottery – off of traditional homes on one’s saint’s day. People who throw gifts spend a good amount of money and many months purchasing items. And then there is also the food that is prepared for that day. A real celebration which involves what seems like the entire community. The film follows a few families and their different grab day experiences. A few of my favorite parts were the whimsical miniature town made out of grab day materials and also, perhaps surprisingly, one of the families’ reaction to the death of Michael Jackson. It was one of those moments that captures how connected we are, no matter our race or ethnicity or the many other labels that seemingly should (or so they tell us) divide us. And of course, as one audience member so aptly noted, the obvious bond that the Seymour family shared was also very touching.
After watching the film, which I enjoyed, I did have the sense I feel after watching some documentaries, to wit: I wanted more statistics and other information on the people and communities involved (this was mostly prompted by the story of the mother and daughter who grew crops to give away fresh products during their grab day celebration). But then I remembered that during the cocktail party, and unprompted by questions from me, Billy remarked that he didn’t want his film to be didactic; he wanted to focus on making it enjoyable. (This interview with Luther captures some more of his outlook and includes information on the Grab photographic exhibit now on display at the NMAI in New York City through July 31, 2011.) So, I didn’t focus so much on the other details I wanted to know and focused on the feelings I came away with. It was a feel good film about tradition and family and generosity.
After the Q&A was over, Billy announced that audience members would receive grab bags of our own on our way out. As I grabbed the train back home, I noticed another commuter with a grab bag so I smiled and said, “You got one, too!” “Way to bring home a point,” she said, smiling back. She hit the nail on the head. Watching the film and having the opportunity to hear (and meet) Billy and the protagonists alone would have been cool enough. But when Josie Seymour (one of the films protagonists who attended the screening along with her husband) gave away the beautiful piece of pottery she handmade, something she apparently does at all the screenings she attends, and attendees got the grab bag (promotional material inside or not), it really was a multi-sensory way to bring home the importance of giving. And of recycling – I’ve been carrying it around in my purse for weeks and have used it on at least 3 occasions already!
So, try and catch the film – it’s a sweet one and as Billy notes in that interview, very serene. And next time you’re grabbing something, don’t forget a bag for recyling as a way to give back … to Earth. ; )
#NAFVF11 Opening Night
Thursday, March 31st was the opening night of the 2011 Native American Film and Video Festival at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. This was my third time at the Festival and while I have always enjoyed myself in the past, this year, the organizers took it up a notch. So, I’d like to congratulate everyone involved with putting the Festival together. First off, while the Native Networks website remains an invaluable resource, I love this year’s festival website. Second, it was pretty cool that on opening night, the film screened online and the Q&A included questions from around the world via Twitter (the Festival hashtag is #NAFVF11, which I’ve been using to tweet about the festival). Finally, the director of the opening night film, Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, Zacharias Kunuk, skyped in from the Arctic! Oh, and the Festival trailer was a nice touch, too. So, an all around great job of making use of technology to bring these films to the world and back.
And now, on to the show… The opening night film, Qapirangajuq, was directed by Zacharias Zunuk, who also directed the well known film Atanarjuaat/The Fast Runner. This documentary was a huge undertaking involving interviews with 60 elders from 4 communities who speak 5 different Innuit dialects and live in different parts of the Arctic. The elders discussed environmental concerns such as changing wind patterns which make it impossible to accurately predict the weather,* changes in the location of the setting of the sun, and the drastic melting of ice in the Arctic. The documentary presaged the festival’s focus on the environment (Friday, April 1 was largely devoted to films on the environment and ended with a panel discussion called “Protecting our Rivers”).
One of the highlights of the screening came during the Q&A, when an audience member asked co-director Ian Mauro about the correlation which the film made between the positioning of celestial bodies and the environmental crisis. Mauro, who has a doctorate in Environmental Studies, gave a great explanation, but in my effort to jot it down, I only caught interesting pieces. Elders from all over were commenting about the shift in the earth’s axis but Mauro could find nothing about it in the scholarly literature. However, scientists did stand up and take notice when Mauro described a process that is known to them as “refraction.” Due to the collision of hot and cold air in the Arctic, the sun creates an optical illusion which makes it appear at times of the year when it would not normally appear. Mauro noted that this oscillation process is the same that can sort of help you tell the future: if a walrus is oscillating in the horizon, it is a few hours away. Qapirangajuq is the Inuktitut word that comes closest to the English word “refraction” (I believe Mauro translated the word into English as “a pencil that looks bent in the water”). Hearing all this was a highlight to me because it was an instance of native people observing what scientists had not. (In that Russell Means video I referenced earlier, he also noted that scientists still had not come to understand that hair carries memory.)
One of the eloquent voices in the film was Innuit leader named Mary Simon. One of her simple yet powerful statements was that many who debate the environmental crisis focus on national boundaries, which is misguided because the environmental crisis affects us all, regardless of boundaries. Finding cross-cultural common ground in order to help solve the environmental crisis was a theme during the conference and highlighted in movies like River of Renewal. While refraction was a complicated idea to relay, it was surprisingly simple, yet disturbing, to understand how toxins, like yellow acid rain, precipitate, travel north to the Arctic and get locked there. In the film, interviewees noted that people in the Arctic are especially vulnerable since they will be the first to be affected from fish who have high levels of mercury. It was really striking to see our interconnectedness.
Besides showing us the importance of our interconnected actions vis-a-vis the environment, the film is more pointedly critical of Westerners’ roles in Innuit communities. Mauro chuckles while he acknowledges that his Inuktitut nickname is “the thief,” a name he says serves as a reminder of his position in the Innuit culture, where researchers are often seen as more interested in their research than in the local culture. One interviewee prompted laughter as he wonders where all the scientists who claim that the polar bears are in danger of decline are, since he sees no evidence of their disappearing. Another argues that it is actually outsiders, with their noisy helicopters and the collars that are placed on the bears, who are really harming these animals.
This is one of those movies that everyone should watch but in terms of scholarly interest, those teaching about the environment and Innuit culture will want to check this documentary out. In addition, I would recommend it as a way to sensitize science students and scholars doing scientific work in native or other communities to the concerns of the communities where they are studying or working and, ultimately, the big one we’re all inhabiting: the earth.
Upcoming documentary: “Off the Rez”
Hello folks! I’ve been gone for a while but this past weekend was the Native American Film and Video Festival here in NYC so I’ll have some posts about that soon.
In the meantime, I just read about a documentary called “Off the Rez” that will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. It centers around female high school basketball star Shoni Schimmel. It will be screened on April 26, 2011 and April 30, 2011. If you are interested in sports-related films, check out my reviews of the documentary Chiefs and feature Edge of America.
AAIA 6th Annual Short Film Showcase
A trailer for the documentary “LaDonna Harris: Indian 101” produced by Julianna Brannum
Last night, I caught the Association on American Indian Affairs Film Showcase at NYU’S Cantor Center where Firelight Media co-founder and CCNY alumnus, Stanley Nelson was honored. He directed Wounded Knee, episode 5 of the PBS We Shall Remain series, which I have not had a chance to see yet. After the trailer they showed last night, I can’t wait to check it out.
Shorts in the festival included “Macnpc,” directed by Tvli Jacobs (Choctaw), a one minute parody about native versus Anglo ways and a music video called “Steve’s Special” by Sonya Oberly (Nez Perce) that took place on the Tohono O’odham reservation. Young filmmakers were a big presence last night. Nuweetooun School students created an animation called “How Birds Got Their Song,” which adapts a traditional Narragansett story and which I thought was very pretty both visually and aurally. The Tesuque Pueblo Youth Film Group, Marcella Ernest, and Rachael Nez directed “Bonanza Creek,” a funny non-scripted film about Mohawk and Pueblo ancestors. And, 8th grader Camille Manybeads Tso (Dine-Navajo) directed “In the Footsteps of Yellow Woman,” a documentary/feature about her great great great grandmother and her courage during the Navajo Long Walk (1864-1868). The young people in this film did a very nice acting job.
I enjoyed the whole festival but the three films which were most arresting for me are the ones I only saw clips of. I already mentioned “Wounded Knee.” The second was the documentary “LaDonna Harris: INDIAN 101″ about the Comanche activist who has played a pivotal role in Native self determination and has started an Ambassadors program to teach and train future Native American leaders. A clip of that film heads this post. The third is Billy Luther’s “Grab,” a documentary about the Laguna Pueblo’s “Grab Day” celebration, where the tribe shares food and other things with their community. I smiled watching one of the trailer’s phrases shoot past:”Indian giver redefined.” I’m on Facebook with Billy and didn’t even know about his film, “Miss Navajo,” so as you can see, I have a lot of watching to catch up with! Will post here when I do. Thanks to Amalia Córdova of the NMAI Video and Film Center for letting me know about this festival and to Raquel Chapa for putting the line up together!
‘Til next time…
The Plymouth Rock of the South
The title of Rachel Nez’s 2005 documentary, The Border Crossed Us, is the phrase used in chants and on signs at immigration rallies. Given that Native Americans were here before any other group in the U.S. or Mexico, this poignant phrase was never more true. I’ve added this clip here because the phrase always reminds me of the similar African American immigration experience, as expressed by Malcolm X’s when he noted, “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. The Rock was landed on us.”
Amid the dominant national voices surrounding the immigration debate, you may have missed that of the Native American groups affected by border policies. In the past few months, Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 has caused renewed interest and ire surrounding this issue. However, many groups, like the Tohono O’odhman of Arizona and the Sonora Desert region of Mexico, have had to endure the injustice of immigration policies for many, many years. In the 2005 documentary The Border Crossed Us, Navajo filmmaker Rachel Nez explores Tohono O’odham efforts to change laws that hinder many of the (particularly older) tribal members who do not have paperwork to travel freely between the U.S. and Mexico. In order to do so, they must prove that they are indeed U.S. citizens or, in the case of Tohono O’odham Mexicans, have documentation to visit the U.S. The Tohono O’odham have not traditionally used documentation to prove their citizenship and therefore cannot prove their status. Therefore, in many cases, relatives across the border cannot visit with each other or practice traditional rituals and customs.
The documentary is short but useful for anyone discussing immigration issues as they relate to Native peoples as well as how native religion and customs are viewed by outsiders. In one especially moving moment in the film, a young man discusses how disrespectful border agents are when going through his grandfather’s religious objects. The young man asks how we would feel if someone started rifling through the Pope’s items. Although this did not have to do with immigration per se, I thought the young man’s succinct questioning would be a great starting point for a classroom discussion on respecting other groups’ value systems and ways. This part made the film especially memorable to me.
When I first saw this film at the NMAI Native American Film Festival in New York City back in (I believe) 2007, I asked Ms. Nez about the status of the bill discussed in the film (yes, I actually did stand up for Q&A for once). She said that it was too soon to tell. A few years later, I see that the Tohono O’odham continue to fight against these policies, including recently leading a contingent against S.B. 1070 March.
Chiefs
I aw the documentary Chiefs a few days ago and enjoyed it. It deals with the Wyoming Indian High School basketball team’s efforts to win the state championship. The film follows the young men from this Wind River Indian Reservation team both at school and at home where they balance academics, sports and home life, including some of the young men’s interests (rodeo) and native cultural practices (sweat lodge).
The directors did a nice job of capturing subtle and not-so-subtle instances of discrimination. I also thought the scenes that dealt with the young men’s future prospects were particularly impressive. For some young men, basketball is their way out of the reservation and yet, all too often, young men leave only to come back without having accomplished what they set out to do when the left. This cycle seemed like it merited a film unto itself.
If using this in a class, it might be compared and contrasted with the feature film Edge of America about a female basketball team. While the team does not have as successful record as the Chiefs, the feature deals with some similar issues.
Chevron Demands Crude Footage
I had not considered the ways that socially committed films might put directors and other collaborators at risk but I recently read about Chevron demanding that director Joe Berlinger hand over footage of his documentary, Crude, which I wrote about back in August 2009. For more information, see the articles below.
Carroll, Rory. “Chevron oil demands Crude filmmaker hand over unseen footage.” The Guardian. April 29, 2010.
Merin, Jennifer. “Joe Berlinger Update: In Court Over Crude, On Assignment for Oprah Winfrey.” About.com Guide to Documentaries April 26, 2010.
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