Tag Archives: women

documentary, Film Screening

Tejiendo Sabiduria / We Women Warriors

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Last Friday, I saw the premiere of We Women Warriors / Tejiendo Sabiduria at the IFC Center in the Village (NYC). This documentary, by Nicole Karsin, who was on hand for Q&A after the screening, followed three Colombian indigenous activists: Doris (Awá(, Ludis (Kankuamo), and Flor Ilva (Nasa). Their communities are caught between the military, FARC, and paramilitary forces and the attendant violence. Some of them have lost their husbands and are left as single parents, a situation they share with many women in their communities. While the killing of men has left many widows and fatherless children, women as well as children are also direct targets of violence. The film contains graphic content and shows how many people are so easily wrongly accused or framed. As female leaders, these three women are charged with making decisions on sensitive issues that affect their communities. They also work to find more sustainable working conditions. This includes a discussion about the irreconcilable positions of the protagonists of the war on drugs and (indigenous, in this case) farmers who have little alternatives to growing coca.

I often marvel at the footage that documentary filmmakers are able to capture given the risky circumstances they are filming. During the Q&A, I asked Karsin how she navigated the line between wanting to get these women’s (and people’s) stories to a greater audience, but also possibly putting them in danger as a result. Also, does having a film crew on hand help to temper a potentially violent situation? Karsin responded by noting that the Nasa themselves have better video equipment than she does and were on hand filming one of the events which I referred to (that could have taken a violent turn). Although I think that having a foreign filmmaker on hand at that particular event may have made a difference (although she did not, and with her experience, she would know better), the point is well taken that indigenous people are themselves protagonists in the documentation of these events. So, she was not putting them at greater risk than the community itself was taking in also filming. The time invested in documentaries also never ceases to impress me. In response to another moviegoer, Karsin noted that the film took 6 years to make, with varying degrees of time to gain the trust of the three women highlighted in the film, which has not yet been screened in Colombia.

This documentary would be useful for any class dealing with indigenous women in Latin America; the war on drugs and coca production; and the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia.

In signing off, I’d like to thank my cousin Yvonne who attended the film screening with me. I don’t think I gave her enough of an explanation about this film, so I think it was a rude awakening after having our quiet vegan dinner at Cafe Blossom a few blocks away! But she said she was glad to have attended because it’s good to see what’s going on out there in the rest of the world. Which would make a good slogan for a t-shirt for documentaries. And I couldn’t agree more. Until  next time…

 

Film Screening

Âs Nutayuneân / We Still Live Here

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Âs Nutayuneân / We Still live Here trailer, with beautiful animation.

A month ago, I attended the NYC NMAI’s “At the Movies – in the Language” screenings on Native languages.

The first short, called The Amendment, set up the significance of language loss by highlighting the 1895 Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, which refers to language as the thing that makes a community a people. As long as they know their language, it explained, they will not be assimilated. The Amendment asks viewers to consider what it means when four generations of a family progressively loses its language. Next came Our First Voices which included several shorts: Spelling Bee, which I especially appreciated because of the subtle way that spellers’ question about “word origin” indicates the historical breadth of Native languages; Airplane, which deals with the translation of the safety announcements on planes to Bella Bella; Earl Smith, about a man who, after 12 years of living in a boarding school, where students would be hit or have their mouth washed out with soap for speaking their languages, was unable to speak Chinook; and Mom N Me, about a woman with a linguist mother and monolingual mother who attempts to learn her native language. These shorts were followed by the award-winning short Horse You See,about a horse named Ross who shares his inner thoughts (in Navajo). The audience loved this one!

These shorts were followed by the full length documentary Âs Nutayuneân / We Still Live Here. It was probably not a coincidence that I watched this film with a colleague who practices the Yoruba Lukumi faith, which emphasizes individuals’ connection to ancestors and spirit guides. I am not always in circles where people feel or openly discuss this connection, and so her comment helped situate my mind in another concept of space and time (no small feat in this bustling city). It was almost like she opened a door to this film, where the protagonist, a Wampanoag woman named Jessie Little Doe, begins her quest to revitalize the Wampanoag language when her ancestors reach out to her through visions and dreams. They ask if she would intercede for them and ask her people if they would like to welcome their language back. The Wampanoag story of language loss goes back to the early colonization of the U.S., when war, yellow fever, Christianization, and displacement decimated their population.

Besides being the fascinating story of an inspiring woman, the film does a beautiful job of unpacking how much of a culture resides in language. Jesse Little Doe seems never to have had an interest in pursuing academics before, but goes on to pursue a doctorate in linguistics at the venerable MIT and leads her community’s effort at language revitalization. During a lesson on animate and inanimate nouns in the Wampanoag language, Little Doe notes that the categorization of the sun as inanimate shows that the Wampanoag knew that the world was heliocentric even before they were introduced to Europeans.

This film was made all the more memorable to me for its goose bump inducing ironies. Like her awkward first encounter with her future beloved mentor at MIT, Ken Hale. Or the fact that a translation of the Bible (and texts in related Algonquian languages), which wass originally used to colonize her people, is what she uses to figure out pronunciations in Wamponoag. Or the fact that Hale’s ancestor was one of the Puritans who originally colonized the area, showing how some things really do come full circle.

During the Q&A with Little Doe, director Anne Makepeace, and co-producer Jennifer Weston, who also works at Cultural Survival, Little Doe noted her community had initial trepidation about being filmed because they did not want their culture to be commodified or disenfranchised by the experience. Her community is not allowed to use the Wamponoag language on objects for sale or accept money for language classes.

One Wamponoag audience member asked Little Doe if their community had been able to use colonial documents in land reclamation efforts and she replied that the language used to describe land in these documents has helped them trace what the territory was at the time of Contact.

In terms of the future of the Wamponoag language, in the film we learn that Little Doe’s daughter, Mae, is the first native speaker in generations. During the Q&A, Little Doe notes that there has been a spike in pregnancies among language apprentices in her community so they will probably have more native language speakers soon. She also noted the importance of parents setting an example in this endeavor; even if children know Wamponoag, they will switch to English as soon as it is spoken among the parents.

I really enjoyed this film, which besides being a great story also employed animation in a beautiful and meaningful way. I think the film would be great for scholars interested in language revitalization, linguistics, colonization, women, commodification, and self determination.

For those of you interested, producers Weston and Makepeace created Our Mother Tongues (ourmothertongues.org), a website which highlights several Native American language revitalization projects in the U.S.

 

animation, documentary, feature film, Film Festivals

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…

Film Festivals, Film Screening

Two Spirits: Reclaiming Remembrance

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If you’re in the West Coast, you may want to check out the 6th Annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival, to be held June 11 – 13 at San Francisco’s Brava Theater. This year, this free festival’s theme is “Two-Spirits: Reclaiming Remembrance | Queer Native American, Indigenous & First Nations Women.” Read more about it and the Queer Women of Color Media Project here: Murg, Wilhelm. “Native Two Spirit Films Premiere at Festival.” May 21, 2010.

feature film

Weaving: “Skins” and “Edge of America”

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A few weeks ago, I saw Skins again after a long time and also caught Edge of America. Both are Chris Eyre films. I like his work. His films tend to deal with poignant issues in nuanced ways, incorporating drama and humor, Western and Native culture, and sometimes, just when you think that there’s about to be a cliché, you see the potentially righteously self-righteous one get schooled on why their kettle is black.

Skins is the story of two brothers, played by Graham Greene (Rudy) and Eric Shweig (Mogie), who have taken divergent paths and their journey towards finding harmony, in one case within himself (from the native perspective, his imbalance is symbolized the trickster, personified as it were, by the spider who follows him) but also with each other. Around this story of family bonds, Eyre weaves context: the reality of living on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which includes a large rate of alcoholism. He does so in a subtle way, including news clips but also social commentary by the characters. I always tell folks that for me, a good presentation at a conference is based on humor. If you can make me laugh, you can make me enjoy what you’re telling me and I’ll know you’re going to hit me with some bright stuff. In a similar way, when movies make you laugh even about serious topics, you learn without it being preachy and, like a Facebook friend recently said, “I like the kind of humor that makes you laugh for a minute and think for ten” (or something to that effect; dang Mafia Wars status updates are so friggin’ long I couldn’t re-check the exact quote). Anyway, the Eyre movies I’ve seen always add humor to serious topics and they go down easier and stay with me longer. So, if your class is looking at family, the effects of alcohol on native communities, and native religion/spirituality and politics, I think this movie would be good to check out.

Edge of America would also be good to look at for its treatment of religion/spirituality as well as alternative perspectives and ways of dealing with issues that affect young people. Just as a story is woven above, one character in this film is an actual weaver and teaches the professor, and us, about certain key differences between western and native perspectives. It is also an interesting and funny look at race relations between minorities, in this case between the black English professor who comes to the community and ends up coaching the girls’ basketball team, and the Navajo community who he encounters and who encounters him. This was pretty cool to see because there is usually so much emphasis on white -minority relations and not as much on minority -minority relations. I thought the dialog, the incremental steps at mutual understanding and the humor made it a pretty cool film. So, thumbs up for these two films. I think you may enjoy them.

documentary, Film Festivals, Film Screening, Q&A

Club Native

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Happy New Year folks! Comps. exam done and I’m back.

Only 10 months after I saw it at the 2009 Native American Film Festival at the NMAI in NYC, here is my summary of Club Native. In short: I thought it was a great film and highly recommend it!

Club Native traces the lives of four women and their relationship to their Mohawk identity. In order to obtain membership within their nation, two of the women must go before a council which uses Canada’s law regarding blood quantum as one of the factors in deciding whether they are to remain enrolled members. The transparency and fairness of the council comes into question and we hear the women’s compelling stories – why their bi-raciality does not make them any less Mohawk, except to some.

The other two women are in danger of losing membership not because of their blood quantum but due to their marriage partners – white men. The laws related to Mohawk women “marrying out” are not the same as they are for Mohawk men. Consequently, there is more pressure on women to  marry in or relinquish membership to their community. I remember that the few people who seemed to be in favor of this status quo in the film were Mohawk men and I was curious as to why there was so much emphasis on marrying Mohawk men and not the other way around. That was one aspect of the film that I needed more clarity about.

The director, Tracey Deer, does a great job throughout but these two women’s stories are even more compelling. This may have to do partly with the fact that one of the women is Deer’s sister and we get a very intimate access to her life. And when I say intimate, I mean it: we see the birth of her child! There are many points in the film when I teared up and got goosebumps or laughed – as though these were people I knew. That’s how close you got. So, I think Deer is a really great director just based on that (she doubtless has gotten confirmation of this from all over but it was nice to see one of the men during the Q&A say that she has blossomed into a great filmmaker; Deer identified the man as someone from her community so it was an extra touching moment). But when that girl had her baby on film, I loved her (the sister is very endearing for  her warm and funny ways) more for the honor of being able to see such a private moment. The other woman was an athlete who competed in the Olympics when she was younger and had even been featured on a high profile publication (Newsweek or Time). She was active politically both as a youngster and still is now. All the women were remarkable in their own way. Very poignant documentary – loved it.

For those of you interested, I found a related essay: Simpson, Audra.  “Paths Toward a Mohawk Nation: Narratives of Citizenship and Nationhood in Kahnawake.” In Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, edited by Duncan Ivison, Paul Patton and Will Sanders, 113-136. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. It’s pretty academic but it also contains some short narratives about how issues related to blood quantum affects Mohawks.

documentary, Film Festivals, Film Review, Film Screening, Q&A

Mamachas of the Ring

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I caught Mamachas of the Ring / Mamachas del Ring which screened last Friday, November 13 as part of the line up of one of my favorites, the (2009) Margaret Mead Film Festival. It tells the story of several Aymara female wrestlers in Bolivia, focusing on the story of the Campeona, Carmen Rosa. After some initial fame as part of a more organized league of wrestlers under the direction of coach Don Juan Mamani, the group had a falling out and three of them set out to publicize and draw crowds on their own. It was easy for me to be drawn into the story, not only because of the novelty of Aymara women wrestlers, but Carmen Rosa’s spunk, initiative and her passion for the sport – not to mention the tensions.

The documentary touched upon issues of gender and ethnicity but, as usual, I wanted to know more. While you got a sense for how some of the mainstream community felt about their work as wrestlers, I wanted the documentary to delve into whether the large following the women had and the smaller one they were working on attracting were Aymara and how the Aymara community feels abut their life as wrestlers. I also wanted to hear more about about the wrestlers’ children and husbands. Don’t get me wrong; it was great to see an intimate personal portrait — and maybe that’s how I should view more of these films. But, I  always hope for as much of a contextual portrait as possible because it will lend itself to classroom use and discussion on social issues. Maybe that was all the context that was possible; after all, I’m heading toward an oral history project of my own and I foresee the difficulty in delving into people’s lives.

Over all it was a fun movie that shed light on the feelings and lives of these pioneering women. Part of the fun, I should note, was the claymation which gave color to the telling of the stories.

Until next time, which may be January, after I’ve taken my comps., muy … bue … nas … noches, hasta mañana — as the little doggie in the Spanish language commercials of my youth used to say! Take care, folks.