This year’s Native Cinema Showcase features 11 feature films and more than 40 shorts, bringing to Santa Fe’s Indian Market a rich offering of the best in Native cinema. Before Tomorrow was named Best New Feature in the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and The Necessities of Life was awarded four Genie Awards, Canada’s equivalent to the Oscars. Barking Water was an official selection of Sundance Film Festival and New Directors/New Films. Birdwatchers was an official selection of the Venice Film Festival and New Directors/New Films, and five works were featured in NMAI’s 2009 Native American Film + Video Festival in New York. In addition to the short works programs, short films by Navajo director Blackhorse Lowe, Navajo director Bennie Klain, and Russian indigenous director Philipp Abryutin will precede feature film screenings. 

Documentary features take on topics that matter for communities. Power Paths focuses on Native grass-roots campaigns for sustainable energy. Crude, an official selection of Sundance and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, follows the actions taken against Chevron on behalf of 30,000 indigenous people in the Amazon region of Ecuador. No More Smoke Signals, winner of the Quartz Award, Switzerland’s Oscar equivalent, profiles the Lakota people’s highly independent radio station KILI-FM. Weaving Worlds takes a thoughtful look at creativity and the impact of marketing on traditional Navajo arts. 

As well as the remarkable productions screened in this year’s Native Cinema Showcase, a host of  filmmakers, actors, musicians, artists and activists will participate in the programs: Sterlin Harjo, Chris Eyre, Wes Studi, Bennie Klain, Blackhorse Lowe, Joe Berlinger, Gary Farmer, Laura Milliken, Samantha Crain, Casey Camp-Horinek, Richard Ray Whitman, Norman Brown, Nicole Horseherder, Leighton Peterson, Elvis Toala Gualinga, James Kinistino, Leela Gilday, Thomas Isaac, Derrick Janis, Harlan McKosato, Inée Yang Slaughter, Rachael Nez, Deidra Peaches, Jake Hoyungowa, J. Carlos Peinado and Shawna Begay,

This year’s offerings include two art exhibitions; a program of new media arts, curated by NMAI’s Kathleen Ash-Milby; films from emerging filmmakers working with media organizations in Canada and the U.S.; live music; and open mic gatherings. At the Cinema at Cathedral Park SWAIA will host a discussion of “Indian Market: Film, Video and Beyond” and an animation workshop for teens will be offered at the CCA by Chris Kientz, creator of the Raven Tales series.

Use Twitter, MySpace and Facebook to find out more and to add your comments. 

The Native Cinema Showcase has been made possible in part with support from the New Mexico Film Office, Native American Telecommunications, Big Soul Productions and Santa Fe Suites.  Many thanks to our partners: Indigenous Language Institute, Taos Center for the Arts, WGBH, Textile Arts Alliance of Santa Fe, and Institute of American Indian Arts.

Featured Works

• Barking Water
• Before Tomorrow
• Birdwatchers
• Los Chulpas
• The Creation: A Blackfoot Legend
• Crude
• The Earliest Bruise
• Good Looking
• Hill High Low
• Hope for Bigger than 16 Seconds
• Indian
• Land of the Silver Birch…Home of the Beaver
• The Little Prince
• Mémère Métisse/My Métis Grandmother 
• Moccasin Flats: Redemption
• The Necessities of Life
• No More Smoke Signals
• North Peak
• The Old Man and the River/Le Vieil Homme et la Riviere
• One Drum
• Pachamama
• Power Paths
• Prevention of Repeated Crimes
• Raven Tales: Raven and the First People
• Real Love
• Red Man
• Share the Wealth
• Shimásání
• This Is Me
• Tsu Héidei Shugaxtutaan I and II
• Two-Spirited
• Wapos Bay: The Elements
• We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears
• Weaving Worlds

Schedule at-a-glance

Please refer to the PDF of the program for full details.

Download the Native Cinema Showcase program

The program is available to download as a Portable Document File (PDF). To download the program enter here.

To view a PDF file, you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you are not currently using this program, you need to download and install it. For more information about PDFs, enter here.

If you are unable to access the information from this Website, email the Webmaster for other options.

Presenting Organizations

SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN and NMAI FILM AND VIDEO CENTER
Chartered by an act of Congress in 1989, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is dedicating to advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Americas. Visit www.americanindian.si.edu. The NMAI Film and Video Center (FVC) produces the Native American Film + Video Festival and provides screenings of and information services about Native film, video, radio and television in the Americas and Hawai`i. The FVC is headquartered at NMAI in New York where it develops local, national and international programs for NMAI. Visit www.nativenetworks.si.edu (English) or www.redesindigenas.si.edu (Spanish).

CENTER FORCONTEMPORARY ARTS and CCA CINEMATHEQUE
Through its film, media, visual, and performing arts and interdisciplinary programming, the CCA provides a forum to promote the exploration of new ideas in contemporary art and thought. CCA supports visual artists, performers, filmmakers, and others who work in exploratory ways, sparking dialogues and collaborations in and beyond the Santa Fe community. The CCA Cinematheque has screened the best in new and classic cinema daily since 1984. Visit www.ccasantafe.org.

SOUTHWESTERN ASSOCIATION FOR INDIAN ARTS and SANTA FE INDIAN MARKET
SWAIA’s mission is to be an advocate for Native American arts and cultures and create economic and cultural opportunities for Native American artists by producing the Santa Fe Indian Market. This largest juried show of Native fine art, with over 1,100 artists from 100 tribes, shows their work in 650 booths over a two-day period. This year marks the 88th Annual SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market, and it takes place on the Plaza and surrounding streets in Santa Fe, N.M., on August 22 and 23. Visit www.swaia.org.

Showcase Team

NMAI: Elizabeth Weatherford, Director, Film and Video Center, Michelle Svenson, Reaghan Tarbell (Mohawk), Rebekah Mejorado, Amalia Córdova, Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo), Dennis Zotigh (Kiowa/Santee Dakota/Ohkay Oweengeh Pueblo), Millie Seubert, Gaby Markey

CCA: Jason Silverman, Cinematheque Director, Lea Rekow, Executive Director, Javier Hernandez, Lacey Adams, Filip Celander, Alina Gatti, Jett Boynton

SWAIA: Bruce Bernstein, Director, Caren Gala (Nambe/Laguna Pueblo), John Torres-Nez (Diné), Gabe Gomez

Showcase Info

Festival passes:

$50 | $40 NMAI and CCA members, includes priority admission to all screenings and events.

Tickets to Cinematheque screenings:

$9 general admission.
All screenings and programs at the Cinema at Cathedral Park are free. Passholders are seated first and all others on a first-come, first-served basis.

Locations:

CCA Cinematheque: 1050 Old Pecos Trail, behind the Children's Museum
Cinema at Cathedral Park: (two blocks from the Plaza) 213 Cathedral Place
VFW Post 2951: The corner of Montezuma and Sandoval

For further information contact the Center for Contemporary Arts at 505-982-1338, www.ccasantafe.org.

Thanks

New Mexico Film Office (Lisa Strout, Trish Lopez), Native American Telecommunications, Big Soul Productions, Santa Fe Suites (Scot Eastwood), Taos Center for the Arts (Dancer Dearing), Morgan Stanley (Marc Seabock), Indigenous Language Institute (Inée Yang Slaughter, Wes and Maura Studi), Institute for American Indian Arts (Ann Filemyr, J. Carlos Peinado, Shawna Begay), Textile Arts Alliance of Santa Fe, Seth Roffman, Charmaine Jackson, Ken Are Bongo, NMAI Office of Public Affairs, NMAI Publications, NMAI Resource Centers, NMAI and NMAI-GGHC Boards of Directors, CCA Board of Directors and staff

Cover Image

CineIllustration is adapted from an original artwork by Richard Ray Whitman (Yuchi/Creek), an internationally acclaimed artist, photographer, and actor.

Image credit: Audience at Plan B Cinematheque during discussion after A House Made of Dawn - photograph by Amalia Cordova;

Follow us on: