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FILMS BELOW WERE SCREENED AT THE 2019 FESTIVAL

Films | Performances | Special Events | FAMILY DAY | Guests

Once Upon a River
Written & Directed by Haroula Rose
It’s 1978 in rural Michigan. Margo Crane is a 15 year old part Native American girl coming of age in the small town of Murrayville. Margo’s entire life changes when her father is killed in a tragic misunderstanding, and she must begin an unexpected odyssey on the Stark River to find her estranged mother. On the road Margo encounters wonders and dangers as she learns how to live life on her terms while processing her grief. Most importantly, Margo befriends an elderly man called Smoke who has given up on life, and they strike up a deep friendship and understanding. This film is based on the best selling novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell.
2019
SCREENING: Thursday 11/21/2019 | 5:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 32 minutes
RATED: R
SGaawaay K'uuna (Edge of the Knife)
A film by Niijang Xyaalas Productions
Haida Gwaii, 1800’s. At a seasonal fishing camp two families endure conflict between the nobleman Adiits’ii and his best friend Kwa. After Adiits’ii causes the accidental death of Kwa’s son, he flees into the rainforest, descending into madness and transforming into Gaagiixid, “the Wildman.” When the families return in the spring, they discover Adiits’ii has survived the winter. Can he be rescued and returned to his humanity? Meanwhile, Kwa wrestles with his deepest desire, revenge.
2018
SCREENING: Thursday 11/21/2019 | 7:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 40 minutes
RATED: R

Maliglutit (Searchers)
A film by Zacharias Kunuk and Natar Ungalaaq
A party in the family circle is disrupted when one of the men starts making moves on the wife of another. As the argument heats up, Kupak, the leader of four fierce hunters who resent providing for the others, affirms their right to do whatever they want with whomever they choose. But two elders intervene to banish the rowdy men forever. The four leave in a huff, and the festivities resume. Meanwhile, the four hunters are tired, frustrated and hungry when they stop for tea. A shot rings out. They pack up and take off toward it, convinced they will find women in that direction.

Presented by Dr. Peter Kirkpatrick (VCU)

2016
SCREENING: Friday 11/22/2019 | 7:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 34 minutes
RATED: R
The Daughter of Dawn
Directed by Norbert A. Myles
The Daughter of Dawn opens with White Eagle (White Parker) atop a large rock, scanning the horizon for buffalo. He spots a herd and rides back to camp. Meanwhile at the Kiowa camp, the chief speaks with the tribe’s elders about their devastating food shortage. White returns and tells the chief of “News to make us all rejoice – My eyes have gladdened at the sight of many Buffaloes.” The chief arranges for a hunt, which White, Black Wolf, and about 30 other Indians carry out by circling around and funneling the herd into an ambush. Throughout this initial action, a complicated love triangle develops.
1920
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 09:00 AM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 27 minutes
Cherokee Warriors
Performed by The Warriors of AniKituhwa
This dance group brings to life the Cherokee War Dance and Eagle Tail Dance as described by Lt. Henry Timberlake in 1762. They are designated as official cultural ambassadors by the Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and are sponsored by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. They have performed at Colonial Williamsburg, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Montreal, and throughout the Southeast. The Warriors of AniKituhwa perform The War Dance, and Cherokee social dances, including the Bear Dance, Beaver Hunting Dance, and Friendship Dance. They talk about the significance of the dances, their clothing, and Cherokee history and culture.
PERFORMANCE: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 11:00 AM
Molly of Denali (Trailer)
Family Shorts Program
Molly of Denali series and podcast follows the adventures of Molly, a feisty and resourceful Alaska Native girl, as she helps her parents run the Denali Trading Post in their Alaskan village. Viewers are introduced to the rich history and modern-day experience of family life in the heart of the Alaskan tundra through the eyes of Molly, her parents, and her friends. Molly of Denali is the first nationally distributed children’s series in the U.S. to feature an Alaska Native lead character.
Molly of Denali: Airs Monday-Friday at 9am and 1:30pm on PBS.
FAMILY SHORT PROGRAMS
2019
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 10 minutes

The Peacemaker Returns
An animated film by Skawennati
The Peacemaker Returns takes place in the far future, when the entire Earth has become a confederation of countries who truly recognize that we share one planet; that one person’s religion, language, sexuality need not interfere with another’s; and that peace is not just the absence of war, it is the eradication of injustice as well. Now Earth has a new challenge, and Iotetshèn:’en, a young Mohawk woman, is travelling through space along with four other diplomats to a momentous rendez-vous.
FAMILY SHORT PROGRAMS
2018
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 18 minutes
Nanyehi
A film by Becky Hobbs (Cherokee)
Nanyehi, also known as Nancy Ward, was bestowed the title of “Beloved Woman of the Cherokee,” the highest position a Cherokee woman could hold. She was first honored as a War Woman, then as a Peacemaker in the late 1700’s.
FAMILY SHORT PROGRAMS
2018
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 9 minutes 35 seconds
Don't Just Talk About It
A film by Cher Obediah (Senca/Ojibwe, Turtle Clan from Six Nations Ontario)
A culturally disconnected Urban Native battles her awkwardness as she learns to dance for a fast approaching powwow. With outcomes she didn’t see coming this inspiring story reminds us to follow our intuition and live life to the fullest!
FAMILY SHORT PROGRAMS
2019
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 32 minutes

Spirit Song
A film by Ashley Davidson
This film is inspired by “Voices of the Guardians,” an album by Lance Bendiksen and Gareth Laffely that combines the songs and stories of Native American tribes with modern western music as a demonstration of hope and unity.
FAMILY SHORTS PROGRAM
2019
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 26 minutes

Darren Thompson
Native American Flute Player & Storyteller
Darren Thompson is an educator, public speaker, journalist, and Native American flute player from the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Indian Reservation in Northern Wisconsin. He has spent most of his adult life serving communities through leadership development, American Indian cultural awareness workshops, and the arts.
PERFORMANCE: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 2:00 PM
DURATION: 1 hour
Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation
A film by Peter Spirer and Peter Baxter
Lacrosse came from the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), and is the lifeblood of their people, their Nation. The Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team are not only among the best lacrosse players in the world, they are ambassadors for their Nation’s sovereignty—essentially their right to exist, the right to travel on their own passports, the right to their own governing principles.
2017
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 3:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 42 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw
A film by Shelly Niro
As MITZI BEARCLAW turns 25 years-old, she is faced with a tragic decision – stay in the big city to pursue her dream of designing hats or leave her boyfriend and return home to her isolated reserve to help care for her sick mother. Loyal to her family, Mitzi reluctantly returns to Owl Island to find that not much has changed. Her confidence and modern style clash with the sleepy, slow-paced island; the bullies are the same; the handsome HONEYBOY is still running the water taxi; and ANNABELLE, Mitzi’s mother is still as bitter and unloving as ever. She’s also reunited with her spiritual friends, FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY who guide her as she navigates a year of anger, loss and love. Mitzi is soon surprised to find comfort in being home and starts to question her destiny.
2019
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 5:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Woman Walks Ahead
Directed by Susanna White
Based on true events, Woman Walks Ahead tells the story of Catherine Weldon (Jessica Chastain), a widowed artist from New York who, in the 1880s, traveled alone to North Dakota to paint a portrait of Chief Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes). Her arrival at Standing Rock is met with open hostility by a US Army officer (Sam Rockwell), who has stationed troops around the Lakota reservation to undermine Native American claims to the land. As Catherine and Sitting Bull grow closer, and as their friendship—and his life—are threatened by government forces, Catherine must stand up and fight for what is most important to her.
2018
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 7:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 42 minutes
RATED: R
Blood Memory
A film by Drew Nicholas
Battles over blood quantum and ‘best interests’ resurface in the untold history if America’s Indian Adoption Era – a time when nearly one-third of children were removed from tribal communities nationwide. As political scrutiny over Indian child welfare intensifies, an adoption survivor helps others find their way home through song and ceremony.
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 9:00 AM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 50 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
On the Tip of the Tongue
A film by Vincent Bonnay
In the world, a language dies every two weeks. According to the UNESCO, half of the 6,000 to 7,000 spoken languages in the world will disappear at the end of this century. Aware of this threat, the General Assembly of the UN adopted a resolution proclaiming 2019 the “International Year of Indigenous Language”. When GUILLAUME LEDUEY was 13 years old, he discovered the Eyak people and language by reading an online encyclopedia. He saw that there was only one speaker left and a crazy idea crossed his mind at that moment: he would learn the language of this far away Alaskan people because he refuses to see it disappear. AwA’ahdah”, “iishuh”, “ilah qe’xleh”. These forgotten words are coming from the other side of the world, and almost lost all of their meaning, even to their own people.
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 11:15 AM
RUNNING TIME: 52 minutes 43 seconds
ALL AUDIENCES
The Warrior Tradition (Trailer)
A PBS production
The Warrior Tradition tells the astonishing, heartbreaking, inspiring, and largely-untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. Why would Indian men and women put their lives on the line for the very government that took their homelands? The film relates the stories of Native American warriors from their own points of view – stories of service and pain, of courage and fear.
SHORTS PROGRAM
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 12:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 10 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Fast Horse
A film by Alexandra Lazarowich
FAST HORSE follows the return of the Blackfoot bareback horseracing tradition in a new form: the Indian Relay. Siksika horseman Allison RedCrow struggles to build a team with second-hand races and a new jockey, Cody BigTobacco, to take on the best riders in the Blackfoot Confederacy at the Calgary Stampede.
SHORTS PROGRAM
2018
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 12:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 14 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES

All is One by Joost Van Lubeek
Music video by Sky Bear Aguilar and Solange Aguilar
In March 2018 in Richmond, Virginia, at the French Film Festival, Joost Van Lubeek met George Aguilar, an international Native American (Apache & Yaqui) actor who has appeared in numerous films. Most notably as Cahuenga in the cult classic Bagdad Café. Back in Paris, George called upon his talented connections to help form a band for Joost.
SHORTS PROGRAM
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 12:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 8 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Lightning Boy
A film by Michael R.L. Begay, IAIA TCJ Student Best Film recipient
Michael Begay’s original narrative film Lightning Boy combines a culturally based storyline, special effects, and a notable acting performance from award-winning poet and writer Vivian Mary Carroll.
SHORTS PROGRAM
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 12:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 6 minutes 22 seconds
Jaaji Approx
Short film by Sky Hopinka
Logging and approximating a relationship between audio recordings of my father and videos gathered of the landscapes we have both separately traversed. The initial distance between the logger and the recordings, of recollections and of songs, new and traditional, narrows while the images become an expanding semblance of filial affect. Jáaji is a near translation for directly addressing a father in the Hočak language.
THREE SHORT FILMS FROM SKY HOPINKA
2015
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 1:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 7 minutes 35 seconds
ALL AUDIENCES
I'll Remember You as You Were, Not as What You'll Become
Short film by Sky Hopinka
An elegy to Diane Burns on the shapes of mortality, and being, and the forms the transcendent spirit takes while descending upon landscapes of life and death. A place for new mythologies to syncopate with deterritorialized movement and song, reifying old routes of reincarnation. Where resignation gives hope for another opportunity, another form, for a return to the vicissitudes of the living and all their refractions.
THREE SHORT FILMS FROM SKY HOPINKA
2016
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 1:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 12 minutes 35 seconds
ALL AUDIENCES
Dislocation Blues
Short film by Sky Hopinka
An incomplete and imperfect portrait of reflections from Standing Rock. Cleo Keahna recounts his experiences entering, being at, and leaving the camp and the difficulties and the reluctance in looking back with a clear and critical eye. Terry Running Wild describes what his camp is like, and what he hopes it will become.
THREE SHORT FILMS FROM SKY HOPINKA
2017
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 1:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 17 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Canes of Power
A film by Silver Bullet Productions
The Canes of Power, narrated by Cherokee Actor Wes Studi, is the story of President Lincoln’s gift of engraved wood Canes to each of New Mexico’s 19 Pueblo nations, forever symbolizing the recongnition of their tribal sovereignty at a time when 13 Southern states were seeking soverenighty from the United States.  The film was released when sovereignty was being questioned, as it still is. We pose the question of Why would Lincoln select these 19 from the 500 tribes, and do this, at that time, if at all?
2012
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 2:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 56 minutes
Falls Around Her
A film by Darlene Naponse
Falls Around Her follows Mary Birchbark (Tantoo Cardinal), a legendary singer who returns to the vast wilderness of her reserve to reconnect with the land and her community. Mary begins to sense that someone might be watching her. Unsure of what is real and what is imagined, Mary embraces isolation as she explores the psychological impact of her past and present.
2018
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 4:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 40 minutes
PARENTAL DISCRETION

Sacheen, Breaking the Silence
A film by Peter Spirer
Sacheen Littlefeather remains proud that she is the first person, the first woman of color, to utilize the Academy Awards to make a political statement. Littlefeather, a 72-year-old White Mountain Apache and Yaqui elder, shared a statement from Marlon Brando that was televised round the world at the first Oscars global broadcast in 1973. As we revisit one of the most memorable and controversial moments in the history of the Academy Awards, Sacheen’s voice will finally be joined together with today’s brave women, who are determined to make their voices heard.
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 6:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 26 minutes
Warrior Women
A film by Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle
In the 1970s, with the swagger of unapologetic Indianness, organizers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) fought for Native survival and liberation 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.
2018
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 7:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 64 minutes
Once Upon a River
Written & Directed by Haroula Rose
It’s 1978 in rural Michigan. Margo Crane is a 15 year old part Native American girl coming of age in the small town of Murrayville. Margo’s entire life changes when her father is killed in a tragic misunderstanding, and she must begin an unexpected odyssey on the Stark River to find her estranged mother. On the road Margo encounters wonders and dangers as she learns how to live life on her terms while processing her grief. Most importantly, Margo befriends an elderly man called Smoke who has given up on life, and they strike up a deep friendship and understanding. This film is based on the best selling novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell.
2019
SCREENING: Thursday 11/21/2019 | 5:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 32 minutes
RATED: R
SGaawaay K'uuna (Edge of the Knife)
A film by Niijang Xyaalas Productions
Haida Gwaii, 1800’s. At a seasonal fishing camp two families endure conflict between the nobleman Adiits’ii and his best friend Kwa. After Adiits’ii causes the accidental death of Kwa’s son, he flees into the rainforest, descending into madness and transforming into Gaagiixid, “the Wildman.” When the families return in the spring, they discover Adiits’ii has survived the winter. Can he be rescued and returned to his humanity? Meanwhile, Kwa wrestles with his deepest desire, revenge.
2018
SCREENING: Thursday 11/21/2019 | 7:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 40 minutes
RATED: R
Maliglutit (Searchers)
A film by Zacharias Kunuk and Natar Ungalaaq
A party in the family circle is disrupted when one of the men starts making moves on the wife of another. As the argument heats up, Kupak, the leader of four fierce hunters who resent providing for the others, affirms their right to do whatever they want with whomever they choose. But two elders intervene to banish the rowdy men forever. The four leave in a huff, and the festivities resume. Meanwhile, the four hunters are tired, frustrated and hungry when they stop for tea. A shot rings out. They pack up and take off toward it, convinced they will find women in that direction.

Presented by Dr. Peter Kirkpatrick (VCU)

2016
SCREENING: Friday 11/22/2019 | 7:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 34 minutes
RATED: R
The Daughter of Dawn
Directed by Norbert A. Myles
The Daughter of Dawn opens with White Eagle (White Parker) atop a large rock, scanning the horizon for buffalo. He spots a herd and rides back to camp. Meanwhile at the Kiowa camp, the chief speaks with the tribe’s elders about their devastating food shortage. White returns and tells the chief of “News to make us all rejoice – My eyes have gladdened at the sight of many Buffaloes.” The chief arranges for a hunt, which White, Black Wolf, and about 30 other Indians carry out by circling around and funneling the herd into an ambush. Throughout this initial action, a complicated love triangle develops.
1920
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 09:00 AM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 27 minutes
Cherokee Warriors
Performed by The Warriors of AniKituhwa
This dance group brings to life the Cherokee War Dance and Eagle Tail Dance as described by Lt. Henry Timberlake in 1762. They are designated as official cultural ambassadors by the Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and are sponsored by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. They have performed at Colonial Williamsburg, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Montreal, and throughout the Southeast.
The Warriors of AniKituhwa perform The War Dance, and Cherokee social dances, including the Bear Dance, Beaver Hunting Dance, and Friendship Dance. They talk about the significance of the dances, their clothing, and Cherokee history and culture.
PERFORMANCE: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 11:00 AM
Molly of Denali (Trailer)
Family Shorts Program
Molly of Denali series and podcast follows the adventures of Molly, a feisty and resourceful Alaska Native girl, as she helps her parents run the Denali Trading Post in their Alaskan village. Viewers are introduced to the rich history and modern-day experience of family life in the heart of the Alaskan tundra through the eyes of Molly, her parents, and her friends. Molly of Denali is the first nationally distributed children’s series in the U.S. to feature an Alaska Native lead character.
Molly of Denali: Airs Monday-Friday at 9am and 1:30pm on PBS.
FAMILY SHORT PROGRAMS
2019
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 10 minutes

The Peacemaker Returns
An animated film by Skawennati
The Peacemaker Returns takes place in the far future, when the entire Earth has become a confederation of countries who truly recognize that we share one planet; that one person’s religion, language, sexuality need not interfere with another’s; and that peace is not just the absence of war, it is the eradication of injustice as well. Now Earth has a new challenge, and Iotetshèn:’en, a young Mohawk woman, is travelling through space along with four other diplomats to a momentous rendez-vous.
FAMILY SHORT PROGRAMS
2018
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 18 minutes
Nanyehi: A Legend of Peace
A film by Becky Hobbs
Nanyehi, also known as Nancy Ward, was bestowed the title of “Beloved Woman of the Cherokee,” the highest position a Cherokee woman could hold. She was first honored as a War Woman, then as a Peacemaker in the late 1700’s.
FAMILY SHORT PROGRAMS
2018
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 9 minutes 35 seconds
Don't Just Talk About It
A film by Cher Obediah (Senca/Ojibwe, Turtle Clan from Six Nations Ontario)
A culturally disconnected Urban Native battles her awkwardness as she learns to dance for a fast approaching powwow. With outcomes she didn’t see coming this inspiring story reminds us to follow our intuition and live life to the fullest!
FAMILY SHORT PROGRAMS
2019
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 32 minutes

Spirit Song
A film by Ashley Davidson
This film is inspired by “Voices of the Guardians,” an album by Lance Bendiksen and Gareth Laffely that combines the songs and stories of Native American tribes with modern western music as a demonstration of hope and unity.
FAMILY SHORTS PROGRAM
2019
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 12:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 26 minutes

Darren Thompson
Native American Flute Player
Darren Thompson is an educator, public speaker, journalist, and Native American flute player from the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Indian Reservation in Northern Wisconsin. He has spent most of his adult life serving communities through leadership development, American Indian cultural awareness workshops, and the arts.
PERFORMANCE: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 2:00 PM
DURATION: 1 hour
Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation
A film by Peter Spirer and Peter Baxter
Lacrosse came from the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), and is the lifeblood of their people, their Nation. The Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team are not only among the best lacrosse players in the world, they are ambassadors for their Nation’s sovereignty—essentially their right to exist, the right to travel on their own passports, the right to their own governing principles.
2017
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 3:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 42 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw
A film by Shelly Niro
As MITZI BEARCLAW turns 25 years-old, she is faced with a tragic decision – stay in the big city to pursue her dream of designing hats or leave her boyfriend and return home to her isolated reserve to help care for her sick mother. Loyal to her family, Mitzi reluctantly returns to Owl Island to find that not much has changed. Her confidence and modern style clash with the sleepy, slow-paced island; the bullies are the same; the handsome HONEYBOY is still running the water taxi; and ANNABELLE, Mitzi’s mother is still as bitter and unloving as ever. She’s also reunited with her spiritual friends, FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY who guide her as she navigates a year of anger, loss and love. Mitzi is soon surprised to find comfort in being home and starts to question her destiny.
2019
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 5:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Woman Walks Ahead
Directed by Susanna White
Based on true events, Woman Walks Ahead tells the story of Catherine Weldon (Jessica Chastain), a widowed artist from New York who, in the 1880s, traveled alone to North Dakota to paint a portrait of Chief Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes). Her arrival at Standing Rock is met with open hostility by a US Army officer (Sam Rockwell), who has stationed troops around the Lakota reservation to undermine Native American claims to the land. As Catherine and Sitting Bull grow closer, and as their friendship—and his life—are threatened by government forces, Catherine must stand up and fight for what is most important to her.
2018
SCREENING: Saturday 11/23/2019 | 7:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 42 minutes
RATED: R
Blood Memory
A film by Drew Nicholas
Battles over blood quantum and ‘best interests’ resurface in the untold history if America’s Indian Adoption Era – a time when nearly one-third of children were removed from tribal communities nationwide. As political scrutiny over Indian child welfare intensifies, an adoption survivor helps others find their way home through song and ceremony.
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 9:00 AM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 50 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
On the Tip of the Tongue
A film by Vincent Bonnay
In the world, a language dies every two weeks. According to the UNESCO, half of the 6,000 to 7,000 spoken languages in the world will disappear at the end of this century. Aware of this threat, the General Assembly of the UN adopted a resolution proclaiming 2019 the “International Year of Indigenous Language”. When GUILLAUME LEDUEY was 13 years old, he discovered the Eyak people and language by reading an online encyclopedia. He saw that there was only one speaker left and a crazy idea crossed his mind at that moment: he would learn the language of this far away Alaskan people because he refuses to see it disappear. AwA’ahdah”, “iishuh”, “ilah qe’xleh”. These forgotten words are coming from the other side of the world, and almost lost all of their meaning, even to their own people.
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 11:15 AM
RUNNING TIME: 52 minutes 43 seconds
ALL AUDIENCES
The Warrior Tradition (Trailer)
A PBS production
The Warrior Tradition tells the astonishing, heartbreaking, inspiring, and largely-untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. Why would Indian men and women put their lives on the line for the very government that took their homelands? The film relates the stories of Native American warriors from their own points of view – stories of service and pain, of courage and fear.
SHORTS PROGRAM
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 12:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 10 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Fast Horse
A film by Alexandra Lazarowich
FAST HORSE follows the return of the Blackfoot bareback horseracing tradition in a new form: the Indian Relay. Siksika horseman Allison RedCrow struggles to build a team with second-hand races and a new jockey, Cody BigTobacco, to take on the best riders in the Blackfoot Confederacy at the Calgary Stampede.
SHORTS PROGRAM
2018
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 12:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 14 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
All is One by Joost Van Lubeek
Music video by Sky Bear Aguilar and Solange Aguilar
In March 2018 in Richmond, Virginia, at the French Film Festival, Joost Van Lubeek met George Aguilar, an international Native American (Apache & Yaqui) actor who has appeared in numerous films. Most notably as Cahuenga in the cult classic Bagdad Café. Back in Paris, George called upon his talented connections to help form a band for Joost.
SHORTS PROGRAM
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 12:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 8 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Lightning Boy
A film by Michael R.L. Begay, IAIA TCJ Student Best Film recipient
Michael Begay’s original narrative film Lightning Boy combines a culturally based storyline, special effects, and a notable acting performance from award-winning poet and writer Vivian Mary Carroll.
SHORTS PROGRAM
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 12:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 6 minutes 22 seconds
Jaaji Approx
Short film by Sky Hopinka
Logging and approximating a relationship between audio recordings of my father and videos gathered of the landscapes we have both separately traversed. The initial distance between the logger and the recordings, of recollections and of songs, new and traditional, narrows while the images become an expanding semblance of filial affect. Jáaji is a near translation for directly addressing a father in the Hočak language.
THREE SHORT FILMS FROM SKY HOPINKA
2015
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 1:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 7 minutes 35 seconds
ALL AUDIENCES
I'll Remember You as You Were, Not as What You'll Become
Short film by Sky Hopinka
An elegy to Diane Burns on the shapes of mortality, and being, and the forms the transcendent spirit takes while descending upon landscapes of life and death. A place for new mythologies to syncopate with deterritorialized movement and song, reifying old routes of reincarnation. Where resignation gives hope for another opportunity, another form, for a return to the vicissitudes of the living and all their refractions.
THREE SHORT FILMS FROM SKY HOPINKA
2016
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 1:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 12 minutes 35 seconds
ALL AUDIENCES
Dislocation Blues
Short film by Sky Hopinka
An incomplete and imperfect portrait of reflections from Standing Rock. Cleo Keahna recounts his experiences entering, being at, and leaving the camp and the difficulties and the reluctance in looking back with a clear and critical eye. Terry Running Wild describes what his camp is like, and what he hopes it will become.
THREE SHORT FILMS FROM SKY HOPINKA
2017
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 1:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 17 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Canes of Power
A film by Silver Bullet Productions
The Canes of Power, narrated by Cherokee Actor Wes Studi, is the story of President Lincoln’s gift of engraved wood Canes to each of New Mexico’s 19 Pueblo nations, forever symbolizing the recongnition of their tribal sovereignty at a time when 13 Southern states were seeking soverenighty from the United States.  The film was released when sovereignty was being questioned, as it still is. We pose the question of Why would Lincoln select these 19 from the 500 tribes, and do this, at that time, if at all?
CANES OF POWER
2012
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 2:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 56 minutes
ALL AUDIENCES
Falls Around Her
A film by Darlene Naponse
Falls Around Her follows Mary Birchbark (Tantoo Cardinal), a legendary singer who returns to the vast wilderness of her reserve to reconnect with the land and her community. Mary begins to sense that someone might be watching her. Unsure of what is real and what is imagined, Mary embraces isolation as she explores the psychological impact of her past and present.
2018
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 4:00 AM
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 40 minutes
PARENTAL DISCRETION
Sacheen, Breaking the Silence
A film by Peter Spirer
Sacheen Littlefeather remains proud that she is the first person, the first woman of color, to utilize the Academy Awards to make a political statement. Littlefeather, a 72-year-old White Mountain Apache and Yaqui elder, shared a statement from Marlon Brando that was televised round the world at the first Oscars global broadcast in 1973. As we revisit one of the most memorable and controversial moments in the history of the Academy Awards, Sacheen’s voice will finally be joined together with today’s brave women, who are determined to make their voices heard.
2019
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 6:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 26 minutes
Warrior Women
A film by Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle
In the 1970s, with the swagger of unapologetic Indianness, organizers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) fought for Native survival and liberation 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.
2018
SCREENING: Sunday 11/24/2019 | 7:00 PM
RUNNING TIME: 64 minutes