Film Fest Presents Moving Picture of Native Life
Pakak Innukshuk plays the great shaman Avva in Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn’s
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen. Photo: Oana Spinu/©IGLOOLIK ISUMA PRODUCTIONS
Sundance gets the media attention, but the
Native American Film + Video Festival
is the real deal when it comes to viewing a great range of contemporary
films by and about Native American culture. Hosted by the Film and
Video Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, and held at
NMAI’s Heye Center in Manhattan, the biennial event returns this fall
Nov. 30–Dec. 2.
The 13th-anniversary festival will screen 125 films (culled from more
than 500 submissions), including features, shorts and documentaries, by
filmmakers from 10 nations throughout the Americas. Most screenings
will be held at the Heye Center, and all are free. Some 100 filmmakers
are expected to attend, offering commentary on their works following
each screening.
“I’m proud of the role we have played in the ongoing development of
Native filmmaking,” notes Film and Video Center Director Elizabeth
Weatherford. “We are the only hemispheric film festival, and 45 percent
of the festival submissions come from Latin America. We used to see
lots of works by non-Native filmmakers; today almost 95 percent of the
submissions are by Native artists. And, it’s been our great delight to
see numerous works now coming to us from emerging artists. We take our
responsibility seriously to broaden the base of Native cultural
practices, which today includes film.”
Highlights this year will include the feature film
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, the follow-up film of Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit) and Norm Cohn, makers of the fantastic
Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner); the United States premiere of the first-ever Canadian Aboriginal television drama series,
Moccasin Flats; a feature film by Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo), 5th World; a short from Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek),
Goodnight Irene;
Conversion by Nanobah Becker (Navajo); and a powerful documentary,
Gesture Down,
by Cedar Sherbert (Kumeyaay). In addition, a closing-night reception on
Dec. 3 will feature live music from Native artists including The Dust
Drive, Corey Allison and the Mapuche hip-hop band Jaas from Chile.
The Heye Center is located at One Bowling Green, across from Battery
Park. For details, call 212/514-3700, or visit nativenetworks.si.edu.
