NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

Programmes

19 TITLES

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Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST

INDIGENOUS FILMMAKERS ASSOCIATION

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST

Fainting Spells

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(now-15 Nov worldwide) Told through recollections of youth, learning, lore, and departure, this is an imagined myth for the Xąwįska, or the Indian Pipe Plant - used by the Ho-Chunk to revive those who have fainted.

Warrior Women +Recorded Panel

Availability ended 14/11/2020 BST
(10-14 Nov UK only) Warrior Women is the story of mothers and daughters fighting for Native rights in the American Indian Movement of the 1970s. The film unveils not only a female perspective of history, but also examines the impact political struggles have on the children who bear witness. In the 1970s, with the swagger of unapologetic Indianness, organizers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) fought for Native liberation and survival as a community of extended families. Warrior Women is the story of Madonna Thunder Hawk, one such AIM leader who shaped a kindred group of activists' children - including her daughter Marcy - into the "We Will Remember" Survival School as a Native alternative to government-run education. Together, Madonna and Marcy fought for Native rights in an environment that made them more comrades than mother-daughter. Today, with Marcy now a mother herself, both are still at the forefront of Native issues, fighting against the environmental devastation of the Dakota Access Pipeline and for Indigenous cultural values. Through a circular Indigenous style of storytelling, this film explores what it means to navigate a movement and motherhood and how activist legacies are passed down and transformed from generation to generation in the context of colonizing government that meets Native resistance with violence.

The Long Ride Home

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(now -15 Nov worldwide) The over representation of First Nations children in child-care, stems from decades of suffering and intergenerational trauma. The infliction of these deeply stressful and disturbing experiences has led to dangerous coping methods, incarceration and often death amongst Indigenous populations. A brave group of Natives leave on a nomadic horseback journey 600 kms through the Canadian prairies. They come from many different cultures but are connected by their stories. With strengthening spirit and traditions, they attempt to spark change, raise awareness to the growing numbers of missing Indigenous women, '60s scoop survivors, and bring their children home.

More Than A Word

Availability ended 8/11/2020 BST
"More Than A Word: The Great American Pastime of Dehumanizing Indigenous Peoples" Red Dirt Report
(8 Nov worldwide) More Than A Word analyzes the Washington football team and their use of the derogatory term R*dskins. Using interviews from both those in favor of changing the name and those against, More Than A Word presents a deeper analysis of the many issues surrounding the Washington team name. More Than A Word also examines the history of Native American mascots and cultural appropriation.

Sisters Rising

Availability ended 5/11/2020 BST
(2-5 Nov worldwide) Native American survivors of sexual assault fight to restore personal and tribal sovereignty against the backdrop of an ongoing legacy of violent colonization. Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than all other American women. 1 in 3 Native women report having been raped during her lifetime and 86% of the offenses are committed by non-Native men. These perpetrators exploit gaps in tribal jurisdictional authority and target Native women as ‘safe victims’. SISTERS RISING follows six women who refuse to let this pattern of violence continue in the shadows: a tribal cop in the midst of the North Dakota oil boom, an attorney fighting to overturn restrictions on tribal sovereignty, an Indigenous women’s self-defense instructor, grassroots advocates working to influence legislative change, and the author of the first anti-sex trafficking code to be introduced to a reservation’s tribal court. Their stories shine an unflinching light on righting injustice on both an individual and systemic level. ​ "The abhorrent violence that is a constant in the lives of Indigenous peoples impacts Indigenous women first,” says Co-producer Jaida Grey Eagle (Ogala Lakota), “We are on the frontlines of an ongoing legacy of violent colonization, and it is vitally important that the world see and hear us.”

Little Chief

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(now-15 Nov worldwide) Against the landscape of a rural reservation in Oklahoma, the lives of a Native woman and nine-year-old boy intersect over the course of a school day. Exhausted and burned out, Sharon struggles to provide stability to her fifth grade students. Bear is having a particularly hard time, enduring challenges both at home and in the classroom. He is desperate to escape it all, and Sharon is left chasing a little boy who is running to nowhere. **Little Chief is supported by the Sundance Native Lab 2018 Program**

Tomena

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
With his career hanging in the balance, a tormented songwriter must confront his deepest wound when visited by someone from his distant past
(now-15 Nov worldwide) JT is a successful singer-songwriter-recording artist from the Red Willow Indian Reservation. After ten years in Nashville and a string of hits on his resume, he finds himself in a creative rut. On this rainy evening he locks himself away in a motel room with his guitar, smoke, and a bottle of whiskey in hopes of conjuring up the muse. While battling a ticking clock with Titan Records, JT is visited by someone from his distant past that helps him understand the true reason behind his emotional and creative torment.

Deep End

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(now-15 Nov worldwide) A raw Short about bullying and suicide awareness on the Reservation.

Native Realities

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
NATIVE REALITIES celebrates and explores the work Native artists are currently doing to reframe Indigenous identity within pop culture. The film follows Lee Francis and takes place during the Indigenous Pop Expo, which is rich with Indigenous visual and cosplay artists, video game designers and comic book writers.

Future Ancestor

Availability ended 16/11/2020 BST
(now-15 Nov worldwide) Indigenous scholar and poet Lyla June challenges the status quo when she decides to run for House of Representatives in New Mexico’s District 47. Future Ancestor follows her through a 7-day “fast for the future” on the steps of the Capitol building. Fueled by prayer and bone broth, Lyla is an unlikely candidate who reveals a new vision for leadership, urging us to “think seven generations ahead.”

One Word Sawalmem

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
One word ripples outward, vibrating with healing power. Sawalmem, meaning Sacred Water.
(1-15 Nov worldwide) Finalist of the short film program of the Tribeca Film Institute, One World Sawalmem is born from one question: what is one word from your ancestral language which changed your life and which you can offer to humanity to heal our relationship with the Earth? Finalist of the BAFTA-qualifying Carmarthen Bay Film Festival and the Academy-Award-qualifying Indy Shorts International Film Festival by Heartland Films, One Word Sawalmem is the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Tagore Film Festival in India. It is an official selection to 15+ film festivals around the world. The film was selected by Robert Redford and the Redford Center (film’s fiscal sponsor) as a powerful voice at the intersection of youth, Indigenous wisdom and climate resilience. One word ripples outward, vibrating with healing power. Sawalmem, meaning Sacred Water. Sawalmem could help us unravel the climate crisis we’ve created… For Winnemem Wintu young man Michael "Pom" Preston Sawalmem represents an entire worldview, a vital vision for healing the world and for healing from the legacy of the Shasta Dam that, since the 1940s, has harmed salmon and the Sacramento River and the Winnemem Wintu people of Shasta Mountain, California. As a student of environmental studies at UC Berkeley, Pom did not feel heard. He felt he was being told that his indigenous viewpoint was irrelevant. The time has come to listen to Pom and to the Winnemem Wintu tribe. And to observe Sawalmem. In violation of state law, against all scientific reason and risking contamination of Northern California’s water supply as well as “ethnocide” against the Winnemem Wintu people, a Shasta Dam raise is being fast-tracked by the Trump administration, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Westlands Water District. Pom's mother Chief Caleen Sisk speaks out at every opportunity and organizes Run4Salmon, an annual 300-mile prayerful journey by foot, boat, horse and canoe. Pom dances in tribal ceremonies on Mount Shasta to stay strong in this latest battle as a warrior for Sawalmem. Sawalmem… A vision of the return of the salmon to their ancestral home waters and the restoration of the largest river in California, the Sacramento. The spiritual is political. Sawalmem

Arapaho Truths

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(1-15 Nov worldwide) The Northern Arapaho People of the Wind River Indian Reservation of Wyoming are storytellers. In an effort to pass their culture to the next generation the Elders tell the children four traditional stories, using clay animation, shadow puppets, paintings, drawings and performance, the children make the stories come to life.

Puktew Muin (Fire Bear)

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(8-15 Nov worldwide) Uncle shares the Mi'kmaq story of Skus and Muin, at a camp fire with his niece and nephew. As they listen, their imaginations take over and turn the story into their own interpretation of what is happening, with them playing the lead characters.

Pow Wow Xperience

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(now-15 Nov worldwide) Have you ever wanted to attend a pow wow and understand the cultural significance? We asked three Indigenous people what pow wow means to them. They share how they joined pow wow life and how you can too.

Manasie Akpaliapik

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(6-15 Nov worldwide) Renowned Inuk artist, Manasie Akpaliapik, comes from a family of carvers in Arctic Bay, Nunavut. When he was 9-years-old, he sold his first carving to the Hudson’s Bay Company for a box of carnation milk and a toy gun. Manasie’s artwork now lives in collections like the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Ontario Art Gallery and National Art Gallery. This short film explores how Manasie shares his culture and relationship to land through his carvings.

Juliana & The Medicine Fish

Availability ended 10/11/2020 BST
Take The Adventure!
(7-10 Nov worldwide) After the sudden death of her mother, twelve year-old Juliana (Emma Tremblay) is forced to repair an awkward relationship with her father as well as deal with the impending bankruptcy of the family business: a fishing lodge on majestic Lake of the Woods. In a last-ditch attempt to save the lodge, Dad (Adam Beach), organizes a high-stakes fishing derby. Juliana is powerless to help until she finds a world record Musky lurking in the waters around the lodge. Juliana devises a plan to catch the beast and save the family business. When Juliana seeks the counsel of an old Native Ojibway guide she learns that this particular Musky is an ancient 'medicine fish' with a spirit-essence crucial to the survival of the lake, and all other Muskies. Will she capture the mythic beast and save the lodge? Or will she allow the Musky to live and sacrifice her home? What medicine does this Magical Musky hold?

As The Smoke Rises

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(9-15 Nov worldwide) A Native elder explains the tremendous healing power of smudging handed down thousands of years ago.

I Am Me

Availability ended 15/11/2020 BST
(1-15 Nov worldwide) A short film about my journey as a Transgender, two spirited woman, living my best life and inspiring others to never give up.