All Roads Film Festival

In 2007 the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival took place September 27 - 30 in Los Angeles, October 4 - October 7 in Washington, DC, and November 28 - December 3 as part of the Santa Fe Film Festival. The films shown are about indigenous and minority communities around the globe. The number of films shown at the three sites varied, with an expanded program in Santa Fe including "Nihí Dinék'egho Neidá: We Walk as Diné" (a program of nine Navajo films curated independently by Charmaine Jackson-John) and a retrospective of works by Alanis Obomsawin.

Native American and indigenous directed features included:

• Four Sheets to the Wind (director: Sterlin Harjo)
  
• Waban-aki (director: Alanis Obomsawin)
  
• Miss Navajo (director: Billy Luther)
  
• A Shout into the Wind (director: Katja Gauriloff)

International features and long documentaries included:

• Sonam…The Fortunate One (director: Ahsan Muzid)
  
• Super Amigos (director: Arturo Perez Torres)
  
• Dol (director: Hiner Saleem)
  
• Bolinao 52 (director: Duc Nguyen)
  
• Enemies of Happiness (director: Eva Mulvad)

Short works by indigenous directors included:

• Crocodile Dreaming (director: Darlene Johnson)
  
• Tavake (director: Paul Stoll)
  
• Taua (director: Tearepa Kahi)
  
• Land and Airwaves (directors: Patrick Boivin and Alland Flamand. Produced by Wapikoni Mobile)
  
• 133 Skyway (director: Randy Redroad)
  
• Nana (director: Warwick Thornton)
  
• Gene Boy Came Back Home (director: Alanis Obomsawin)

The special program "Nihí Dinék'egho Neidá: We Walk as Diné" included works by Navajo directors Klee Benally, Ramona Emerson, Sydney Freeland, Mike Goodman, Melissa A. Henry, Bennie Klain, Darwyn Roanhorse and Sunrise Tippeconnie.

Other events included an art market in Washington, DC; music performances by Balkan Beat Box; panel discussions with the All Roads Photography Fellows. Three All Roads films and filmmakers won awards at the Santa Fe Film Festival. The All Roads Film Project website includes not only Festival programs but new features including a blog space with news and video blogs from the festival events. For more information go to www.nationalgeographic.com/allroads.
12/27/07

In 2006 the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival took place September 28 - October 1 in Los Angeles and October 5 - October 8 in Washington, DC. Thirty films were shown, about indigenous and minority cultures around the globe. The following films by Native American directors were screened:

• Dulce Convivencia (director: Filoteo Gomez)
  
• First Fire (director: Nathan Young)
  
• Gesture Down (I Don't Sing) (director: Cedar Sherbert)
  
• Mare and La Patada (directors: Ana Santos Mejia and Luna Maran)
  
• My First Contact (directors: Mari Correa and Kumare Txicao)
  
• Raven and the First People and Raven and the Seawolf (directors: Caleb Hystad and Simon James)
  
• Sa'ah (Over There) director: Sarah Del Seronde)
  
• Sueños Binacionales (director: Yolanda Cruz)

Works by indigenous Pacific directors:

• 5 Seasons (director: Steven McGregor)
  
• The Lore of Love (director: Beck Cole)
  
• Petroglyphs of Rapa Nui (directors: Santi Hitorangi and Susan Hito-Shapiro)
  
• Plastic Leis (director: Tyrone Sanga)

Also included was The Hardest of these is Love by Sami director Suvi West. Other films produced in Native communities included: Arctic Son (director: Andrew Walton), Mi Papai (My Grandmother) (director: Sandra Hoffman), Un Poquito De (director: Dominique Jonard) and Tainá-Kan, The Big Star (director: Adriana Figueiredo).
3/26/07

The All Roads Film Festival was held September 22 - 25, 2005 in Los Angeles and September 29 - October 1, 2005 in Washington, D.C. The festival is presented by the All Roads Film Project of the National Geographic Society. Indigenous works from North America included: 5th World (director: Blackhorse Lowe), Goodnight Irene (director: Sterlin Harjo), Steve Ma'i'i (director: Kaliko Palmeira), Suckerfish (director: Lisa Jackson), and Teachings of the Tree People (director: Katie Jennings).
For contact information enter here.
2/2/06

American Indian Film Festival

The 32nd annual American Indian Film Festival was presented November 7 - 15, 2007, in San Francisco, showcasing more than 90 films produced in American Indian and Canada First Nations communities. The awards given were:

• Best Film: Imprint (director: Michael Linn)
  
• Best Director: Sterlin Harjo for Four Sheets to the Wind
  
• Best Actor: Cody Lightning in Four Sheets to the Wind
  
• Best Actress: Tonantzin Carmelo in Imprint
  
• Best Supporting Actor: Ernie Tsosie in Milepost 398
  
• Best Supporting Actress: Carla-Rae Holland in Imprint
  
• Best Documentary Feature: Our Land, Our Life (directors: George Gage and Beth Gage)
  
• Best Documentary Short: Dreammakers (director: Susan Cardinal)
  
• Best Live Action Short: Seeking Bimaadiziiwin (directors: Dave Clement and Kelly Saxberg)
  
• Best Animated Short: Raccoon and Crawfish (director: Dale Rood)
  
• Best Music Video: What Are We Fighting For? (Joanne Shenandoah) (directors: Eric Benda, Pearly Leung, Joanne Shenandoah)
  
• Best Public Service: A Place Between: The Story of an Adoption (director: Curtis Kaltenbaugh)
  
• Best Industrial: Seminole Tribe of Florida - 50th Anniversary (director: Danny Jumper)

For the complete program and descriptions go to www.aifisf.com.
2/18/08

The American Indian Film Festival took place November 3 - November 11, 2006. The festival award recipients were:

• Best Film: Expiration Date (director: Rick Stevenson)
  
• Best Director: Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn for The Journals of Knud Rasmussen
  
• Best Actor: Robert Guthrie for Expiration Date
  
• Best Actress: Andrea Menard for The Velvet Devil (director: Larry Bauman)
  
• Best Supporting Actor: Eric Schweig for One Dead Indian (director: Tim Southam)
  
• Best Supporting Actress: Renae Morriseau for The Velvet Devil
  
• Best Documentary Feature: The Trail of Tears: A Cherokee Legacy (director: Chip Richie)
  
• Best Documentary Short: Starblanket: A Spirit Journey (director: Cindy Pickard and Andy Pickard)
  
• Best Live Short: Kinnaq Nigaqtuqtuaq/The Snaring Madman (director: Andrew Maclean)
  
• Best Music Video: The Greatest Love Song (director: Yellow Thunder Woman and Robin Davey)
  
• Best Animation: By the Rapids (director: Joseph Lazare)
  
• Best Public Service: Gang Aftermath (director: Francis Campbell)
  
• Best Industrial: Amerind: Our History (director: Patrick Murphy)

3/26/07

The 30th American Indian Film Festival, held November 5 - 12, 2005, in San Francisco, California, announces the award winners:

• Best Feature Film: Johnny Tootall. Director: Shirley Cheechoo
  
• Best Director: Aaron James Sorensen for Hank Williams First Nation
  
• Best Actor: Adam Beach for Johnny Tootall
  
• Best Actress: Stacey Da Silva for Hank Williams First Nation
  
• Best Supporting Actor: Nathaniel Arcand for Johnny Tootall
  
• Best Documentary Feature: Trudell. Director: Heather Rae
  
• Best Documentary Short: The Salt Song Trail. Director: Esther Figueroa
  
• Best Live Short: A Thousand Roads. Director: Chris Eyre
  
• Best Public Service: The Gift of Diabetes. Director: Brion Whitford
  
• Best Music Video: Tamara Podemski for Meegwetch

For more information, enter here.
12/30/05

The 29th American Indian Film Festival, held November 6 - 13, 2004 in San Francisco, announces its 2004 award winners:

• Best Film: Edge of America. Director: Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho)
• Best Director: Chris Eyre for Edge of America
• Best Actor: George Leach (Lillooet) in Distant Drumming - A North of 60 Mystery
• Best Actress: Tina Keeper (Cree) in Distant Drumming - A North of 60 Mystery
• Best Supporting Actor: Gordon Tootoosis (Cree/Stoney) in On the Corner
• Best Supporting Actress: Irene Bedard (Inupiat/Cree) in Edge of America
• Best Documentary Feature: The Ghost Riders. Director: Vincent Blackhawk Aamodt (Blackfoot/Lakota/Mexican)
• Best Documentary Short: A Tribe of One. Director: Eunhee Cha
• Best Live Short: Memory. Director: Cedar Sherbert (Kumeyaay)
• Best Animated Short Subject: Raven Tales. Directors: Chris Keintz (Cherokee) and Simon James (Kwakwaka’wakw)
• Best Public Service: G. Directors: Shonie de la Rosa (Navajo) and Larry Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo)
• Best Music Video: Love Fades Away - Chester Knight. Director: Robert DeLeskie
• Best Industrial: Plum Creek Reservoir. Director: Steve Marks
  

11/29/04

The 28th American Indian Film Festival, held November 6 - 13 in San
Francisco, announces its 2003 award winners:

• Best Film: Dreamkeeper. Director: Steve Barron
• Best Director: Norma Bailey for Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper Story
• Best Actor: August Schellenberg in Dreamkeeper
• Best Actress: Alex Rice in Coyote Waits
• Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Spears in Dreamkeeper
• Best Supporting Actress: Delana Studi in Dreamkeeper
• Best Documentary Feature: Is the Crown at War with Us? Director: Alanis Obomsawin
• Best Documentary Short Film: The World of American Indian Dance. Director: Randy Martin
• Best Live Short: Moccasin Flats. Director: Randy Redroad
• Best Public Service Announcement: Don Burnstick - "You Might Be a Redskin" Director: Ron E. Scott
• Best Music Video: I'm a Lucky One (Tru Rez Crew). Director: Randy Redroad
• Best Industrial: Pathways to Tomorrow. Director: Gary Robinson
• Horizon Awards - Up and Coming Actress: Sage
• Horizon Award - Up and Coming Actor and Filmmaker: Roderick Pocowatchit
• Horizon Award - Singer and Songwriter: Bill Miller

For contact information enter here.
2/15/04

The 27th American Indian Film Festival, held November 7 - 14 in San Francisco, announces its 2002 award winners:

• Best Film: Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)
• Best Director: Zacharias Kunuk
• Best Actor: Natar Ungalaaq, in Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)
• Best Actress: Lucy Tulugarjuk, in Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)
• Best Supporting Actor: Saginaw Grant, Skinwalkers
• Best Supporting Actress: Sheila Tousey, Skinwalkers
• Best Documentary Short Film: Century of Genocide in the Americas. Director: Rosemary Gibbons
• Best Documentary Feature: Ojibemowin: Ojibwe Oral Tradition. Director: Lorraine Norrgard
• Best Live Short: Only the Devil Speaks Cree - (Canada). Director: Pamela Matthews
• Best Public Service Announcement: Restoring the Sacred Circle: Responding to Elder Abuse in American Indian Communities. Director: Phil Lucas
• Best Music Video: George Leach Young Enough
• Best Animated Short: Keeping Balance. Director: Scott Clark
• Eagle Spirit Award: Joy Harjo
• Horizon Award: Shane Hannigan, Admirational
• Producer's Award: Noreen Norrgard

11/20/02

2001 American Indian Film Festival, held November 8 - 14 in San Francisco, announces its awards:

Best Film: The Doe Boy (Director: Randy Redroad)
Best Director: Randy Redroad (Cherokee)
Best Actor: James Duval (in The Doe Boy)
Best Actress: Jeri Arredondo (in The Doe Boy)
Best Supporting Actor: Sam Vlahos (in Christmas in the Clouds)
Best Supporting Actress: Jade Herrera (in The Doe Boy)
Best Documentary: Lady Warriors (Director: John Goheen)
Best Documentary Short: Bernie Whitebear: Modern Warrior (Director: Kurt Feldhun)

12/10/01

Cine Las Americas

Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
Festival: April 21 - 28, 2011
Austin, Texas 
www.cinelasamericas.org/film-festival
7/5/11

The 10th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, held in Austin, Texas, April 19 - 26, 2007 screened more than 65 films. The festival showcases contemporary films from throughout the Americas, by or about Latino and indigenous peoples, and features a youth filmmaker program Emergencia.

Native-directed short films, documentary features, and new theatrical releases included:

• Conversion (director: Nanobah Becker) USA
  
• Coureurs de Nuit (director: Shanouk Newashish) Canada
  
• La Petite Chasse (director: Paméla Basilish) Canada
  
• A Mormon & Shoshone Experience (director: Angelo Baca) USA
  
• Share the Wealth (director: Bennie Klain) USA
  
• Weaving Worlds (dir: Bennie Klain) USA
  
• The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (directors: Norman Cohn and Zacharias Kunuk) Canada

Other feature narrative and documentary films with indigenous themes included:

• Tierra Roja (director: Ramiro Gómez) Paraguay
  
• Cocalero (director: Alejandro Landes) Argentina, Bolivia, USA
  
• En el Hoyo (director: Juan Carlos Rulfo) Mexico
  
• ?Quién Mató a la Llamita Blanca? (director: Rodrigo Bellott) Bolivia
  
• Hartos Evos Aqui Hay: Los Cocoleros del Chapare (director: Hector Ulloque Franco, Manuel Ruiz Montealegre, Fernando Lopez Escriva) Colombia
  
• ?Qué Pasa Después de la Coca? (director: Roberto Lanza) Bolivia
  
• The Beloved Community (director: Pamela Calvert) USA, Canada

The winner of the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature was Tierra Roja, which follows the stories of four Guaraní families in Paraguay. Among the festival jurors were director Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo) and Sundance Institute's N. Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne).

For more information, go to www.cinelasamericas.org.
7/17/07

The 9th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival was held in Austin, Texas, April 19 - 23, 2006. The festival showcases contemporary films from North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean and works by or about Latinos and indigenous peoples.

Native-directed Short Films were:

• A Thousand Roads (director: Chris Eyre)
• Flat (director: Nanobah Becker)
• Gesture Down (I Don't Sing) (director: Cedar Sherbert)

The Panorama section included many films on Native life by both indigenous and non-indigenous directors:

• Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action (director: Roberta Grossman)
• La Vida de las mujeres en resistencia/We are Equal: Zapatista Women Speak (producer: Promedios de Comunicacion Comunitaria)
  
• Miranda hacia dentro/The Militarization of Guerrrero (producer: Promedios de Comunicación Comunitaria)
  
• Muxes: Authentic, Fearless Seekers of Danger (director: Alejandra Islas)
  
• Sierra Madre Tierra/Mother Earth (director: Carlos E. Rincon)

Emergencía, a program of films by youth no older than 19, and selected by a youth jury, included Asveq-The Walrus Hunt and Survival in the Weave-Kumeyaaya.

Other films on Native topics were the documentary features Trespassing (director: Carlos DeMenezes) and Apaga y Vamonos/Switch Off and Go (director: Manel Mayol) and the dramatic short El Dia de los Muertes (director: Jim Keeshan). In addition to these works, the festival this year selected a number of outstanding works on border-crossing issues, representing the experiences of indigenous and non-indigenous emigrants from Central America and Mexico.
For more information enter here.
8/11/06

The 8th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival was held in Austin, Texas, April 20 - 24, 2005. The festival showcases contemporary films from North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean and works by or about Latinos and indigenous peoples.

Native-directed films selected were Shadow in Deep Water (director: Shirley Cheechoo), 5th World (director: Larry Blackhorse Lowe), Goodnight Irene (director: Sterlin Harjo), Suckerfish (director: Lisa Jackson), Kunuk Family Reunion (director: Zacharias Kunuk), and El Panteonero/The Gravedigger (directors: Juan Infante and Romina Cruz/Peru). Other documentaries on Native culture included Uxüf Xipai: El Despojo/The Spoils, Danzante, and Buscando a Don Juan.

This year's festival honored Mexican director Nicolás Echevarría, screening his award-winning films from 1979-1991 concerned with Native community and outlook. The classic feature Cabeza de Vaca (1991) tells of a 16th-century conquistador's encounter with a Native tribe and its outcome. Also shown were his documentaries on Native healers, spiritual practices, and arts: Maria Sabina, mujer espiritu (1979); Teshuinada, semana santa Tarahumara (1980); Poetas Campesinos (1980); and Nino Fidencio: el taumaturgo de Espinoza (1981).
7/15/05

The 7th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival was held in Austin, Texas, April 21 - 25, 2004. The festival showcases contemporary films by and about Latinos and indigenous peoples from North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. The Best Narrative Feature Award was given to Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper Story, starring Adam Beach and Eric Schweig (director: Norma Bailey. producers: Eric Jordan and Jeremy Torrie (Ojibwe)). Other Native-directed or produced fictions were Blood River (director: Kent Monkman), Composure (director: Tazbah Chavez), and Don’t Call Me Tonto (executive director/writer: Annie Frazier Henry). Dreamkeeper featured great storytelling and an outstanding cast of Native actors. Documentaries shown on various Native issues included La Pasion de Maria Elena, The Shaman’s Apprentice, Boomtown, and Oaxacan Hoops.
8/5/04

CineFestival en San Antonio

CineFestival en San Antonio is produced by the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas. The 2005 festival, held November 11 - 19. The festival featured works with indigenous themes from the United States, Mexico and Argentina, including A Thousand Roads (director: Chris Eyre), Danzante (director: Sergio Bátiz), Oaxacan Hoops (director: Olga Rodriguez), Race is the Place (directors: Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Telles), and Salinas Grandes (director: Milguel Kohan).
For contact information enter here.
2/2/06

The 27th annual CineFestival en San Antonio, was presented March 3 - 6, 2004 by the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, one of the nation's premier cultural centers for Chicano and Latino arts. The theme of this year's festival was Many Roads, Un Destino: Latino and Indigenous Perspectives on Immigration. Participating in the professional workshops was Frank Blythe (Sioux/Cherokee), director of Native American Public Telecommunications.

Awards for Native productions were:

• Premio Mesquite: Native American First Place
  A Salto de Mata: Historias de Migrantes Indígenas. Director: Javier Sámano Chong
• Premio Mesquite: Native American Education
  The Iron Lodge. Director: Ismana Carney

Other works with indigenous themes:

• Balance. Director: Antonio Cisneros
  
• Red Road: Towards the Techno-Tribal Tribe. Director: Juan Salazar
• Vis á Vis: Native Tongues. Directors: Steve Lawrence and Phil Lucas (Choctaw)
• Juchitán Queer Paradise. Director: Patricio Henriquez

For more information go to www.guadalupeculturalarts.org/mediaarts/cine2k4.htm.
5/19/04

Dreamspeakers Film Festival

Dreamspeakers Film Festival, held June 4-9, 2007, in Edmonton, Alberta, presented documentaries and feature films from Canada, New Zealand, and the United States; a two-day film trade and career fair; and a Youth Day with screenings and workshops. On Opening Night, a welcome reception was followed by a screening of The Waimate Conspiracy and the festival closed with an Awards Night. Awards given were:

• Best Feature: The Waimate Conspiracy (director: Stefen Lewis)
• Best Documentary: Kiviuq (director: John Houston)
• Best Short: Gesture Down (I Don’t Sing) (director: Cedar Sherbert)
• Best Experimental: A Spiritual Land Claim (director: Dorothy Christian)

Other works screened include the feature film Rain in the Mountains, directed by Joel Metlen and Christine Sullivan. Short works screened included Aydaygooay, directed by Mary Code; Buffalo Spirit, directed by Marie Burke; and Maq and the Spirit of the Woods, directed by Phyllis Grant. Documentaries included Flight from Darkness, directed by Trevor Grant; The Spirit of Sacajawea, directed by Alyson Young; and Waban-Aki, directed by Alanis Obomsawin.
For more information go to www.dreamspeakers.org/2007/films.htm.
9/5/07

Dreamspeakers Film Festival, held June 7 - June 10, 2006, in Edmonton, Alberta, presented documentaries and feature films from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and US; a one-day film trade and career fair; and a Youth Day with screenings and workshops for 250 young people. The festival also honors key figures in indigenous film in its Walk of Honour. Awards given were:

• Best Dramatic Feature: Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis (director: Gil Cardinal)
• Best Documentary: The Kaipara Affair (director: Barry Barclay)
• Best Documentary Short: Our Community (director: Sean Kennedy)
• Best Public Service Media: Gang Aftermath (director: Francis Campbell)

The Opening Night gala featured Indian Summer and the festival closed with a VIP Gala to raise funds for Edmonton's Aboriginal Walk of Honour honoring First Nations media contributions. This year's Walk of Hnour recipients are Bert Crowfoot, Barry Barclay, Tantoo Cardinal, Alanis Obomsawin, and Gil Cardinal.

Other works screened include the feature films Disappearances, Johnny Tootall and A Thousand Roads. Short works screened include The Salt Song Trail and humorous shorts Dude vs. Dude and Pigeon Powwow. Documentaries included Aboriginal Architecture, Living Architecture; The Ghost Riders; My Father, My Teacher; Homeland: Four Stories of Native Action; and Trespassing.
For more information go to www.dreamspeakers.org.
8/11/06

On June 22 - 25, 2005, the 10th annual Dreamspeakers Film Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, presented nearly 40 indigenous works and a retrospective of works by director and actor Shirley Cheechoo, Bearwalker, Silent Tears, and Shadow in Deep Water. The Opening Night gala screened Goodnight Irene (director: Sterlin Harjo) and Heavy Metal (directors: Neil Diamond and Tracey Deer). The Dreamspeakers Film Society organized a VIP Gala to raise funds for Edmonton's Aboriginal Walk of Honour honoring First Nations filmmaking contributions to Canada. This year's Walk of Honour recipients are Wil Campbell, August Schellenberg, Jimmy Herman, Willie Dunn, and Gordon Tootoosis.

Other actors and directors participating included Alex Rice, Dakota House, Steve Reevis, Nathaniel Arcand, Sonny Skyhawk, Catherine Anne Martin, and Annie Frazier Henry. Among the works screened were Two Cars One Night (director: Taika Waititi), Medicine Walker (director: Greg Coyes), One More River: The Deal that Split the Cree (directors: Neil Diamond and Tracey Deer), The Business of Fancydancing (director: Sherman Alexie), Dhakiyarr vs. the King (directors: Tom Murray and Allan Colllins), Dancing on the Edge (director: Alan Tafoya) and Two Winters: Tales from Above the Earth (director: Carol Geddes).
For more information go to www.dreamspeakers.org.
7/15/05

On June 24 - 26, 2004 the Dreamspeakers Film Festival, presented twenty outstanding recent indigenous works from Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Australia. Held at the Provincial Museum of Alberta in Edmonton, the festival opened on National Aboriginal Day with a gala featuring Shirley Cheechoo's (Cree) documentary Pikutiskwauu/Mother Earth and a blessing by Raven Mackinaw (Cree). Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibwe) gave a humorous lecture/workshop entitled "Being a Successful Native Writer is not an Oxymoron". Other documentaries screened included If the Weather Permits, Kinja Iakaha: A Day in the Village, Diet of Souls, Found Voices, White Buffalo Burgers, and The Spirit of Annie Mae. Feature films screened were Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper Story, On the Corner, and Dreamkeeper.
For the complete program go to www.dreamspeakers.org.
7/30/04

Welcome back
Dreamspeakers Film Festival, a long-enjoyed showcase of film, video, arts, conferences and meeting ground for international indigenous media, announces that its 8th festival is to be held June 2004 in Edmonton, Alberta. The Festival has recently been included as part of the Global Vision Film Festival, screening 8 films in 2003. This year brings back the first full-scale Dreamspeakers Festival since 1998.
4/2/04

In 2003 the Global Visions Film Festival in Edmonton, Albert—Canada's longest-running documentary film festival—featured Gil Cardinal's Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole for the gala opening night. This year the festival, held November 5 - 9, collaborated with the Dreamspeakers Society to present eight aboriginal films. A special panel discussion on Aboriginal film style moderated by Murray Jurak (Lower Nicola Band), Board chairman of Dreamspeakers, included filmmakers Gil Cardinal (Métis), Sonny Skyhawk (Lakota), and Loretta Todd (Métis/Cree).

Additional Dreamspeakers documentaries screened were:

• Angakkuiit: Shaman Stories. Canada. Director: Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit)
• Imprints of Our Ancestors: Diich'anjoo Gookai' Deek'it. Canada. Directors: Mary Jane Moses (Gwitchin) and Tracy Kassi (Gwitchin)
• Locked Horns: the Fate of Old Crow. Canada. Director: Andrew Gregg
• Lonely Boy Richard. 55 min. Australia. Director: Trevor Graham
• Media Nomads: The Thaiday Brothers. Australia. Director: Donna Ives (North Queensland Aboriginal)
• The People Go On. Canada. Director: Loretta Todd (Métis/Cree)
• The World of American Indian Dance. US. Director: Sonny Skyhawk (Lakota)

For more information on Global Visions Film Festival and programs go to www.globalvisionsfestival.com. For information about the Dreamspeakers Film Festival, which returns to Edmonton in 2004, go to www.dreamspeakers.org.
4/8/04

Encuentro Hispanoamericano de Video Documental Independiente:
Contra el Silencio Todas las Voces
(All Voices Against Silence Independent Documentary Festival)

On March 15 - 25, 2006, the Encuentro Hispanoamericano de Video Documental Independiente: Contra El Silencio Todas las Voces documentary festival was held in Mexico. The programs included "Visions and Voices of Indigenous America," a documentary showcase coordinated by CLACPI/Consejo Latinoamericano de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas.

The indigenous showcase, presented March 15 - 18 in Mexico City at the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares, screened:

• Los Angeles de la Tierra (director: Patricio Luna, Bolivia)
  
• Aquí Así Nos Curamos (director: José Luís Matías Alonso, Mexico)
  
• Ayllus en Paz (directors: Humbero Claros and Ariel Yañez, Bolivia)
  
• Buscando el Azul (director: Fernando Valdivia Gómez, Peru)
  
• Cuando la Justicia se hace Pueblo (director: Carlos Efraín Pérez Rojas, Mexico)
  
• De los Niños Ikpeng para el Mundo (directors: Kumaré Txicao, Karané Txicao, and Natuyu Txicao, Brazil)
  
• Día 2 (director: Dante Cerano Bautista, Mexico)
  
• Dulce Convivencia (director: Filoteo Gómez Martínez, Mexico)
  
• Historias Verdaderas (Ojo de Agua Comunicación, Mexico)
  
• El Misterio de la Palmera (director: Heladio Uraeza, Bolivia)
  
• Moyngo, el Sueño de Maragareum (directors: Kumaré Txicao and Natuyu Txicao, Brazil)
  
• Una Muerte en Sión (director: Adam Goldstein, United States/Peru)
  
• Río de la Vida (Esse Ejja directors, Bolivia)
  
• Susurros de Muerte (director: Reynaldo Yujra, Bolivia)
  
• Servir el Pueblo (director: Hermengildo Rojas Ramírez, Mexico)
  
• Soy Defensor de la Selva (director: Heriberto Gualinga Montalvo, Ecuador)
  
• Teco, el Niño Mojeño (director: Rubén Machado Navía, Bolivia)
  
• La Tierra, Nuestra Esperanza (directors: Violeta Chávez and Bertha Rodríguez, Mexico)
  
• Las Voces del Uarhi Iurixe (director: Raúl Máximo Cortés, Mexico)

For more information, go to www.contraelsilencio.org.
4/10/06

The third biennial Encuentro Hisapanoamericano de Video Documental Independiente: Contra el Silencio Todas las Voces (Spanish-American Gathering of Independent Documentary Video: All Voices Against Silence), was held April 23 - 30, 2004 in Mexico City. The Festival gives juried awards in several categories. Jurors for the Indigenous Awards competition were videomaker Crisanto Manzano (Zapotec), cultural activist Marcos Sandoval (Triqui) and Iván Sanjinés of Bolivia’s CEFREC media organization.

• Indigenous category shared prize:
  Üxüf Xipay, el Despojo/The Spoils. Director: Dauno Tótoro Taulis
  Son de la Tierra/Song of the Earth. Director: Jorge (Tzotzil)
• Indigenous category honorable mentions:
  Crónica de un Baile de Muñeco/Chronicle of a Doll’s Dance. Director: Pablo Mora Calderón
  Sembrando Futuro/Sowing the Future. Director: Roberto Olivares Ruiz
  Cariñoso Maestro/Loving Teacher. Director: Maja Tillmann Salas
• Human Rights category shared prize:
  La Generación Desaparecida/The Disappeared Generation. Director: Jan Thielen
  Cuando la Justicia se Hace Pueblo/Reclaiming Justice: Guerrero’s Indigenous Police. Director: Carlos Efraín Pérez (Mixe)
• Human Rights category honorable mentions:
  Choropampa: el Precio del Oro/Choropampa: the Price of Gold. Directors: Ernesto Cabellos and Stephanie Boyd
  Trelew. Director: Mariana Arruti

For more information go to www.contraelsilencio.org.
5/10/04

Environmental Film Festival at Eckerd College (created from Native Visions, Native Voices Film Festival)

The 8th annual Environmental Film Festival at Eckerd College: Visions of Nature/Voices of Nature was presented February 23 - March 4, 2006, in St. Petersburg, Florida. One of the six film programs was "American Indians and the Environment," presented by Reaghan Tarbell of the NMAI's Film + Video Center. The works screened were A Thousand Roads (director: Chris Eyre) and Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action (director: Roberta Grossman).
4/5/06

The 7th annual Environmental Film Festival at Eckerd College: Visions of Nature/Voices of Nature was presented February 26 - March 5, 2005 in St. Petersburg, Florida. About twelve films were screened, discussed by the directors and scholars, including C.S.A.: the Confederate States of America, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Yellow Earth, and Edge of America, presented by director/producer Chris Eyre.
3/5/05

Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital

Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
Festival: March 15 - 27, 2011 
Washington, DC 
www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org/
7/5/11

The 2007 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, March 15 - 25 in Washington, D.C. screened nearly 115 works at 46 different venues, with more than 20,000 people attending. The festival featured environmentally-themed productions from twenty-seven countries. Biologist E.O. Wilson, filmmaker George Butler, genome pioneer Craig Venter and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman were among the 136 filmmakers, scientists and special guests who discussed their work at the Festival.

The National Museum of the American Indian presented Waterbuster, a film written, directed, produced, and edited by J. Carlos Peinado (Mandan/Hidatsa). The film investigates the impact of the massive Garrison Dam project, constructed on the Upper Missouri River in North Dakota in the 1950s, which laid waste a self-sufficient American Indian community, submerging 156,000 acres of fertile land, and ultimately displacing the filmmaker's own family and other people of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

Other programs with indigenous themes included two films by Chris Palmer. Save Rainforests, Save Lives features children in the rainforest of Ecuador, a leukemia patient at the Children's Hospital in Washington D.C. and others who owe their good health to the medicinal bounty of the rainforest. Protecting Life in the Rainforest tells the story of indigenous people and concerned friends from around the world and their efforts to preserve the treasures of the Napo River rainforest. Pachamama by Michael Schoenfeld highlights the efforts of a non-profit helping Ecuadorians protect their native lands. Ten Canoes, by Australian director Rolf de Heer, with an all-Aboriginal cast film, is a rumination on a community and oral tradition. Wellspring, directed by John Grabowska, is a film-in-the-making exploring the relationship of the Pueblo people to their ancestral lands and the placement of the atomic laboratory city of Los Alamos there.

For more information: www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org/2007FestivalReport.htm
7/17/07

The 2006 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, March 15 - 26 in Washington, D.C. screened nearly 100 works at more than 70 different events, with more than 20,000 people attending. The festival featured environmentally-themed productions from twenty-three countries. The National Museum of the American Indian presented At the Time of the Sturgeon (Ekospi Namew) followed by discussion with filmmaker Dennis Jackson (Cree) and editor Melanie Jackson (Metis/Saulteaux). This work is concerned with the fragile ecosystem of the Churchill River in Cree country in northern Saskatchewan. It was preceded by the animation Two Winters: Tales from Above the Earth (director: Carol Geddes (Tlingit). Other programs with indigenous themes included Banking on Disaster (director: Adrian Cowell), a documentary about the impact of the World Bank's support of highway construction in the Brazilian Amazon on both indigenous people and the impoverished Brazilians attracted to settle there. The screening, presented by American University's Center for Social Media and Center for Environmental Filmmaking, was followed by a panel discussion, "Can a Movie Save the Rainforest?" The National Museum of Natural History honored Bolivian director Jorge Ruiz and screened his 1953 fiction Vuelve Sebastiana, filmed with local actors in a remote Chipaya village in Bolivia.
For more information enter here.
8/11/06

The 2005 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, March 10 - 20 in Washington, D.C. screened approximately 130 works at more than thirty different venues. The festival featured environmentally-themed productions from thirty countries. On March 11 - 12, the National Museum of the American Indian presented two programs by indigenous directors. Okimah (director: Paul Rickard) focuses on the traditions and continuation of the Cree hunting way of life in his portrait of his father, an okimah, or traditional hunt master. The program was preceded by an animated Tales of Wesakechak: The First Spring Flood (directors: Gregory Coyes and George Johnson). Issues of water facing Native communities-hydroelectric projects and Native resistance in Mexico and Chile, obtaining adequate drinking water, and the protection of aquifers in desert lands-were featured in a program of short works: Punalka: The Upper Biobio (director: Jeannette Paillan), Esta Tierra Es Nuestra/This Land Is Ours (director: Guillermo Monteforte), La Lucha del Agua/Water and Autonomy (director: Israel for Chiapas Media Project), and Paatuwaqatsi: Water, Land and Life, introduced by director Victor Masayesva, Jr.
For more information enter here.
9/2/05

The 2004 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, March 18 - 28 in Washington, D.C., screened approximately 150 works at more than thirty different venues. International in scope, the festival featured environmentally-themed productions from thirty countries. On March 25-26, NMAI presented the Washington premieres of Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole, introduced by director Gil Cardinal and NMAI repatriation specialist John Beaver, and Voices of the Sierra Tarahumara, introduced by director Robert Brewster and Environmental Defense attorney Bruce Rich.
For more information enter here.
4/1/04

Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígenas (International Film and Video Festival of Indigenous Peoples)

The 7th Indigenous Film and Video Festival of the Americas was held June 18 - 24, 2004 in Santiago, Chile, featuring more than 100 productions. This year's events were coordinated by videomaker Jeanette Paillán (Mapuche) and local indigenous communications groups such as Lulul Mawida. Created in 1985 by the Latin American Council of Indigenous Peoples' Film and Communication (CLACPI- Consejo Latinoamericano de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas), the festival supports the training, production and screening of indigenous video and film in Latin America. The festival is organized every two-three years and hosted on a rotating basis in different Latin American countries by local indigenous media makers and organizations. Works from Native communities and independent media makers throughout the Americas are invited to compete. The 2004 Festival jurors, from Chile, Cuba and Basque country in Spain, were Ramón Ibáñez Quispe (Aymara), Mario Tuki (Rapa Nui), Luis Alfaro Cutipa (Lickanantay), Lorena Lemuñir (Mapuche), Maria Julia Grillo, Juan Carlos Vásquez Velasco (Basque), Cecilia González, and Amalia Cordova.

Awards were given in the following categories:

• Preservation of Cultural Identity: Wichi. Director: Mariano Rubino, Documenta SRL
• Defense of Indigenous People's Rights: La Tierra, Nuestra Esperanza, La Resistencia al Plan Puebla - Panamá (The Land, Our Hope, Resistance to the Plan Puebla-Panama). Directors: Violeta Chávez (Isthmus Zapotec) and Bertha Rodríguez (Chatina) for UCIZONI and GTCI
• Social-Organizational Process of Indigenous Peoples: La Lucha del Agua (The Water Struggle). Director: Israel, Promedios; Kikillan Tae Kancheq/Ayllus en Paz (Peace in the Ayllus). Directors: Humberto Claros (Quechua) and Ariel Yáñez (Aymara), CEFREC-CAIB
• Artistic Creation: El Día 2 (Day 2). Director: Dante Cerano (P'urhepecha), Exe Video
• Best Fiction with Indigenous Participation: Los Angeles de la Tierra/Angels of the Earth. Director: Patricio Luna (Aymara), CEFREC-CAIB.
• Testimonial and Documentary Value: Marangmotxíngmo Mïrang: From the Ikpeng Children to the World. Directors: Kumaré Txicao (Ikpeng), Karané Txicao (Ikpeng), and Natuyu Yuwipo Txicao (Ikpeng), Video nas Aldeias; La Hoja Sagrada/The Sacred Leaf. Director: Marta Rodriguez, Cine Documental; Üxüf Xipay/El Despojo (The Spoils). Director: Dauno Tótoro, Ceibo Producciones.
• Best Mise-en-Scene: Qom 'Leec/La Gente (The People). Director: Leo Rodríguez
• Lifetime Achievement: To the producer/director Jeannette Paillan (Mapuche), director of Wallmapu

Honorable Mentions:

• Denouncing ecological disasters and their impact on indigenous communities: Una Muerte en Sion/A Death in Zion. Director: Adam Goldstein for Racimos de Ungurahui and the Achuar Federations of the Corrientes River.
• Women's struggles: Xulum'chon: Weavers in Resistance from the Highlands. Director: José Luis (Tzotzil), Promedios.
• Emergent themes-genetic engineering: Raweke Ira, Genetic Manipulation. Director: Robert Pouwhare (Maori); Squ' inal lxim - Fiesta del Maíz El Tercer Encuentro de Maíx Maya Zoque (Squ'inal lxim - Festival of Maize, The Third Summit of Maize Maya Zoque). Directors: José Angel Lopez Domínguez and Roberto Corzo León for CIESAS - (CESMECA-UNICACH) and Regiones Autónomas Pluriétnicas.
• Urban Indians: Johnny Greyeyes. Director: Jorge Manzano, Nepantla Films.
• Rescue of Indigenous Music: Son de la Tierra/Song of the Earth. Director: Jorge (Tzotzil), Promedios.

All translations in parenthesis are provided by the NMAI Film + Video Center and are for informational purposes only. For Amalia Cordova's festival diary enter here.
9/9/04

First Americans in the Arts Awards

First Americans in the Arts (FAITA) held its 15th annual Awards Presentations with Wes Studi serving as Master of Ceremonies and Host for the second year in a row. FAITA is a non-profit organization created to recognize, honor and promote American Indian participation in the entertainment industry. The annual awards event is the principle fundraiser for scholarships awarded to students pursuing careers in film, television, theater, and music.

• Outstanding Performance by an Actor: Rudy Youngblood in Apocalypto
  
• Outstanding Performance by an Actress (Theatre): Thirza Defoe in Stoneheart by playwright Diane Glancy and Native Voices
  
• Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Film (Supporting): Mizuo Peck in Night at the Museum
  
• Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Film (Supporting): Morris Birdyellowhead in Apocalypto
  
• Outstanding Achievement in Traditional Music: Mary Youngblood for Dancing With the Wind
  
• Outstanding Achievement in Writing: Rhiana Yazzie for Navajo Nation
  
• Outstanding Achievement in Music (Contemporary): Arigon Starr for her CD Red Road
  
• Outstanding Achievement (Technical): Tricia Wood for Casting
  
• Humanitarian Award: Sundance Institute—Bird Runningwater accepting
  
• Will Sampson Memorial Award: Native Star Dance Team of New Mexico
  
• Trustee Award: Icon Pictures, Mel Gibson for Apocalypto
  
• Legacy Award: Te Ata (Born Mary Thompson)—Accepted by Lt. Govenor Jefferson Keel of the Chickasaw Nation
  
• Miss Indian World: Violet John

7/17/07

First Americans in the Arts (FAITA) held its 14th annual Awards Presentations on March 25, 2006, with Wes Studi serving as Master of Ceremonies and Host. FAITA is a non-profit organization created to recognize, honor and promote American Indian participation in the entertainment industry. The annual awards event is the principle fundraiser for scholarships awarded to students pursuing careers in film, television, theater, and music. The evening featured performances by Jana, winner of the NAMMY's Female Artist of the Year, by FAITA's Outstanding Musical Achievement winner Quese iMC, and by Arigon Starr. who presented an excerpt from the play The Red Road.

• Best Director: Chris Eyre for Edge of America
  
• Best Actor-TV Movie: Zahn McClarnon in Into the West
  
• Best Actress-TV Movie: Tonantzin Carmelo in Into the West
  
• Best Actress-TV Series: Kristin Cheneweth in The West Wing
  
• Best Supporting Actor-Feature Film: August Schellenberg in The New World
  
• Best Supporting Actress-Feature Film: Kristin Cheneweth in Bewitched
  
• Best Supporting Actor-TV Movie: Tyler Christopher in Into the West
  
• Best Supporting Actress-TV Movie: Delanna Studi in Edge of America
• Best New Performance (Film or TV): Nakota La Rance in Into the West
  
• Best Actress-Theater: Elena Finney in Kino and Theresa
  
• Best Musical Achievement: Quese iMC
  
• Lifetime Musical Achievement Award: Link Wray, guitar pioneer and inventor of the powerchord
  
• Best Achievement in Stunts: Dutch Lunak, stunt coordinator for Into the West
  
• Best Technical Arts: Stephanie Stonefish Ryan
  
• Humanitarian Award: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and ABC Entertainment for the show's 2-hour season finale, "The Piestewa Family"
  
• Legacy Award: Roy Track, popular powwow announcer
  
• Trustee Award: Q'orianka Kilcher
  
• Will Sampson Memorial Award: San Manuel Indians for the Extreme Home Makeover Project
  

4/5/06

The 13th annual awards of First Americans in the Arts were announced on March 15, 2005 in Los Angeles. FAITA is a non-profit organization created to recognize, honor and promote American Indian participation in the entertainment industry. The annual awards event is the principal fund-raiser for scholarships awarded to students pursuing careers in film, television, theater, and music:

• Outstanding Lead Actor: Wes Studi in PBS' A Thief of Time
  
• Outstanding Lead Actress: Julia Jones in Black Cloud
  
• Best Supporting Actor-Feature Film: Russell Means in Black Cloud
  
• Best Director: Chris Eyre for A Thief of Time
  
• Best Supporting Actress-Television: Alex Rice in A Thief of Time
  
• Best Supporting Actor-Television: Graham Greene in A Thief of Time
  
• Outstanding Performance in TV Series (Recurring): Karina Lombard for her role as Marina in The L Word
  
• Outstanding Guest Performance in a TV Series: Steve Reevis in ABC's Line of Fire
  
• Outstanding New Performance in Film or TV: Kelly Byars in A Thief of Time
  
• Outstanding Lead Actress in Theater: Arigon Starr in Please Do Not Touch the Indian at the Wells Fargo Theater, Autry National Center
  
• Outstanding Lead Actor in Theater: Andrew Roa in Please Do Not Touch the Indian
  
• Best Musical Achievement: Jimmy Lee Young for his new album Maya
  
• Hall of Honor Award: Jim Thorpe, who has also been selected posthumously as ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Century
  
• Humanitarian Award: The Recording Academy for creating a Native American Category for the GRAMMY Awards
  
• Legacy Award: Clu Gulager, has appeared in a long list of films, including Feast directed by his son, John Gulager. Gulager is the cousin of Will Rogers.
  
• Lifetime Achievement in Stunts: Hall Needham (Blackfoot)
  
• Trustee Award: to independent Los Angeles filmmaker, Ian Skorodin (Choctaw)
  
• Will Sampson Memorial Award: Owens Valley Career Development Center/Akatubi Film & Music Academy. In 2002 with the help of Native professionals in the entertainment industry, they created a digital film and music academy for you. More than 240 young people have participated since its founding

3/17/05

The 12th annual awards of First Americans in the Arts were announced on March 20, 2004 in Los Angeles:

• Outstanding Lead Performance in a Film - Actor: Eric Schweig (Inuit) in The Missing - Revolution Studios/Imagine Entertainment
• Outstanding Lead Performance in a TV Movie - Actor: Nathaniel Arcand (Plains Cree) in The Lone Ranger - Turner Television/Turner Films
• Outstanding Lead Performance in a TV Movie - Actress: Stepfanie Kramer (Eastern Band Cherokee) in Hunter: Back in Force - 20th Century Fox Television/NBC Studios
• Outstanding Supporting Performance in a TV Movie/Special - Actor: Eddie Spears (Lakota Sioux) in Dreamkeeper - ABC Television Network/Hallmark Entertainment
• Outstanding Supporting Performance in a TV Movie/Special - Actress: Delanna Studi (Cherokee) in Dreamkeeper
• Outstanding Guest Performance in a TV Drama Series: Graham Greene (Oneida) in Mister Sterling - NBC Studios/Universal Network Television
• Outstanding Performance in TV Series (Recurring): Mitch Longley (Passamoquoddy/Penobscot) in Las Vegas - Dream Works/NBC Studios
• Outstanding New Performance in Film or TV: Teneil Whiskeyjack (Saddle Lake First Nation) in Dreamkeeper
• Outstanding Achievement in Producing (Special Award): Tiffany R. Delorme (Choctaw)
• Outstanding Achievement in Technical Arts: Monty Bass (Sac and Fax/Creek)
• Outstanding Achievement in Stunts: Henry Kingi, Jr. (Cherokee)
• Outstanding Lead Performance in Theater - Actress: Arigon Starr (Kickapoo) in Buzz' Gem Blues - Native Voices
• Outstanding Performance in Theater - Actor: Michael Horse (Mescalero Apache/Yaqui/Zuni) in Buzz' Gem Blues
• Outstanding Musical Achievement - Independent: Darren Geffre (Blackfoot) in "Uncivilized" - independent
• Outstanding Musical Achievement - Contemporary: Chester Knight (Cree) in "Standing Strong" - SOAR Corporation
• Outstanding Musical Achievement - Traditional: Black Lodge Singers (Blackfeet) in "Brotherhood" - Canyon Records
• Humanitarian Award: John Fusco, screenwriter for Dreamkeeper, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Thunderheart, and Hidalgo. "His sensitivity to Indian people, their history, their stories and their need to be told put him into the running for this award. He has earned it beyond question."
• Humanitarian Award - Stunts: Norman Howell for his work as stunt coordinator who trained 20 Native American men as stunt men in Dances with Wolves, all of whom went on to become professionals in the business. Howell continues to employ and train Native American stuntmen.
• Trustee Award: Hallmark Entertainment, Robert Halmi Sr., and Robert Halmi Jr. "The time and effort they took to consult with each Nation represented in Dreamkeeper to assure accuracy in every detail was extraordinary, their dedication to casting every role with Native American actors earned them this prestigious award."
• Trustee Award: ABC Television Network for Dreamkeeper
• Trustee Award: Tony Hillerman, novelist "for his accurate and sympathetic portrayals of Indian life in his novels."
• Will Sampson Memorial Award: KTNN Radio, The Voice of the Navajo Nation

6/7/04

First Nations Film and Video Festival of Chicago

The First Nations Film and Video Festival, produced by Chicago's American Indian Center, was held November 14 - 19, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. NMAI's A Thousand Roads (director: Chris Eyre) was screened on November 17 at the festival's special reception at the American Indian Center. Other films screened were 5th World (director: Blackhorse Lowe), The Gift of Diabetes (director: Brion Whitford), Playing at Happiness (directors: Stephani Etheridge Woodson and youth filmmakers from Gila River Indian Community), and Two Worlds Colliding (director: Taisha Hubbard). Screening venues in Chicago and adjoining suburbs included Trickster Gallery, North Park University, the American Indian Center, Hull House, University of Chicago, and Mitchell Indian Museum.
For contact information, enter here.
2/2/06

The 8th First Nations Film and Video Festival was held in Chicago on November 15 - 21, 2004. Sponsored by the American Indian Center and Red Path Theater Company, the festival presented 42 works by and about Native Americans, with screenings at 10 venues in the Chicago area. Director Chris Eyre (Cheyenee/Arapaho) gave a November 17 lecture "From Dances with Wolves to Smoke Signals: Re-Inventing Indians On Screen". Directors attending the November 19 reception at the American Indian Center included Roderick Pocowachit (Pawnee/Shawnee/Comanche), Frederick Lane (Lummi), and Ernest Whiteman III (Arapaho).
For more information, contact Dave Spencer of the American Indian Center, at 773-275-5871.
11/15/04

First Nations of Abya Yala Film and Video Festival

The IV First Nations of Abya Yala Film and Video Festival was held November 16 - 28, 2001 in Ecuador. After opening in Quito, the Festival moved to indigenous communities throughout the country for screenings from November 17 - 23. Screenings were held in Quito November 24-28. The Festival then toured Spain as the Muestra de Cine Indigena de Abya Yala/Indigenous Film from Abya Yala.

The Festival's Lanza de Amaru juried awards carry the names of the eleven indigenous nations in Ecuador.The prizes given were created by Native artists and artisans.

• Shuar Prize: Best Fiction. Qati-Qati, Susurro de Muerte/Murmurs of Death. Director: Reinaldo Yujra, Bolivia
• Secoya Prize: Best Narration. Oro Maldito/Cursed Gold. Director: Marcelino Pinto, Bolivia
• Tsa'chila Prize: Creativity. El Diablo Nunca Duerme/The Devil Never Sleeps**. Director: Humberto Paz, Bolivia
• Kichwa Prize: Culture. Waia Rini, O Poder do Sonho/Waia Rini, The Power of the Dream. Director: Divino Tserewahu, Brazil
• Siona Prize: History. La Palabra Desenterrada/The Haunted Land. Director: Mary Ellen Davis, Canada
• Cofan Prize. Not Awarded
• Chachi Prize: Collective Rights. El Silencio de los Zapatistas/The Silence of the Zapatistas. Directors: Paco, Marvin, Saul and Solin, Mexico
• Achuar Prize: Education and Training. Educacion en Resistencia/Education in Resistance. Directors: Moises and Antonio, Mexico
• Epera Prize: Gender. Vamos Siendo Parejos/Let's Be Equal. Director: Roberto Olivares, Mexico
• Zapara Prize: Environment. Defender los Bosques/To Defend the Forest. Director: Carlos Efrain, Mexico
• Awa Prize: World View. Pewma, El conflicto en el Sueno Mapuche/Conflict in Mapuche Dreaming. Director: Jaime Garcia Henriquez, Chile
• Huaroni Prize: Migration. Familia Migrante/Migrant Family. Director: Raul Maximo Cortes, Mexico

2/18/04

First Peoples' Festival Film & Video Showcase/Présence authoctone

The 2007 First Peoples' Festival/Presence Authoctone, June 10 - 21, was held in various locations in Montreal. The film and video programs are part of the festival, which is organized by the Land InSights Society as a 9-day celebration of art, film, music, the written word, storytelling, and dance from the First Nations of Canada and other indigenous peoples from the Americas. The Festival always includes events on June 21, Canada's National Aboriginal Day. Opening Night screened the romantic and off-beat comedy from New Zealand, Eagle vs. Shark (director: Taika Waititi) and more than forty five films were screened. Awards were given:

Creation Category

• Teueikan Grand Prize: William. Director: Eron Sheean
  
• Teueikan Second Prize: Tuli. Director: Aurelio Solito

Community Category

• Rigoberta Menchu Grand Prize: Pirinop, My First Contact. Directors: Mari Corrêa and Karané Txicao
  
• Rigoberta Menchu Second Prize: Weaving Worlds. Director: Bennie Klain

Séquence Magazine Awards for Documentary

• Best Documentary: Riding with Ghosts. Directors: Joe Hubers and James Starkey
  
• Special Honor: Kiviaq vs. Canada. Director: Zacharias Kunuk

Best Short: Imbé Gikegu/The Scent of the Pequi Fruit. Directors: Takuma Kuikuro and Marica Kuikuro

Best Animation: Popul Vuh. Director: Ana María Pávez

Best Cinematography: Anna Howard for William (director: Eron Sheean)

Main Film Youth Award: Kevin Papate and Gilles Penoway for Wabak

The Festival awarded the Dr. Bernard Chagnan Assiniwi Prize to athlete and leader Billy Two Rivers.
8/29/07

The 2006 First Peoples' Festival/Presence authoctone, May 25 - June 8 and June 21 - 25, was held in various locations in Montreal. The film and video programs are a key part of the festival, which is organized by the Land InSights Society as a 9-day celebration of art, film, music, the written word, storytelling, and dance from the First Nations of Canada and other indigenous peoples from the Americas. This year's awards were:

Creation Category

• Teueikan Grand Prize: A Bride of the Seventh Heaven. Directors: Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio
  
• Teueikan Second Prize: Kiarâsâ Yõ Sâty/The Agouti's Peanut. Directors: Kamoi Panara and Paturi Panara

Communities Category

• Rigoberta Menchu Grand Prize: Urban Inuk (Qallunajatut). Director: Jobie Weetaluktuk
  
• Rigoberta Menchu Second Prize: Nikamun/Chanson. Director: Myriam Caron
  
• Special Mention: Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis. Director: Gil Cardinal

Séquence Magazine Documentary Prize

• Brockett 99-Rockin' the Country. Director: Nilesh C. Patel

Cinematography Prize

• Roldan Lozada for Gesture Down (I Don't Sing) (director: Cedar Sherbert)

Main Film Youth Award

• Shanouk Newashish for Coureurs de nuit
  

4/05/07

The 15th First Peoples’ Festival, held June 13 - 22, 2005, showcased over 80 documentaries, feature and short fictions, and music videos, with screenings at the National Film Board in Montreal and on the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve. A highlight of this year’s festival was a special retrospective of the work, 1970s to the present, of Bolivian filmmaker, Jorge Sanjines, who presented his most recent film, Los Hijos del ultimo jardín. The festival, organized by Land InSights Society for the Promotion of Native Culture, is a 9-day celebration of art, film, music, the written word, storytelling and dance from the First Nations of Canada and indigenous peoples from North and South America. Each year the festival coincides with Canada’s National Aboriginal Day on June 21.

Award-winning films were:

Creation Category (two grand prizes)

• Teueikan Grand Prize: 5th World. Director: Larry Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo)
  
• Teueikan Grand Prize: Raven Tales: How Raven Stole the Sun. Directors: Simon James (Kwakwaka’wakw) and Chris Kientz (Cherokee)

Communities Category

• Rigoberta Menchu Tum Grand Prize: Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwai. Director: Kevin MacMahon.
  
• Rigoberta Menchu Tum Second Prize: Heavy Metal. Directors: Neil Diamond (Cree) and Jean-Pierre Maher.

Séquences Prizes

• Best Documentary Feature Film. Basal Banar. Director: Kanakan Balintagoes.
  
• Best Documentary Short. Mujaan. Director: Chriss McKee.
  

9/2/05

2002 First Peoples' Film Festival, held June 10 - 21 in Montreal, announces its awards:

For more information go to www.nativelynx.qc.ca/English/2002prix.htm.
9/02/02

Awards are announced for the 2003 First Peoples' Film Festival, held June 10-22 in Montreal:

• Community Category Rigoberta Menchu Tum Grand Prize
  1st Prize: If the Weather Permits. Director: Elisapie Isaac (Inuit)
  2nd Prize: The Spirit of Annie Mae. Director: Catherine Ann Martin (Mik'maq)
• Creation Category Teueikan Grand Prize
  1st Prize: Tu es, je suis...l'invention des Jivaros. Director: Yves de Peretti
  2nd Prize: The Bow and the Lyre. Director: Priscilla Barrak Ermel

For more information go to www.nativelynx.qc.ca/.
1/30/04

Geografías Suaves Cine/Video/Sociedad
(Soft Geographies Film and Video Festival)

The 2004 Geografías Suaves Cine/Video/Sociedad festival in Mexico was presented April 30 - May 7 in Mérida, Yucatán; was then shown in several community settings, and concluded July 31 - August 7 in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca. This sixth annual presentation included invitational screenings, a children's program, multimedia events, workshops, a roundtable discussion about the boundaries of documentary, and an open forum to present projects and discuss issues.

• Bichito de Maíz Award/Best Work in Indigenous Language:
  Guie' Bigua. Director: Mayra Jiménez (Zapotec)

Other awards given included the following indigenous productions:

• Bichito Award for Best Documentary
  Rostro de la Historia Indígena. Director: Mariano Estrada (Tzeltal)
• Miguel Barbachano Ponce Bichito de Oro Award (shared)
  El Rey de Zinacantán. Director: Antonio Coello
• Special Mention
  Television series Los Pueblos de México. Co-produced by: Ojo de Agua Comunicación

Geografías Suaves is an independent festival which throughout the year promotes audiovisual expression in all kinds of film and electronic media through contests, workshops, meetings, and an annual festival. It has developed in seven southern states of Mexico--Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz and Yucatán-and in Belize and Guatemala. It includes a strong focus on urban, rural, and indigenous topics produced in the many languages of the region.
For further information visit www.cine-video-sociedad.org (In Spanish only).
11/8/04

Festival: April 30 - May 7 (Merida) and July 31 - August 7 (Oaxaca)
Geografías Suaves: Concurso Regional de Cine y Video
Merida, Yucatan
Geografías Suaves is a regional festival which promotes audiovisual expression in all kinds of video and electronic media. It includes a strong focus on urban, rural, and indigenous topics. Works produced in indigenous languages are welcome. Videomakers from Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatán, Guatemala, and Belize are invited to submit their works for consideration. Migrants from these regions currently living in the United States are also eligible.
For more information, please go to www.cine-video-sociedad.org.
3/10/05

Heard Museum Film Festival

The dynamic Heard Museum Film Festival, held biennially in Phoenix, and the museum's biennial film showcase have been put on hold. In the meantime the museum has begun a series of regular monthly screenings of outstanding new films and videos. For further information contact Wendy Weston or Lorinda Simmons at 602-252-8840.
8/12/08

The Heard Museum Film Festival, held October 12 - 14, 2007, in Phoenix, Arizona, presented more than 40 films. Most works were about the indigenous Americas, but the festival also included films set in countries such as Bosnia, Morocco, South Korea and South Africa.

Feature narrative films and long documentaries included:

• Four Sheets to the Wind (director: Sterlin Harjo)
  
• Imprint (director: Michael Linn)
  
• Mile Post 398 (director: Shonie De La Rosa)
  
• Water Flowing Together (director: Gwendolen Cates)
  
• My First Contact (directors: Mari Corrêa and Kumare Txicão)
  
• Weaving Worlds (director: Bennie Klain)
  
• Kiviuq (director: John Houston)
  
• Unnatural and Accidental (director: Carl Bessai)

For more information go to www.heardmuseum.org
12/04/07

The Heard Museum Film Festival, October 12 - 15, 2006, opened with a screening of Expiration Date (director: Rick Stevenson) preceded by the short work Cowboys and Indians (director: Patrick Mehaffey).

Other feature films and documentaries included

• The Jourrnals of Knud Rasmussen (directors: Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn)
  
• The Land Has Eyes (director: Vilsoni Herineko)
  
• Trespassing (director: Carlos de Menezes)
  
• Waterbuster (director: J. Carlos Peinado)
  
• Ten Canoes (director: Rolf de Heer)
  
• Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacys (director: Steven Heape)
  
• Arctic Son (director: Andrew Walton)
  
• Crossing Arizona (directors: Joseph Matthew and Dan deVivo).

A special program featured the original 1920 movie version of The Last of the Mohicans, with a new musical score composed by Mohegan composer Brent Michael Davids who also conducted a workshop on composing for films. Short films screened included Grace, Sa'ah, My Darkest Hour, Gesture Down (I Don't Sing), and the American Indian Film Institute Tribal Touring Program Student Films.
10/7/07

The Heard Museum Film Festival, held June 19 - 22, 2003 on the Museum's grounds in downtown Phoenix and at the AMC Arizona Center Theaters, presents more than 50 outstanding Native works from Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, and U.S.-feature films, documentaries, and student works. The festival opens and closes with two Maori feature films, The Whale Rider (Director: Niki Caro) and the U.S. premiere of Crooked Earth (Director: Sam Pillsbury) that focus in different ways on contemporary Maori life in New Zealand and the richness of Native traditions.
5/30/03

IMAGeNation Aboriginal Film & Video Festival

The 7th annual IMAGeNation Aboriginal Film and Video Festival was held February 17 - 20, 2005 in Vancouver, British Columbia, organized by the Indigenous Media Arts Group (IMAG), a center for the festival, media programs for area Reserve communities, critical discussion of Aboriginal film issues, and media training.

The highlight of opening night at the Vancouver Friendship Centre was an honoring event for actor and filmmaker Gary Farmer. Opening Ceremonies started with a traditional welcome by the people of the territory, featuring traditional drumming and dancing by the Coast Salish and, highlighting the inclusion this year of a new program of films from Latin America, by guests from Vancouver's Latino community. Closing Night featured the world premiere of Our City, Our Voices, created as part of Storyscapes, a project conceived and developed by Kamala Todd (Métis/Cree) as a storytelling initiative for people in Vancouver. Provided multimedia tools and training to tell their own stories, residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside produced the two films in the program, Follow the Eagle and Slo-Pitch.

Feature films screened included The Business of Fancydancing, Bearwalker, and American Indian Graffiti. Outstanding short features and documentaries included award winning fiction Two Cars, One Night (director: Taika Waititi (Maori)); Stolen Spirits, on Residential Schools (director: Judy Manuel-Wilson (Secwepemc)), Memory, a reflection on death and family (director: Cedar Sherbert (Kumeyaay)); Goodnight Irene, set in a reservation hospital waiting room (director: Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek and Cherokee)); and Indians and Who? a meditation on family and image, (director: Dorothy Christian (Okanagan/Shuswap)).

This year IMAG organized its first REDSKINS Drive Home festival, April 29 - May 1, 2005, on the Splats'in Reserve near Enderby, British Columbia, which screened 20 films at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre and the Starlight Drive-In, one of British Columbia's two remaining drive-in movies.
For more information go to www.imag-nation.com.
7/15/05

The 6th annual IMAGeNation Aboriginal Film and Video Festival was held February 26 - 29, 2004 in Vancouver, British Columbia, organized by the Indigenous Media Arts Group (IMAG), a center for the festival and media training. More than 60 works were screened, including international indigenous works, stories from the North, indigenous athletes, and stories of resilience and resistance. Opening night was hosted by actor/director/physician Evan Adams, along with a Salish welcome from members of the Musqueam and Squamish communities.

The Festival honored Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki) for "the monumental stature" of her achievements in the documentary field, and screened Our Nationhood. World and North American premieres included Inuk Woman City Blues by Laila Hansen (Inuk), Resistance by Doreen M. Manuel (Secwepemc/Ktumexa), In the Name of the Lord by Shawn Mussell (Skwah), and Powwow, directed by Uhduh Pahwooned and produced by Clair Pahwooned (Comanche). Redwire Native Youth Media Society presented 23 short works by emerging artists. A special forum sponsored by Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology, "Voices of Repatriation," focused on documentaries from Canada, Australia, and Norway by Gil Cardinal (Metis), Loretta Todd (Metis/Cree), Paul Anders-Simma (Sami) and the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association.
For complete program information go to www.imag-nation.com.
6/15/04

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

The 8th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival was held October 17 - 21, 2007, in Toronto. The festival screened nearly 100 films, held two pitch competitions, and presented panels on acquisition, indigenous language in film [list topics]. Other original programs included a standing room only performance by artist and media maker Kent Monkman [and Gerald McMaster]. The festival award winners are below.

• Best Dramatic Feature: Four Sheets to the Wind. Director: Sterlin Harjo
  
• Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award: Water Flowing Together. Director: Gwendolen Cates
  
• Obomsawin Documentary Award Honorable Mention: Miss Navajo. Director: Billy Luther
  
• Best Short Drama: Shooting Geronimo. Director: Kent Monkman
  
• Short Drama Honorable Mention: Nana. Director: Warwick Thornton
  
• Short Drama Honorable Mention: Taua/War Party. Director: Tearepa Kahi
  
• Best Short Documentary: The Vanishing Trace. Director: Keesic Douglas
  
• Documentary Honorable Mention: Territoire des Ondes/Land and Airwaves. Director: Patrick Bolvin
  
• Best Indigenous Language Production: Nikamowin/Song. Director: Kevin Lee Burton
  
• Best Canadian Short Drama: The Colony. Director: Jeff Barnaby
  
• Best Experimental: Nikamowin/Song. Director: Kevin Lee Burton
  
• Experimental Honorable Mention: 4-Wheel War Pony. Director: Dustinn Craig
  
• Best Music Video: Punassion (Marco Bentz, Carl Gregoire, Francis Gregoire, Spencer St-Onge, John-Cristophe Gabriel, James Chescappin)
  
• Music Video Honorable Mention: Maori Boy. Director: Michael Jonathan
  
• Best New Media: An Indian Act: Shooting the Indian Act. Director: Arthur Pechawis
  
• Best Radio-Arts and Entertainment: Red Moon. Producer: Dawn Dumont
  
• Radio-Arts and Entertainment Honorable Mention: The Native Radio Theatre Project: The Best Way to Grow Pumpkins. Writer: Rhiana Yazzie
  
• Best Radio-Documentary, Current Affairs, Talk Show: Good Medicine Radio Show: Tobacco Show. Producers: Rita Chretien and Wanbdi Wakita
  
• Radio-Documentary, Current Affairs, Talk Show Honorable Mention: Road to Reclamation. Producer: Wilma Green
  
• Cynthia Lickers Sage Award for Emerging Talent: Fighter. Director: Erica
  
• Sage Emerging Talent Award Honorable Mention: Fifteen. Directors: Cody Cayou and Travis Tom
  
• Documentary Pitch Prize: Gail Maurice for Beneath City Streets (working title)
  
• Drama Pitch Prize: Jeff Barnaby for Blood Quantum (working title)
  
• IFC Mentorship Program: Shane Belcourt

For more information go to www.imaginenative.org.
1/06/08

The 7th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival took place October 18 - 22, 2006, in Toronto, Ontario. The festival screened 96 films; held two pitch competitions and a screenwriting workshop; and presented panels on acquisition, first features, funding, and international markets. The festival award winners are below.

• Alliance Atlantis Mentorship Program. Richard Story.
• The Cynthia Lickers-Sage Award for Emerging Talent. Eggs Instead. Director: Lena Recollet.
• Drama Pitch Prize. Is Nanabush Still Alive? Legend and Myth Meet the Urban World. Pamela Matthews.
• Documentary Pitch Prize. Nadia McLaren.
• Best Music Video. Minor Disturbance. Director: Blackhorse Lowe.
• Best Experimental. Mars-Womb-Man. Director: James Diamond.
• Best Short Drama. Hawaikii. Director: Mike Jonathan.
• Best Canadian Short Drama. 133 Skyway. Director: Randy Redroad.
• Best Short Documentary. Coureurs de Nuit/Night Hunters. Director: Shanouk Newashish.
• Best New Media. www.wepinasowina.net. Cheryl L’Hirondelle.
• Best Radio. Charles Shoots the Enemy. Native Vibes.
• Best Dramatic Feature. The Journals of Knud Rasmussen. Directors: Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn.
• Best Documentary Award. Waban-Aki: People From Where the Sun Rises. Director: Alanis Obomsawin.

8/27/07

The imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, held October 19 - 23, 2005, in Toronto, Ontario, selected more than 100 international indigenous works and performance arts, and offered both documentary and fiction pitch sessions and excellent panel discussions.
The award winners were:

• Best Dramatic Feature: Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros/The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros. Director: Kanakan Balintagos
  
• The Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award: Mohawk Girls. Director: Tracey Deer
  
• Best Short Drama: Wapos Bay: There's No "I" in Hockey. Director: Dennis Jackson
  
• Best Short Documentary: Wirriya Small Boy. Director: Beck Cole
  
• Best Experimental: Su Naa/My Big Brother. Director: Helen Haig-Brown
  
• Best Music Video: Meegwetch. Artist: Tamara Podemski
  
• Best Radio: Red Album Radio Show. Director: Richard Hunter
  
• Best New Media: Horizon Zero 17:TELL. Director: Cheryl L'Hirondelle
  
• The Cynthia Lickers-Sage Award for Emerging Talent: Meskanahk/My Path. Director: Kevin Burton
  
• Drama Pitch Prize: Paul Rickard for Sideways North
  
• Documentary Pitch Prize: Connie Walker
  
• Alliance Atlantis Mentorship Program: Gail Maurice
  
• Curatorial Incubator Program: Wanda Nanibush and Zoe Leigh Hopkins

For more information, enter here.
12/07/05

The 5th ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, October 20 - 24, 2004, announces its 2004 award winners.

• The Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award: The Ghost Riders. Director: Vincent Blackhawk Aamodt (Blackfoot/Lakota/Mexican)
• Documentary - Honorable Mention: Basal Banar. Director: Kanakan Balintagos (Palaw'an-Philipino)
• Best Dramatic Feature: Pear ta Ma 'On Maf/The Land Has Eyes. Director: Vilsoni Hereniko (Rotuman-Fijian)
• Cynthia Lickers-Sage Award for Emerging Talent: Ariel Lighteningchild (Cree/Ojibwe) for Swallow
• Emerging Talent- Honourable Mention: Jeff Barnaby (Mi'kmaq) for From Cherry English
• Television - Honourable Mention: Raven Tales. Director: Simon James (Kwakwaka’wakw) and Chris Keintz (Eastern Cherokee)
• Best Short Drama: Memory. Director: Cedar Sherbert (Kumeyaay)
• Short Drama - Honourable Mention: Might of the Starchaser. Director: Dega Lazare (Mohawk)
• Best Experimental: Wagon Burner. Director: Terrance Houle (Blood)
• Experimental - Honourable Mention: Little Gold Cowboy. Director: Michael Reinhana (Maori/Pacific Islander)
• Best Television: Kunuk Family Reunion. Director: Zacharia Kunuk (Inuit)
• Best Radio: Great Indian Bus Tour. Producer/Host: Andre Morriseau (Ojibwe)
• Best New Media: Kokonda Dub for Fire This Time
• New Media - Honourable Mention: Lisa Reihana (Maori) for LisaReihana.com
• Best Music Video: Possibly. Director: Daybi (Cree)/Slangblossom
• Music Video - Honourable Mention: Black Out. Director: Jeff Barnaby (Mi'kmaq)
• Drama Pitch Prize: Dawn Dumont (Cree) for Eliot
• Documentary Pitch Prize: Tasha Hubbard (Cree) for Girl
• Alliance Atlantis Mentorship Program Winner: Lisa Jackson (Ojibwe)
• The Milestone Award: Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)

10/29/04

4th ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival, October 22-26, 2003, Toronto, announces its 2003 award winners:

• The Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award: Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole. Director: Gil Cardinal (Métis)
• Documentary-Honourable Mention: Anaana/Mother. Directors: Mary Kunuk (Inuit) and Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Our Nationhood. Director: Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)
• Cythia Lickers-Sage Award for Emerging Talent: Daybi aka Geoffery Parenteau (Cree)
• Emerging Talent- Honourable Mention: Nitanis Desjarlais (Cree/Métis)
• Best Dramatic Feature: The Doe Boy. Director: Randy Redroad (Cherokee)
• Drama- Honourable Mention: The Business of Fancy Dancing. Director: Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene)
• Best Radio: The Aboriginal Music Experience: A Radio Documentary Series: Part 2- "Rex Bluez" and Part 3- "Contemporary Aboriginal Music". Producer/Host: Elaine Bomberry (Ojibwe/Cayuga)
• Radio- Honourable Mention: Daryl Coon Jr. (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe), WOJB Radio
• Best Experimental: Thorn Grass. Director: D. Robin Hammer
• Best Music Video: Music Is the Medicine. Director: Randy Redroad
• Music Video- Honourable Mention: I'm a Lucky One. Director: Randy Redroad
• Best Television: Moccasin Flats: The Series. Director: Stacey Curtis
• Best Short Drama: Moccasin Flats. Director: Randy Redroad
• Best New Media: www.daybi.com. Daybi and www.firethistime.com. DJ HAP aka Henrik Broberg (Inughuit)
• IFC/ Alliance Atlantis Documentary Development Prize: High School Confidential. Sharlene Azam.
• Documentary Development Honourable Mention: Lime, Green & Pink. Darlene Naponse (Ojibwe)

For contact information enter here.
3/2/04

3rd imagineNATIVE Media Arts Festival, held October 24-27 in Toronto, announces its 2002 award winners:

• The Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award: Hotere. Director: Mereta Mita (Maori)
• Documentary-Honourable Mention: The Island. Director: Aleksei Vakhrushev (Inuk)
• Best Drama: Bearwalker. Director: Shirley Cheechoo (Cree)
• Drama-Honourable Mention: Only the Devil Speaks Cree. Director: Pamela Matthews (Cree)
• Best Radio Program: The Aboriginal Music Experience. Producer: Elaine Bomberry (Ojibwe/Cayuga)
• Best Experimental Work: Rooster Rock. Media artists: Bonnie Devine and Rebecca Garret.
• Best Television Work: Jaynelle: It's Never Easy to Escape the Past. Director: Coleen Rajotte (Cree/Metis)
• Best Multimedia Work: The Earth Does Not Belong to Us, We Belong to the Earth. Presenter: Nikita Kaplan (Evenik), Vice-President of RAIPON-Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North

For contact information enter here.
11/25/02

Indian Summer Image Awards

The Indian Summer Film & Video Image Awards were held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 10, 2005. The Image Awards are part of Indian Summer Festival, a three day outdoors event, and are a collaboration between the festival, Looking Glass Productions, Milwaukee Public Museum, and the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. A Thousand Roads, the Signature Film of the National Museum of the American Indian won two top awards and was screened as the closing event of the awards ceremony. Truman Lowe, NMAI curator of contemporary arts, accepted the awards.

2005 Award winners:

• Spirit Award for Best of All Categories: A Thousand Roads. Director: Chris Eyre.
• Feature Film: Fiction Award of Excellence: A Thousand Roads. Director: Chris Eyre.
• Documentary Feature Award of Excellence: Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action. Director: Roberta Grossman.
• Documentary Feature Awards of Distinction: Pulling Together. Director: James Fortier. Black Indians: An American Story. Director: Steve Heape. When I Hear Thunder. Director: Dirk Olsen. Spirit Riders…Riding to Mend the Sacred Hoop. Director: James Kleinert.
• Documentary Short Award of Excellence: The Gift of Diabetes. Director: Brion Whitford.
• Documentary Short Awards of Distinction: The Boy Who Visited Muini'skw. Director: Mary Luka. Making of "The Boy Who Visited Muini'skw. Director: Mary Luka. Lakota Workcamp. Director: Jill Orschel. Salt Song Trail. Produced by The Cultural Conservancy.
• Student Award: Lakota Workcamp. Director: Jill Orschel.
• Music Video Award of Distinction: Commodity Cheese Blues. Musician: Wade Fernandez.

For further information, please go to www.indiansummer.org.
9/13/05

On September 10, 2004 the 2nd Indian Summer DeltaVision Film and Video Image Awards were given to 9 productions:

• Spirit Award for Best Work in all Categories: Waasa Inaabidaa/We Look in All Direction -- Ojibwe Oral Traditions (Part 6). Director: Lorraine Norrgard. Associate producer: James Fortier.
• Awards of Excellence:
  • Documentary Feature: In the Light of Reverence. Director/producer: Christopher McLeod.
  • Documentary Short: The Oneida Speak. Director: Michelle Danforth.
• Awards of Distinction were given to Waasa Inaabidaa - Ojibwe Oral Traditions (Part 6) and Treaties (Part 1), Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole, Rocks With Wings, Adrian Wall: Greet the Sun, and artists profile, The America Indian Center - 50 Years of Service, and the music video Crab.

For further information about other events and this year's new music awards go to www.indiansummer.org.
10/04/04

On September 6, 2003 the 1st Indian Summer DeltaVision Film and Video Image gave Spirit Awards to:

• Best work in all categories: If the Weather Permits. Director: Elisapie Isaac
• Best student work: Backroad. Director: Kelly Byars. Producer: Ramona Emerson

Winners of Awards of Excellence were:

• Documentary Features:
  Alcatraz is Not an Island. Director/producer: James M. Fortier
  The Return of Navajo Boy. Director/producer: Jeff Spitz and Bennie Klain
• Documentary Short: If the Weather Permits. Director: Elisapie Isaac
• Educational: Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican: Our People, Our Culture. Director: Molly Miller for the Mohican North Star Casino & Bingo
• Feature Film/Fiction: Bonnie Looksaway's Iron Art Wagon. Director: Wes Studi
• Live Short: Thorn Grass. Director: Robin Hammer
• Music: My Moccasins. Director: Dale Waseta
• Public Service: Rez-Robics for Couch Potato Skins. Directors: Pam Belgarde and Gary Rhine
• Sales and Marketing: Until the Eagle Falls. Directors: Janice Marie Johnson and Jean Paul Vercher

For awards of distinction and other information go to www.indiansummer.org.
2/5/04

Indigenous Film and Arts Festival in Denver

The 4th annual Indigenous Film & Arts Festival was held October 8 - 14, 2007, in Denver, organized by the International Institute for Indigeous Resource Management and presented with partners including the University of Denver, the Native Student Alliance, Native American Law Student Association, and Center for Multicultural Excellence.

Feature films included:

• Kuma Hula: Keepers of a Culture (director: Robert Mugge)
  
• Teachings of the Tree People (director: Katie Jennings)
  
• When the Season is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska (director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean)
  
• Polynesian Power: Islanders in Pro Football (directors: Jeremy Spear and Robert Pennington)
  
• The Velvet Devil (director: Larry J. Bauman)

Short works included:

• Newen (director: Jennifer Aguilar Silva)
  
• Green Bush (director: Warwick Thornton)
  
• Kumeyaay: Survival in the Weave (director: Edward Kramer)
  
• Carriers of Culture (director: R.J. Joseph)
  
• Short works presented by filmmakers from the Native youth media organizations Longhouse Media and Wapikoni Mobile

The festival featured exhibitions by artists Bunky Echohawk and Natasha Keating and musical performances by jazz singer Andrea Menard, and musical and dance groups Ritmos di mi Peru, Comparza Morelos en Denver, and Halau Hula O Na Mauna Pohaku.

For more information go to www.iiirm.org/Events/
2/18/08

The Indigenous Film Festival was launched in Denver, Colorado, on November 19 - 21, 2004, to showcase the creative work of indigenous filmmakers, writers, directors and actors. The theme for the first festival, which is organized and presented by the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management, was "The Continuum of Culture: Reclaiming Tradition, Preserving Culture, and Adapting for the Future."

The festival screened Kunuk Family Reunion, Finding My Talk: A Journey Into Aboriginal Languages, The Whale Rider, American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i, and Qayaqs & Canoes: Native Ways of Knowing. A student program, held in conjunction with the Denver Public Schools Office of Indian Education and the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs, screened Christmas at Wapos Bay and The Rabbit's Tail and other animations from the American Indian Resource Center.

Featured speakers were Witi Ihimaera (Maori), author of the novel The Whale Rider, and independent filmmaker Paul Rickard (Cree). For further information go to www.iiirm.org.
12/23/04

Indigenous Rights Film Festival

The 2nd Indigenous Rights Film Festival was held June 17 - 19, 2005 at American University in Washington, D.C. The festival is co-sponsored by Indigenous Rights Watch and the American University Washington Internship for Native Students Program. This year featured Oil on Ice (directors: Dale Djerassi and Bo Boudart), Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action (director: Roberta Grossman), and Bones of Contention and Cahto Tribe Laytonville Rancheria Dump.
For more information go to www.indigenousrightswatch.org.
8/08/05

The Indigenous Rights Film Festival, at American University in Washington, D.C., is organized by Indigenous Rights Watch in partnership with the university's Washington Internship for Native Students (WINS) program, Washington College of Law's Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Amazon Watch, and Amazon Alliance. Held November 5 - 7, 2004, the program included screenings of To Protect Mother Earth: Broken Treaty II, Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story, In the Light of Reverence, Drumbeat for Mother Earth**, Una Muerte en Sion/A Death in Zion, and Soy Defensor de la Selva/I am a Defender of the Forest.
For more information go to www.indigenousrightswatch.org.
1/25/05

International Cherokee Film Festival

On October 13 - 17, 2005, the 2nd International Cherokee Film Festival was held in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Participating filmmakers and actors included Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho), Joseph Erb (Cherokee), Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo), Georgina Lightning (Cree), Cody Lightning (Cree), Chris Kientz (Cherokee), and Eddie Spears (Lakota). Director Shirley Cheechoo (Cree) was honored with a retrospective of her work.

Opening Night, emceed by Wes Studi at the Cherokee Casino in Catoosa, Oklahoma, featured the screening of NMAI's signature film A Thousand Roads, introduced by director Chris Eyre and the NMAI Film and Video Center's Michelle Svenson, with opening remarks by Principal Chief Chad Smith. A Thousand Roads was also presented at Tahlequah High School and Sequoyah High School.

Awards given were:

• Founder's Award: A Thousand Roads. Director: Chris Eyre. Produced by the National Museum of the American Indian.
  
• Best Feature: Black Cloud. Director: Rick Schroder
  
• Best Director-Feature: Rick Schroder
  
• Best Native Feature Documentary: Trudell. Director: Heather Rae
  
• Best Director-Feature Documentary: Heather Rae
  
• Best Documentary: Pikutiskwaau/Mother Earth. Director: Shirley Cheechoo
  
• Best Director-Documentary: Shirley Cheechoo
  
• Best Multicultural Feature Documentary: Sea Warriors: The Royal Navy in the Age of Sail. Director/producer: Chip Richie
  
• Best Director-Multicultural Feature: Chip Richie
  
• Best Short: Green Bush. Director/screenwriter: Warwick Thornton
  
• Best Director-Short: Shirley Cheechoo for In Shadow
  
• Best of Short Film Nook: Goodnight Irene. Director/screenwriter: Sterlin Harjo
  
• Best Director-Short Film Nook: Steven Edell for Hanbleceya/Vision Quest
  
• Best Actress: Julia Jones in Black Cloud; Emily Hampshire in In Shadow
  
• Best Actor: Cody Lightning in Hanbleceya/Vision Quest; David Page in Green Bush; Eddie Spears in Black Cloud
  
• Most Originality-Feature: Director: Larry Blackhorse Lowe for 5th World
  
• Most Originality-Short: Director: Warwick Thornton for Green Bush
  
• Most Originality-Short Film Nook: Mark Hall, Shawn McCully and Michael Prada for The Diner
  
• Best Animation: Raven Tales. Director/producer/screenwriter: Chris Kientz
  
• Best Variety: James and Erniefied '04: Live in Farmington, NM. Director: Justin Hunt
  
• Best Student Film: The Greasy Warlock Project. Director: Tim Shell. Screenwriter: Derick Drain.
  
• Best Student Animation: How the Indian Got Medicine. Directors/screenwriters: Students of Gore High School. Producer: Wathene Young
  
• Best Screenplays: Rick Schroder for Black Cloud; Sterlin Harjo for Goodnight Irene; Julia Chan for In Shadow
  
• Best Cinematography: Nano Debassige for Pikutiskwaau; Bob Tullier for Sea Warriors; Steve Gainer for Black Cloud
  
• Best Narrator: John Trudell in Trudell
  
• Best Music Video: Commodity Cheese Blues. Artists: Wade Fernandez & The Black Wolf. Producer: Rez Music Video
  
• Best Rhythm & Blues/Pop/Rock: World Peace. Artist: Gil Silverbird. Producer: One Little Indian Boy Publishing
  
• Best Native Gospel: Cherokee Sunday Morning. Artists: Cherokee National Youth Choir
  
• Best Native Flute: Sedona Free. Artist and producer: Micki Free

12/07/05

Latin American Film and Video Festival

The 18th Latin American Film and Video Festival, held November 1 - 16, 2004 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, screened 16 works from Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, the United States, and Venezuela, including La Historia de Todos/Our Story, directed by Blanca Xóchitl Aguerre, featuring claymations by the children of indigenous migrant farm laborers. Filmmaker Byrt Wammack, the founder of Geografias Suaves, a regional film and video festival showcasing productions from southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, was in residence at the University of North at Chapel Hill from November 8 - 16, screening new Mayan works by the production company Turix/Dragonfly and discussing film and video from these regions.
11/29/04

Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

The 2007 Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, held November 9 - 11, 2007, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, featured approximately 30 films concerned with diverse cultures and indigenous life around the world. This festival was founded in 1977 to celebrate the 75th birthday of the eminent anthropologist. Works in the program illuminated themes of music in contemporary cultures and, to complement a current exhibition, various films concerned with water, community and the environment. Two documentaries located in indigenous communities were Nömadak Tx (director: Raul de la Fuente) follows two Basque musicians who visit with musicians in a number of other autonomous communities in the world and Grito de Piedra/Scream of the Stones (director: Ton van Zantvoort) looking at the relationships to mining and tourism by in an indigenous community in Peru.
11/19/07

The Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, held November 11 - 14 and November 20 - 21, 2004 in New York City, screens independent cultural documentaries from around the world, including views and viewpoints of Native peoples. This festival began in 1977, to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of anthropologist Margaret Mead and her fifty years of service at the American Museum of Natural History. The festival includes panel discussions by filmmakers and academics as well as networking opportunities for participants. Some of the films screened at the 2004 festival will also be featured in the 2005 Margaret Mead Traveling Film and Video Festival. The following films were co-presented with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Film and Video Center:

• Native Pride. Directors: 911 Media Arts Center/Young Producers Project (Swinomish youth)
• Paatuwaqatsi: Water, Land, & Life. Director: Victor Masyesva, Jr. (Hopi)
• Raven Tales: How Raven Stole the Sun. Directors: Simon James (Kwakwaka’wakw) and Chris Keintz (Cherokee)
• Rez-Robics for Couch Potato Skins. Director: Pam Belgarde (Ojibwe)
• Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole. Director: Gil Cardinal (Métis)

For more information, go to www.amnh.org/mead.
11/17/04

In November the 2002 Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival in New York features two Native American productions. In The Spirit of Annie Mae, Mi'kmaq director Catherine Martin explores the story of activist Annie Mae Aquash, killed in 1975 in South Dakota, The Chiapas Media Project's Walking Towards the Dawn explores the unique community workshops developed to aid the thousands of indigenous people displaced by violence in Chiapas.
For contact information, enter here.
Related content on this site: Puntos de Vista/Viewpoints from Chiapas and Guerrero
10/21/02

Margaret Mead Film Festival
November 2 - November 10, 2001
The festival celebrated its 25th anniversary with a spotlight on several important filmmakers whose work has been featured in the years of the festival. Among those selected was Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki), one of Canada's (and Native America's) most distinguished documentary filmmakers. The Mead Festival does not award prizes but has an international reputation as a showcase for outstanding documentaries. Among the works with Native American subjects were Paul Henley's The Legacy of Antonio Lorenzano (Warao of Venezuela); Esteban Larrain's Ralco (Pehuenche of Chile); Alejandra Navarro Smith's Scenes of Resistance (Maya of the Zapatista movement in Mexico); Alanis' Richard Cardinal: Cry from the Diary of a Métis Child, Rocks at Whiskey Trench (Mohawks in Canada), and Listuguj (work-in-progress from Listuguj and Burnt Church Mi'kmaq Reserves in Canada) and Matthew Testa's The Buffalo War (includes Lakota in the U.S.). The Mead Festival is a program of New York's American Museum of Natural History.
For contact information, enter here.
12/10/01

Message Sticks Film Festival

Message Sticks Film Festival held May 4 - 6, 2007, at the Sydney Opera House, presented Australian and world indigenous documentaries and short fictions. Curated by Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale, the festival was produced in association with Indigenous Screens Australia and the Indigenous Unit of the Australian Film Commission. This year there were 21 world premiere films showcasing the latest in indigenous drama, comedy, documentary and shorts plus the Sydney premiere of Crocodile Dreaming starring Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil. Actress Tamara Podemski (Saulteaux) attended to introduce, Four Sheets to the Wind (director: Sterlin Harjo) for which she won the Special Jury Award for Best Actress at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival..

For more information: www.sydneyoperahouse.com/sections /
whats_on/boxoffice/event_details.asp?EventID=2227&sm=1&ss=1
7/17/07

Message Sticks Film Festival, held May 27 - 29, 2005, at the Sydney Opera House, presented Australian and world indigenous documentaries and short fictions. Curated by Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale, the festival was produced in association with Indigenous Screens Australia and the Indigenous Unit of the Australian Film Commission. The film festival is part of the Message Sticks Indigenous Arts Festival, an extensive cultural showcase at the Sydney Opera House held during Reconciliation Week.

The festival screened Case 442 (director: Mitch Torres), The Djarn Djarns (director: Wayne Blair), The Dream of Love (director: Lawrence Johnston), Endangered (director: Tracey Rigney), Goodnight, Irene (director: Sterlin Harjo), Grange (director: Catriona McKenzie), Green Bush (director: Warwick Thornton), The Lore of Love (director: Beck Cole), Our Bush Wedding (director: Adrian Wills), Plains Empty (director: Beck Cole), Sa Black Thing (director: Rima Tamou), Tama Tu (director: Taika Waititi), Trudell (director: Heather Rae), Two Cars, One Night (director: Taika Waititi), and Yellow Fella (director: Ivan Sen).

Bird Runningwater of the Sundance Institute and filmmaker Merata Mita held a public conversation on the subject "Coulouring the Landscape: The Emergence of Indigenous Film". Awards given were:

• Bob Maza Fellowship: Tom Lewis, actor and musician, subject of the film Yellow Fella
  
• Tudawali Award: Dot West, radio and film producer, and director of Goolarri Media, in Broome, Australia

For more information, enter here.
8/8/05

The Message Sticks Film Festival, held June 11 -13, 2004, in Sydney, Australia, presented an international selection of indigenous films. Curated by Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale, the festival was presented by Indigenous Screen Australia in association with the Sydney Opera House. This year's event featured as special guest Bird Runningwater, director of the Sundance Institute's Native Program. Presentations from New Zealand included programs from the recently-launched Maori Television. From Australia were a new documentary by Ivan Sen and three documentaries from the Central Desert by Catriona McKenzie, Beck Cole, and Warwick Thornton, as well as programs from Francis Jupurrula Kelly's acclaimed series Bush Mechanics. The festival also featured the Australian premieres of works by Chris Eyre, Zoe Hopkins, Alanis Obomsawin, Randy Redroad and Cedar Sherbert.
12/23/04

Morelia International Film Festival

The 5th Morelia International Film Festival/Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia, October 5 - 14, 2007, presented works in state, national, and international competition; special screenings; documentaries; panels and other events-filling the streets and theaters of the historic downtown of Morelia, in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. A highlight this year was the festival's inaugural First Nations Forum, a 3-day international screening program and panel discussions.

Festival award winners included two works with indigenous subjects:

• Best Short from Michoacán: Axuni Atari/Cazador de venados/ (director: Raul Maximo Cortes (P'urhepecha))
  
• Special Mention for Documentary: La frontera infinita (director: Juan Manuel Sepulvéda Martínez)

Other works in competition by indigenous directors were:

• A cielo abierto/To the open sky (directors: José Luis Matías (Nahua) and Carlos Efraín Pérez Rojas (Mixe))
  
• Miss Navajo (director: Billy Luther (Navajo))

Other works in competition with Native stories and locations were:

• Camino a una massacre/A Massacre Foretold (director: Nick Higgins) Screening included Q&A with members of the Tzotzil organization, Las Abejas: José Alfredo Jiménez, Javier Ruiz Perez and Pablo Romo.
  
• Cochichi (directors: Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas)
  
• El camino Mayo con la otra campana (director: Nicolas Défossé)

The inaugural First Nations Forum built on programs and discussions organized during previous Morelia Film Festivals that focused on indigenous works and filmmakers from the state of Michoacán, from Mexico, and from the United States. This year's far-reaching programming was developed by UNESCO's cultural officer Frederic Vacheron to include both indigenous American and international productions from UNESCO's ICT4ID program. Thirty works were screened from Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, the United States and Gabon.

In addition to Vacheron, other participants in the two panel discussions and screenings were Yolanda Cruz (Chatin), Juan José García (Zapotec), José Alfredo Jimenez (Tzotzil), Damian Lopez (Zapotec), José Luis Matias (Nahua), Raul Maximo Cortes (P'urhepecha), Pedro Daniel López (Tzotzil), Pavel Rodriguez (P'urhepecha), Hector Sandoval (Driki), and Amalia Córdova, program manager of the NMAI Film and Video Center's Latin American Program.

For more information go to www.moreliafilmfest.com.
1/07/08

The 3rd Morelia International Film Festival, October 8 - 16, 2005 in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico presented works by the following indigenous directors:

• Dante Cerano Bautista (P'urepecha)
  
• Eduviges Tomás (P'urepecha)
  
• Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho)
  
• Pedro Daniel López (Tzotzil)
  
• Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo)
  
• Raúl Máximo Cortés (P'urepecha)
  
• Carlos Pérez Rojas (Mixe)
  
• Pavel Rodríguez (P'urepecha)

A full-day conference on October 10, "Native Agents: A Binational Conference on Indigenous and Indigenist Media", was curated by filmmaker and scholar Jesse Lerner. The event was covered in local and Mexican national newspapers, and the New York Times. Three roundtables were presented:

• A Problematic History. Moderator: Tania Blanich of Natiional Video Resource. Panelists: directors Dante Cerano (P'urepecha) and Aureliano Soto (P'urepecha), Amalia Córdova of NMAI's Film and Video Center, Tarek Elhain of University of California-Berkeley and Bird Runningwater (Mescalero Apache) of Sundance Film Festival.
• The Documentary Impulse. Moderator: Patty Zimmerman of Ithaca College. Panelists: directors Yolanda Cruz (Chatina), Pedro Daniel López (Tzotzil), Roberto Ovivares), and Carlos Pérez Rojas (Mixe).
• Features. Moderator: director Bruno Varela. Panelists: film critic Jorge Ayala Blanco, MoMA film curator Sally Berger of the Museum of Modern Art and director Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo).

The awards included the following indigenous works:

• Best Documentary in Competition: Muxes, auténticas, intrépidas, buscadoras de peligro. Director: Alejandra Islas
  
• Best Michoacan Short: Cheranásticotown. Director: Dante Cerano
  
• Special Mention: Últimas memorias vivas. Director: Antonio Zirión
  
• Special Mention: Mensajero de los dioses. Director: Pavel Rodríguez

For contact information, enter here.
2/2/06

The 2nd annual Morelia International Film Festival, was presented October 1 - 9, 2004 in the city of Morelia, in Michoacán, Mexico. Nine indigenous works were screened in Documentary and Shorts competitions. Dante Cerano's (P'urhepecha) first feature, Uarhicha en la Muerte, had a sold-out screening. A panel on "Forms and Destinies of Indigenous Media," included P'urhepecha videomakers Dante Cerano, Aureliano Soto and Raúl Máximo Cortés, and was moderated by Amalia Cordova of the NMAI's Film and Video Center.

The Morelia festival offers film screenings, panel discussions, exhibitions, and other events to meet outstanding figures in Mexican and international film. The Festival promotes new talents of Mexican cinema and promotes the cultural wealth of the state of Michoacán.

A reprise of Mexican shorts and documentaries from the Morelia International Film Festival was held at the Cineteca Nacional in Mexico City from October 13-17, 2004.
For more information visit www.moreliafilmfest.com.
10/8/04

Naalkid Summer Film Festival

Naalkid (Moving Pictures) Film Festival, organized by media producer Charmaine Jackson (Navajo), made its debut on June 28 - 30 2002 in Farmington, New Mexico with a focus on films set in the Four Corners area, including Rocks with Wings and The Return of Navajo Boy.
For contact information enter here.
9/3/02

Nanookfilmfest

Nanookfilmfest screens documentaries about peoples of diverse cultures and about the environment. International submissions are welcomed. The Festival was held October 7 - 12, 2005 in Palermo, Italy. World indigenous works included Fata Morgana, a documentary about the Chuckchis of Siberia, directed by Anastasia Lapsui (Nenets) and Markku Lehmuskallio. Nanookfilmfest, founded in 1998, was formerly known as Il Silenzioso Richiamo della Terra/The Silent Call of the Earth.
For more information, go to www.nanookfest.it.
2/2/06

On November 22 - 26, 2004, the 6th "Il Silenzioso Richiamo della Terra" international documentary festival in Palermo, Sicily, selected 18 works for screening (the festival will be known as Nanookfilmfest starting in 2005). Directed by Giovanni Massa, the festival was organized with the Nanook Cultural Association and the Cooperative of Workers in Cinema and Theater, with participating filmmakers from Italy, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Israel, the United States, and Canada. In 1998, the festival's first year, a Native American documentary program was featured with Hopi videomaker Victor Masyesva, Jr., independent filmmaker Peter von Puttkammer, and NMAI's Elizabeth Weatherford presenting the screenings and participating in a panel discussion. Featured in 2004 was The Shirt by Shelley Niro. This video had premiered in Italy at the 2003Venice Biennale, one of the world's most prestigious art exhibitions. Niro's exhibit at the Biennale, Pellerossa Sogna (Redskin Dream), was organized by the Indigenous Arts Action Alliance (IA3) and the National Museum of the American Indian.
1/31/05

Native American Film and Video Festival

Native American Film + Video Festival 
Festival: March 31 - April 3, 2011
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
New York, New York 
www.nativenetworks.si.edu
7/5/11

Native American Film Festival - NH

On April 13-15, 2007, the Friends of the Oglala Lakota and Keene State College Film Society presented the Native American Film Festival in Keene, New Hampshire. Opening Night featured a lecture by Penobscot leader Barry Dana, and a screening of NMAI’s A Thousand Roads, directed by Chris Eyre. Among the other works screened were: Aboriginal Architecture, Living Architecture, directed by Paul Rickard; Expiration Date, directed by Rick Stevenson; One More River, directed by Tracey Deer and Neil Diamond and Pulling Together, directed by James Fortier. During the festival, Barry Dana demonstrated paddle carving and traditional uses of birch bark, and there was also basket making demonstration and basket sales. For more information, please go to www.lakotafriends.org.
9/9/07

On March 25 - 26, 2006, the Friends of the Oglala Lakota presented the 4th Native American Film Festival in Keene, New Hampshire. Among the works screened were: Johnny Tootall (director: Shirley Cheechoo), Paloma de Papel/Paper Dove (director: Fabrizio Aguilar), The Salt Song Trail (director: Esther Figueroa), Aleut Story (director: Marla Williams), Hank Williams First Nation (director: Aaron James Sorenson), A Seat at the Table (director: Gary Rhine), Trudell (director: Heather Rae) and We're Still Here (director: Sindi Gordon).
3/29/06

Native Cinema Showcase

The National Museum of the American Indian and the Center for Contemporary Arts presented the 5th annual Native Cinema Showcase, August 19 - 22, 2005, in Santa Fe, during Indian Market, Opening Night presented NMAI's signature film, A Thousand Roads, with executive producer and NMAI director Rick West, director Chris Eyre, producer Scott Garen, writer Joy Harjo, and actor Jeremiah Bitsui. Other works, introduced by their directors, included Trudell (director: Heather Rae), which was featured on the cover of The Reporter weekly journal, Other features included 5th World (director: Larry Blackhorse Lowe), Edge of America (director: Chris Eyre) and Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action (director: Roberta Grossman. The program presented short fictions, including films by Sierra Ornelas and Nanobah Becker; cinema classics; a live musical performance by Gary Farmer and The Renegades; and a discussion with artists Nora Naranjo-Morse and James Luna moderated by Paul Chaat Smith. Screenings and other events were held at the CCA, with an off-site screening of IAIA 2005 Summer Workshop productions at the IAIA Museum and an encore program organized by Tazbah McCullah and Charmaine Jackson-John at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
For complete program enter here.
12/30/05

The 2001 Native Cinema Showcase was launched in Santa Fe by the Institute for American Indian Arts, National Museum of the American Indian and Taos Talking Pictures on August 13 - 16, 2001 in Santa Fe, NM. The festival, held at the time of Indian Market, features outstanding Native feature films and documentaries. Among the participants are Irene Bedard, George Burdeau, Shirley Cheechoo, Gary Farmer, Michael Horse, Jim Jarmusch, Victor Masayesva, Jr., and Randy Redroad.
For more information go to www.nmai.si.edu and www.ttpix.com.
Related content on this site: 2001 Native Cinema Showcase
10/25/01

Native Eyes Film Showcase

In September 2005 the 2nd annual Native Eyes Film Showcase was held in Tucson, Arizona. On September 16 - 17, 5th World was presented by director Larry Blackhorse Lowe, preceded by his short film Shush. On September 24, A Thousand Roads was screened twice, for the Tucson High School Media Literacy Program and for the general public. Poet/musician and screenwriter Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek) introduced the film and discussed her own development as a writer in dialogues with filmmaker Lurline Wailani McGregor (Native Hawaiian), and with Elizabeth Weatherford.

Each Saturday in September a curated program of Native animations was shown for the Tucson Citizen Kids' Movie Club—Wesakechak Tales: The First Spring Flood and How Wesakechak Got His Name; Raven Tales: How Raven Stole the Sun; and Two Winters: Tales from Above the Earth. On September 25 the curator presented short works from the U.S. and Australia: Green Bush (director: Warwick Thornton), Flat (director: Nanobah Becker), Goodnight, Irene (director: Sterlin Harjo), and Kava Kultcha (director: Leah Kihara). The 2005 Native Eyes guest curator was Elizabeth Weatherford, head of NMAI's Film and Video Center. On September 26, she also spoke on "Complexities: Visions of Native Women in Film" at the University of Arizona. Native Eyes was presented by the Arizona State Museum, the Jack and Vivian Hanson Film Institute and The Loft Cinema.
9/30/05

In Tucson, AZ on November 12, 2004, the University of Arizona presented Native Eyes: An Evening of Film, screening Yada Yada and The Return of Navajo Boy with filmmaker Bennie Klain and writer Beverly Singer.
1/25/05

Native Filmmakers Showcase-UNM

The Kiva Club of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque produced its Native Filmmakers Showcase, April 26 - 29, 2005, as part of the 50th anniversary of UNM's Nizhoni Days. Among the more than 30 works screened were 5th World, Cold Feet, Happy Boy, and Shush (director: Blackhorse Lowe), Flat (director: Nanobah Becker), His Light (directors: Pierre Barrera and Migizi Pensoneau), Goodnight, Irene (director: Sterlin Harjo), The Snowbowl Effect (director: Klee Benally), Our Nationhood (director: Alanis Obomsawin), and Trudell (director: Heather Rae). Filmmakers speaking included Randy Redroad (Cherokee), Beverly Singer (Tewa and Navajo), and Dustinn Craig (White Mountain Apache and Navajo).
8/4/05

The Native Filmmakers Showcase presented by the Southwest Film Center at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque was held April 22 - 25, 2004. Feature films screened were The Business of Fancy Dancing by Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene), Dancing on the Moon by Rodrick Pocowatchit (Pawnee/Shawnee/Comanche), and A Seat at the Table by Gary Rhine. Also screened were short films by producers Corey Allison (CRIT/Navajo), Thomas Andrews (Navajo), Arlene Bowman (Navajo), Henry Brownwolf (Santo Domingo Pueblo/Sioux), Tazbah Chavez (Bishop Paiute/Navajo/Apache), Steve Gonzales (Paiute/Shoshone/Yokuts/Kumeyaay), Larry Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo), and Jonathen Sims (Acoma Pueblo).

Also in April, the UNM Anthropology Department celebrated its 75th Jubilee Anniversary with a benefit for its Indigenous Film Series, screening Honey Moccasin by Shelley Niro (Mohawk) and Shush by Larry Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo). An Indigenous Filmmakers Roundtable discussion, moderated by Charmaine Jackson (Navajo), director of Ná'ál kíd (Moving Pictures) Summer Film Festival, included filmmakers Lena Carr (Navajo), Darren Kipp (Blackfeet), and Tazbah Chavez (Bishop Paiute); UNM professors Les Field and Ann Ramenofsky; and Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache), director of the Native American Program at Sundance Film Festival.
6/14/04

Native Voice Film Festival

The 2007 Native Voice Film Festival and Media Awards was presented November 11 - 14 in conjunction with the National Congress of American Indians' annual meeting in Denver. The annual festival is produced by Native Voice Media, Inc., the South Dakota-based business that also publishes the news weekly The Native Voice.

This year's festival showcased recent outstanding Native films presented by the filmmakers and cast members, with panel discussions. They were Indians for Indians (director: Ava Hamilton), Way of the Warrior (director: Patty Loew), Four Sheets to the Wind (director: Sterlin Harjo), Waterbuster (director: J. Carlos Peinado), Our Land, Our Life (directors: George Gage and Beth Gage) and Imprint (director: Michael Linn). Ivan Maki of Arizona PBS organized and produced the program "Native Vision," two panel discussions on "Renewable Energy in Indian Country" and on "Native Youth in America."

Actress Q'orianka Kilcher hosted the Native Voice Media Awards, which included a keynote speech by Wilma Mankiller and traditional and contemporary musical performances. The awards were:

• Media Leadership: Wilma Mankiller
  
• Education: Oglala Lakota College
  
• Mainstream Journalism: C-Span
  
• Empowerment: NIKE Native American Business
  
• Building Bridges through Media: HBO for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
  
• Native Innovator: Chris Eyre

For more information go to www.native-voice.com
2/22/08

Pacifika: New York Hawaiian Film Festival

Pacifika: New York Hawaiian Film Festival has announced a hiatus because of the closing in 2007 of its parent organization the Hawai'i Cultural Foundation. Founded in 1997, HCF was created with the vision of building a vibrant community for Hawaiian and Pacific Islander traditional and contemporary arts to thrive in New York City. In 2003 the HCF founders, Janu Cassidy and Michelle Akina, launched the film festival, which was presented annually in New York until 2006. Among the filmmakers, musicians, specialists, and leaders featured in these years were Hawaiian filmmakers Eddie Kamae (the noted musician) and Myrna Kamae, film archivist DeSoto Brown, kuma hula Robert Cazimero, kuma hula Patrick Makuakane, Maori filmmaker Merita Mita, President Te Maru of Tahiti and Congressman Eni Faleomavaega of American Samoa.

In May 2007 Pacifika and the NMAI Film and Video Center produced the first Pacifika Showcase: A Celebration of Pacific Islands Films at the George Gustav Heye Center. The opening night on May 10 featured Naming Number Two (director: Toa Fraser) with film great Ruby Dee portraying the matriarch of a family of Fijians living in New Zealand. A lively roundtable with Ruby Dee, Janu Cassidy and Elizabeth Weatherford of NMAI followed. On May 12 nine additional works were screened including Tama Tu (director: Taika Waititi), Hawaikii (director: Mike Jonathan) and Rolling Down Like Pele (director: Laura Margulies) and Polynesian Power: Islanders in Pro Football (directors: Jeremy Spear and Robert Pennington), with Margulies and Spear discussing their works. For more information and to download the Pacifika Showcase brochure, enter here. These works and more were screened during May at the NMAI in Washington, D.C. in daily and special weekend programs; for program information enter here.

Currently Pacifika is redefining its goals and objectives for the future, including continuing its partnership with the National Museum of the American Indian and other key cultural institutions and organizing a traveling, global component of the festival. For more information about HCF and Pacifika, go to http://hawaiiculturalfoundation.org.
1/07/08

The 3rd annual Pacifika: New York Hawaiian Film Festival, was presented May 20 - 22, 2005 by the Hawai'i Cultural Foundation in cooperation with New York University Graduate Department of Film and Television. The opening night featured the documentary The Hawaiians: Reflecting Spirit, introduced by director Edgy Lee, and preceded by the short film Gravity (director: Josefa Enari). Highlights included documentaries An Island Invaded, introduced by co-director Esther Figueroa, Blue Horizon (director: Jack McCoy) and Kamea (director: Jennifer Akana-Sturla). Closing night featured Polynesian Power: Pacific Islanders in Pro Football, introduced by directors Jeremy Spear and Robert Pennington, preceded by Two Cars, One NIght (director: Taika Waititi). Special featured filmmaker was Maori director Merata Mita, who introduced both her documentary on a renowned Maori artist, Hotere, and the 1980's classic feature Utu (director: Geoff Murphy). Opening and closing nights also featured musical performances, and the festival offered workshops on Hawaiian language, hula and ukulele, along with lectures on massage and chanting and a presentation by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs on Native Hawaiian self-government.
For more information enter here.
9/2/05

The 2004 Pacifika New York Hawaiian Film Festival, May 21 - 23, 2004 screened 22 films at 3 Manhattan venues. The festival opened with the New York premieres of On the Waves at Waikiki, a short work filmed in the 1920s, introduced by Desoto Brown of the Bishop Museum Archives, and The Ride, Nathan Kurosawa’s film about a surfer who time travels back to the era of Waikiki surfing legend Duke Paoa Kahnanamoku. The opening gala featured music performed by Robert Cazimero, who also conducted hula workshops during the festival. Among the short works screened were Leah Kihara's Kava Kultcha and Stan Wolfgramm's Dot's Death. Produced by the Hawai’i Cultural Foundation with the cooperation of New York University, the festival also featured workshops on hula and Hawaiian language, dance performances and lectures on subjects such as Native Hawaiian self-government.
For more information, visit hawaiiculturalfoundation.org/events/2004/pacifika.
7/9/04

May 15 - 18, 2003
The Hawai'i Cultural Foundation (HCF) presented its first Pacifika Hawaiian Film Festival in New York City in collaboration with New York University's Graduate Department of Film and Television. Works screened included the opening night special American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i (2003. Directors: Lisette Marie Flanery and Evann Siebens). Among the thirteen other films screened were i scream, floats & Sundays (2002. Director: Leah Kihara (Native Hawaiian)) and Ka'ililauokekoa (2002. Director: Kala'iokona Ontai (Native Hawaiian)). Cultural classes, including hula instruction with kumu hula Robert Uluwehi Cazimero and kumu hula Patrick Makuakane, were also part of the events.
For more information contact HCF at www.hawaiiculturalfoundation.org
5/25/03

Palm Springs Native American Film Festival

On March 14 - 18, 2007, the Palm Springs Native American Film Festival and Cultural Weekend was presented by Agua Caliente Cultural Museum and Camelot Theaters in Palm Springs, California. The festival opened with One Dead Indian, introduced by lead actress Pamela Matthews. Also shown at the festival was Trespassing (director: Carlos Demenezes), When Your Hands Are Tied (director: Mia Boccella Hartle) and The Canary Effect (directors: Robin Davey and Yellow Thunder Woman). The centerpiece of the festival was Smoke Signals, with both Sherman Alexie and Chris Eyre in attendance. The closing night film was The Velvet Devil, about a young Métis woman who leaves home to find fame as a 1940s jazz singing sensation.

For more information: www.accmuseum.org/page40.html
7/17/07

On March 14 - 19, 2006, the Palm Springs Native American Film Festival and Cultural Weekend was presented by Agua Caliente Cultural Museum and Camelot Theaters in Palm Springs, California. The festival's opening night featured Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action (director: Roberta Grossman). The closing night screening was Trudell (director: Heather Rae), preceded by a short work, Ramona. Other short works included Numbe Whegeh, Grace, One-eyed Dogs Are Free, and Goodnight Irene. Documentaries included Aleut Story, Teachings of the Tree People: The Life of Bruce Miller, and Spirit Riders: Riding to Mend the Sacred Hoop. The family program included Sigwan and Wapos Bay: There's No "I" in Hockey. The festival and Cultural Weekend culminated in an exhibition of contemporary art and a gala dinner honoring author N. Scott Momaday. For more information, enter here.
3/30/06

The 4th annual Palm Springs Native American Film Festival, was presented March 3 - 6, 2005 in Palm Springs, California by the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum (ACCM) and the Camelot Theatre. The opening night reception followed the screening of Hank Williams First Nation (director: Aaron Sorensen). The festival hosted the world premiere of Pulling Together (director: James Fortier) and screened for its special closing night, A Thousand Roads (director: Chris Eyre) and Raven Tales (directors: Simon James and Chris Kientz). During this year's festival ACCM and the Californian Indian Storytelling Association co-hosted the Southern California Indian Storytelling Festival, with Native storytellers from California and Hawai'i and a program of family storytelling animated short films. Among the more than 20 films screened were A Journey Home: Reclaiming Our Children (director: Tina House), A Tattoo on My Heart: The Warriors of Wounded Knee (directors: Charles Abourezk and Brett Lawlor), The Ghost Riders (director Vincent Blackhawk Aamodt), Vis a Vis: Native Tongues (director: Steve Lawrence and Phil Lucas), and Kikkik (director: Martin Kreelak).
7/15/05

The 3rd annual Palm Springs Native American Film Festival, held March 11 - 14, 2004 in Palm Springs, California was presented by the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum and the Camelot Theatres. More than 20 feature-length and short films were shown. A lively panel discussion with participants, moderated by NMAI's Elizabeth Weatherford, included directors and producers Alanis Obomsawin, Gary Rhine, Rick Schroder, Sonny Skyhawk, and Jeremy Torrie, and actors Adam Beach and Russell Means.
Opening night featured the West Coast premiere of Chris Eyre's A Thief of Time and closing night Coyote Waits. Other works screened included Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper Story, Crooked Earth, Black Cloud, A Seat at the Table: Struggling for American Indian Religious Freedom, Our Nationhood, and The World of American Indian Dance. Among the short films shown were I Belong to This, Marangmotxíngmo Mïrang: From the Ikpeng Children to the World, Yada Yada, i scream, floats and Sundays, Retrace and Paiute Indian of the Kern Valley.
For further information go to www.NativeFilmFest.com.
4/1/04

Premio Anaconda

The Premio Anaconda festival features a touring program of productions from the Amazon region and the tropical forests of Latin America and the Caribbean. During October and November, 2004, screenings were held in sixteen indigenous communities in the tropical forest regions of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, and Peru. The festival program was selected by Carlos Gutiérrez from Peru and Jaime Iturri Salmín, M. Leonarda Mosua (Moxena), and Iván Sanjinés, all from Bolivia. The tour culminates in an awards ceremony in La Paz, Bolivia, on February 17, 2005.

Premio Anaconda winners receive cash awards and other prizes:

• Grand Prize: Buscando el Azul (Seeking the Blue). 2003. Director: Fernando Valdivia Gomez, Peru.
  
• Best Documentary: Soy Defensor de la Selva (I'm the Defender of the Forest). 2003. Director: Eriberto Gualinga Montalvo (Sarayaku Kichwa), Ecuador.
  
• Best Fiction or Docudrama: El Sueño de Maragareum (Maragareum's Dream). 2003. Directors: Kumare Txicao (Ikpeng), Karane Txicao (Ikpeng), and Natuyu Txicao (Ikpeng), Brazil.
  
• Best Experimental Work: Teco: El Niño Moejeño (Teco: The Moejeño Child). 2004. Director: Ruben Machado Navia, Bolivia.

The 2004 international awards jury members were Mario Tuki (Rapa Nui), Chile; Juan José García (Zapotec), Mexico; Eduardo López, Bolivia; Lesvia Vela, Guatemala/Canada; Roberto Haudry, Peru; and Sebastiao Haji Manchineri (Yine), Brazil.
For more information go to the website of the Programa Regional de Apoyo a los Pueblos Indigenas Amazonicos at www.praia-amazonia.org.
All translations of film titles are provided by the NMAI Film + Video Center for informational purposes only.
1/10/05

The 2002 Premio Anaconda announced its awards on July 31, 2002 in Caracas, Venezuela. Dedicated to indigenous productions from the Amazon region and tropical forests of Latin America and the Caribbean, this festival features Native community screenings in May and June in six Latin American countries. The winners were selected by an international jury from more than 60 works entered and received cash awards and other prizes.

• Grand Prize: Waia Rini, O Poder do Sonho/Waia Rini, The Power of the Dream. Director: Divino Tserewahu (Xavante), Video nas Aldeias, Brazil
• Best Documentary: Marangmotxíngmo Mïrang: From the Ikpeng Children to the World. Directors: Kumaré Txicão (Ikpeng), Karané Txicão (Ikpeng), and Natuyu Yuwipo Txicão (Ikpeng), Video nas Aldeias, Brazil
• Best Fiction: 0 Arco y a Lira/The Bow and the Lyre. Director: Priscilla Barrak Ermel, Cacique Catarino Sebirop Gavaio (Gavaio), Brazil
• Best Screenplay: El Anem. Writer: Willy Guevara (Tsejem Teets), Peru
• Special Prize from the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation: Shomotsi. Director Valdete Pinhanta Asheninka (Asheninka), Video nas Aldeias, Brazil
• Special Native Audience Prize: Shomotsi. This prize is awarded by local jurors in the indigenous communities that hosted the touring festival in Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia.

For more information go to www.videoindigena.bolnet.bo (Spanish)
10/11/02

The Anaconda Awards for Native video in the Amazon region was launched in Fall 2000 to support Native production and authentic portrayals of Native cultures. Works from seven countries were screened in various Native communities, with a showcase of 15 works screened December 2000 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.

Grand Prize: Wapte Mnhono: The Xavante Initiation (Director: Divino Tserewahu, Caimi Waiasse and others)
Best Documentary: Mehinaku, Message from Amazonia (Director: Maria Ines Landgraf)
Best Fiction: Our Words: the Story of San Francisco de Moxos** (Director: Julia Mosua)
Special Audience Prize: Native MidWives (Produced by APCOB. Bolivia)

For more information go to www.videoindigena.bolnet.bo (Spanish)
12/10/01

Red Fork Native American Film Festival

The 2004 Red Fork Native American Film Festival (formerly the Muscogee Nation Film Festival) was held November 12 - 13 and 19 - 20 at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma. Musician and producer Joy Harjo (Muskogee) performed songs from her latest album, Native Joy for Real. Among the eight productions screened were Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper Story; American Indian Graffiti, introduced by director Tvli Jacob (Choctaw); and Dancing on the Moon, introduced by director Roderick Pocowachit (Pawnee/Shawnee/Comanche).
1/6/05

Riddu Riddu Indigenous Peoples Festival

On July 13 - 17, 2004, the Riddu Riddu Indigenous Peoples Festival in Norway presented its second Urfilm program, showcasing 28 films and videos in various genres. Works screened are both Sami films and international indigenous works. Special invited guests were Dene filmmakers Allan and Mary Code from Canada with their documentary Nuhoniyeh: Our Story and indigenous videomaker Mayaw Biho (Pangcah) from Taiwan, with three works he has made about the Pangcah people. Other films included If the Weather Permits. Informal discussions with these and other filmmakers attending were held in the Sámi turf hut. Riddu Riddu Festival offers an extensive program of musical performances. This year a special invitational section featured a number of musical groups from Nunavut, including Taima with lead singer and filmmaker Elisapie Isaac (Inuit).
For more information go to www.riddu.com.
12/23/04

Saami Film Festival

The Sami Film Festival, held April 2 - 6, 2007, in Guovdageaidnu, Norway, featured more than 50 feature films, documentaries and short works. Screenings each day were held in the Cultural House, and each evening in the Ice Cinema, the first and only snowmobile/reindeer drive-in. Three Sami premieres in the Ice Cinema included Anne Risten Sara ja Ena II, Varit Leat Seammat, and Ailo Cavge Davas. Sami director Nils Gaup introduced a special program of works. Among the Native American works featured were Miss Navajo (director: Billy Luther), Waterbuster (director: Carlos Peinado), Mohawk Girls (director: Tracey Deer) and The Snowbowl Effect (director: Klee Benally). Short works included Conversion (director: Nanobah Becker), Two Winters (director: Carol Geddes), The Winter Chill (director: Paul Rickard) and First Fire (director: Nathan Young). Theatrical releases that led to lots of discussion included Kill Buljo (director: Tommy Wirkola) and Apocalypto (director: Mel Gibson). Other feature films included the New Zealand production Eagle vs. Shark (director: Taika Waititi). The festival also featured a Storytelling Film Workshop led by Navajo directors Blackhorse Lowe and Nanobah Becker, and Sami storytellers.

For more information: www.samifilmfestival.no/index.jsp?lang=en
7/17/07

Santa Fe Film Festival

The 8th Santa Fe Film Festival, held November 28 - December 2, 2007, screened feature and short films from around the world while recognizing the lifetime contributions of select film artists. Native films appeared [in the competition,] as well as in the programming of the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival which has partnered with the Santa Fe Film Festival since 2005 to present works by indigenous and minority filmmakers, and to present an award for the best indigenous film at the Festival.

Other Native films were screened in the festival's Governor's Cup Awards program—A Return Home (director: Ramona Emerson)—and in the New Mexico Shorts programs—Reclaiming Our Children (director: Marcella Ernest), Future Warrior (director: Jeana Francis), Two Hearts (director: Jason Asenap), Echoes from Our Ancestors (director: Ed Breeding) and Sculpting Heart (director: Tobias Katz).

The Santa Fe Film Festival awarded a Luminaria for lifetime achievement to director Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki). Obomsawin has produced more than 30 documentaries, working under the auspices of the National Film Board of Canada. In partnership with the All Roads Film Festival, her festival tribute included the screening of Richard Cardinal: Cry from the Diary of a Metis Child (1986) and her two most recent works, Gene Boy Came Home (2007) and Waban-aki (2006).

The festival's award for Best Indigenous Film went to Miss Navajo (director: Billy Luther). The Best Short Film award went to the Aboriginal short drama from Australia, Crocodile Dreaming (director: Darlene Johnson). These works were part of the All Roads Film Festival's Santa Fe program (a description of the 2007 All Roads Film Festival can be found above).

For additional information go to http://santafefilmfestival.com.
1/07/08

The Santa Fe Film Festival was held December 6 - 10, 2006, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Films by or about indigenous people included:

• Benito's Gift (director: Rick Romancito)
  
• Conversion (director: Nanobah Becker)
  
• Feathers and Cons (director: Ashley Tindall)
  
• Mud: The Creation of Traditional Navajo Pottery (director Blackhorse Mitchell)
  
• Native Spirits: Forgotten Warriors (director: Robert Viharo)
  
• Ten Canoes (director: Rolf de Heer)
  
• Vanishing Voices: The Story of Alex Seowtewa (directors: Tobias Katz)

National Geographic's All Roads Film Project presented the New Directions symposium, an indigenous film and photography workshop, along with a slate of films. These were
Arctic Son, directed by Andrew Walton; The Devil's Miner, directed by Kief Davidson; Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege, directed by Puhipau and Joan Lander; My First Contact, directed by Mari Correa and Kumare Txicao, and Sueños Binacionales, directed by Yolanda Cruz.
3/26/07

The 5th annual Santa Fe Film Festival, held December 1 - 4, 2004, has announced the winner of the 2004 Milagro Award for Best Native Film: Raven Tales [Directors: Chris Kientz (Cherokee) and Simon James (Kwakwaka’wakw)] This digital animation tells the story of how, in the beginning times, Raven instigated a series of events that resulted in the release of Sun to light the Earth.

Other Native American works screened:

• American Indian Graffiti. US. Directors: Steven Judd (Choctaw/Kiowa) and Tvli Jacob (Choctaw).
• Dancing on the Edge. US. Directors: Miguel Najera (Apache) and Alan Tafoya (Apache).
• Out of the Shadows of Silence. US. Director: Fidel Moreno (Yaqui/Huichol).
• True Whispers: The Story of the Navajo Codetalkers. US. Director: Valerie Red-Horse (Cherokee).

For more information, go to www.santafefilmfestival.com.
1/5/05

Winner of the 2003 Best Native Film award at the 4th Santa Fe Film Festival, held December 1 - 5, 2003, is Spirit of the Game (2003, 47 min., Canada), directed by Annie Frazier-Henry, which focuses on the rich legacy of sports for First Nations people, profiling young participants in the Indigenous Olympic Games held in Winnipeg.

Other Native American works screened, by both Native and non-Native
directors:

• American Nizhoni. 56 min. US. Director: John C. P. Goheen.
• Mending the Sacred Hoop. 60 min. US. Director: James Kleinert
• Only the Devil Speaks Cree. 32 min. Canada. Director: Patricia Matthews
• Shipibo. 100 min. Brazil/US. Director: Willem Malten
• Shush.10 min. US. Director: Blackhorse Lowe
• Totah. 29 min. US. Director: Christian Regnaudot
• The World of American Indian Dance. 60 min. US. Randy Martin

For further information go to www.santafefilmfestival.com
2/15/04

Winner of the 2002 Best Native Film award at the Santa Fe Film Festival, held December 4 - 8, 2002, is Lady Warriors directed by John C.P. Goheen. The work focuses on the 2000 "dream season" of the Tuba City High School girls' cross country team. It also won Best Documentary in the first Tribeca Film Festival in New York in May 2002.

Other Native American and Aboriginal Australian works screened:

• Billy. 2002, 3 min. US. Director: Vanessa Vassar. Starring Jill Scott Momaday.
• Boutique of the Damned. 2002, 6 min. US. Director: Bentley Spang.
• Darren Vigil Gray: Counterclockwise. US. 30 min. Director: Vanessa Vassar
• Eagle Song. 2002, 3 min. US. Director: Lurline McGregor
• Echoes of Extinction: The Affidavit. 2002, 30 min. US. Director: Tex Wounded Face
• Keeping Balance. 2002, 6 min. Canada. Director: Scott Clark
• Making a Noise: A Native Musical Journey with Robbie Robertson. 1998, 52 min. US-Canada. Director: Dana Heinz Perry
• Rabbit-Proof Fence. 2002, 94 min. Australia. Director: Philip Noyce
• Redstreak Sculptor. 2002, 16 min. US. Director: Ty Headman
• Wakan. 2002, 28 min. US. Director: Robert E. Zimiga, Jr.

For contact information enter here.
1/16/03

Skábmagovat Film Festival

Each year the Skábmagovat Film Festival screens new Sami works and invites the films from one other indigenous people of the world, with a focus this year on African cinema. Held January 25 - 30, 2007 in Inari, Finland, this year's festival screened more than thirty films and short videos from Norway, Finland, Sweden, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Sudan. The feature films included Non Profit (director: Pauliina Feodoroff), a Finnish feature on the encounter of researchers go to an Arctic village to find out how little energy a community needs if it has all the possible high technology available. Saamelainea/Sápmelas (directors: Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio) explores the Finnish Arctic. Archival films and short works were also included including a children's protest in Sami Children Demand Sami TV. The South African, Oscar-awarded Tsotsi (director: Gavin Hood) tells the story of a young and angry gang leader in the Johannesburg slums of Soweto and an event that changes his life. In the critically-acclaimed Son of Man (director: Mark Dornford-May), the South-African theatre group Dimpho di Kopane projects the New Testament into today's Africa. Short documentaries took up serious topics of community—depression, AIDS, rape—faced by indigenous people and villagers in both continents.

For more information: www.siida.fi/skabma/800en.html
7/17/07

The Skábmagovat Film Festival was held January 26 - 30, 2006 in Inarintie and Ivalo, Finland. The festival screened more than twenty Sámi films and eleven films produced by Mexico’s Promedios de Comunicación/Chiapas Media Project, including The Sacred Land and Xulum'chon: Weavers in Resistance from the Highlands. Amaranta Cornejo Hernández of Promedios’ center in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, attended the festival. The Skábmagovat Prize for achievements in cinema went to Sverre Porsanger (Sámi). Porsanger has acted for thirty years. He performed the lead role in Bázo (2003), directed by Lars-Gorän Petterson and screened by the festival. In addition to his feature film roles, Porsanger directs for NRK Sámi Radio, a radio and television broadcaster.
3/8/06

The Skabmagovat: Reflections of the Endless Night film and television festival, organized annually in January during the polar night, was held January 27 - 30, 2005, at the Sami Museum and Nature Centre Siida in the village of Inari, Finland, in the Arctic Circle. The festival screens fiction films and documentaries by Sami directors and producers, and each year also presents films made by one other indigenous people in the world. In 2005 the festival will host Maori of New Zealand as special guests. Among the new Sami productions to be screened is Ánne Lajia Utsi’s documentary Tundra Settlers and the feature film Bazo.

The Skabmagovat Film Festival has been held since 1999 and consists of three visual events, the festival, the Sieiva Govat Seminar on Sami photography, and Camera Borealis photography exhibition. The festival translates large numbers of films and subtitles them into Finnish and Sami, with interpretation in English. In previous years the festival has focused on films from the Komi Republic (2004), Hawai’I and the Pacific with guest Kalai Okona Ontai (2003), Video in the Villages project in Brazil with guests Mari Correa and Divino Tserewahu (2002), works from Nunavut and Igoolik Isuma productions with guest Norman Cohn, (2001), First Nations films from Canada with guest Alanis Obomsawin (2000) and Aboriginal Australian work with guests Willie Gordon and Walter Saunders (1999).

The festival is produced by Sari Valkonen and the artistic director is Jorma Lehtola. For more information go to www.siida.fi/skabma/ or email siida@samimuseum.fi.
1/31/05

Southwest Native American Film & Video Festival

The third Southwest Native American Film and Video Festival took place July 14 - 15, 2006 at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona. The festival was coordinated by Klee Benally and presented by Indigenous Action Media, Flagstaff Cultural Partners, and the Museum of Northern Arizona. The opening night feature documentary was Trudell by Heather Rae, and there was a panel discussion on Saturday about Native filmmaking. The festival showcased 21 short by local young talents, including Leahn Cox, Tori Nez, Shonie de la Rosa, and Sarah del Saronde.
7/17/06

On July 9, 2005, the 2nd Southwest Native American Film & Video Festival took place at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. The screenings were part of the six-week Native American Festival of Arts and Culture, concluding with an evening screening of the feature 5th World (director: Blackhorse Lowe). A selection of short films explored sociological and political issues facing Native communities in the Southwest, curated by filmaker and musician Klee Benally, including Native Aspect Ratio and Playing NDN? (director: Alan Natachu), Blood Ties (director: Leahn Cox), and A Call to Action! (director: Carey Tully). Longer works included The Snowbowl Effect (director: Klee Benally) and Methamphetamine Abuse on the Navajo Nation (director: Shonie De La Rosa).
9/2/05

Southwest Native American Film & Video Festival was held at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, July 16 - 17, 2004. with cooperating partner Indigenous Action Media. Filmmakers whose works were screened include Klee Benally (Diné), Malcolm Benally (Diné), Norman Brown (Diné), Kelly Byars (Choctaw), Dustinn Craig (White Mountain Apache), Bennie Klain (Diné), Larry Blackhorse Lowe (Diné), Ramona Emerson (Diné), Shonie De La Rosa (Diné), Wallees Crittendon (Diné), Aiyana Elliot/Dick Dahl, Joseph Stacey (Hopi/Laguna) and Gabriel Lopez Shaw (Paiute).
7/29/04

Sundance Film Festival

At the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, held January 18 - 28, in Park City, Utah. Eagle vs. Shark, directed by Taika Waititi (Te Whanau a Apanui) screened in the World Dramatic Competition, and Four Sheets to the Wind, directed by Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek) screened in the US Dramatic Competition. The Festival awarded a Special Jury Prize for Acting to Tamara Podemski (Saulteaux) for her role as Miri Smallhill in Four Sheets to the Wind.

Miss Navajo, directed by Billy Luther (Navajo/Hopi/Laguna Pueblo) and Tuli, directed by Auraeus Solito (Palaw'an) screened in Spectrum. Conversion, directed by Nanobah Becker (Navajo) and Move Me, directed by Jonathan Pulley (Laguna) screened in the US Shorts Competition.

Native Forum Roundtables included "The Burden of Representation", moderated by Heather Rae (Cherokee), with participants Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek), Billy Luther (Navajo/Hopi/Laguna Pueblo), Auraeus Solito (Palaw'an), and Taika Waititi (Te Whanau a Apanui). George Palelei led the discussion "Art & Technology Blended Worldwide" with a presentation of First Vision, his streaming video distribution platform for the internet.

Indigenous Sundance Institute/Ford Foundation Film Fellows attended the Festival to discuss their projects with industry leaders. The 2007 fellows were Ginew Benton (Ojibway/Cree), Julianna Brannum (Comanche), Melissa Henry (Navajo), and Nathan Young (Pawnee/Kiowa/Delaware).

Elizabeth Weatherford, head of NMAI's Film and Video Center (FVC), was selected as on of the twenty-four jurors from the global film community, serving on the World Documentary Award jury with directors Juan Carlos Rulfo from Mexico and Raoul Peck from Haiti and the US.
11/29/07

The 25th Sundance Film Festival, held January 19 - 29, 2006, in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, screened four indigenous works this year.

• World Dramatic Competition
  The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros. Philippines. Director: Auraeus Solito (Palawan)
  No. 2. New Zealand. Director/screenwriter: Toa Fraser (Fijian/British/New Zealander)
• Shorts Competition
  Gesture Down (I Don't Sing). US. Director/screenwriter: Cedar Sherbert (Kumeyaay)
  Smudge. Canada. Director/screenwriter: Gail Maurice (Métis)

Between January 23 - 26, the Sundance Native Forum held five events. Native Program director Bird Runningwater moderated two panel discussions. "Native Cinema and the Marketplace" brought together filmmakers at the festival with industry professionals: producers, distributors, and publicists and "Investing in Indigenous Cinema" invited Festival directors and funders to discuss strategies for Native independent film. A festive brunch launched the events, which concluded with a gala reception at the Legends Bar at Park City Mountain Resort.

A major component of the Native Forum is the Sundance Ford Fellowship Workshops in which Native American filmmakers and their projects are selected to attend the festival and participate in one-on-one meetings with established filmmakers and industry leaders. This year's filmmakers were Leslie Gee (Caddo/Delaware/Choctaw), Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo), Billy Luther (Navajo/Hope/Laguna Pueblo), and Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Inupiaq). The workshop is made possible with a grant from The Ford Foundation's New Works Initiative.

Other Native participants in this year's festival included two jurors: Heather Rae in the Documentary Competition and Rachel Perkins in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
4/5/06

In 2005 the Sundance Film Festival, January January 20 - 30, 2006 - increased the number of screenings of Native and indigenous works by playing them within the major festival categories., including the Independent Feature Film Competition and the World Cinema Competition, as well as in American Spectrum, the Short Film Competition, and Special Screenings categories. In previous years such films were screeened on a more limited basis within the Native Forum category of the festival. Eleven films by Native American and indigenous filmmakers were selected, including five films from Native American directors, compared to three films in 2004. An award winner was Tama Tu, which garnered an honorable mention in Best Film Shorts category.

2004 Sundance Film Festival, held January 15 - 25 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, announces its Native Forum selections of Native American, Aboriginal Australian and Maori works:

• 49?. US. Director: Sherman Alexie
• Flat. Australia. Director: Beck Cole
• If the Weather Permits.Canada. Director: Elisapie Isaac
• In Shadow. Canada. Director: Shirley Cheechoo
• The Land Has Eyes. Rotuma (Fiji). Director: Vilsoni Hereniko
• Memory. US. Ceder Sherbert
• Might of the Starchaser. Canada. Director: Joseph Lazare
• Ngatahi: Know the Links. New Zealand. Director: Dean Hanepta
• Our Nationhood. Canada. Director: Alanis Obomsawin
• Prayer for a Good Day. US. Director: Zoe Leigh Hopkins
• The Shirt. Canada. Director: Shelley Niro
• Shush. US. Director: Blackhorse Lowe
• Spin. US. Director: Danis Goulet
• Tiga e Le lloa. New Zealand. Director: Popo Malufaitoaga (Lilo)
• Turn Around. Australia. Director: Samantha Saunders
• Two Cars, One Night. New Zealand. Director: Taika Waititi

The Opening Night of the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City featured Chris Eyre's Edge of America, starring James McDaniel, Irene Bedard, with Tim Daly and Wes Studi. In this fiction based on a true story, a teacher at the Three Nations Reservation high school agrees to coach the girls basketball team. As John Cooper has written, "Chris Eyre is a clear, original voice in American cinema. In Edge of America he ventures into the heartland and returns with a tale that tugs at your heartstrings…"
For contact information enter here.
2/15/04

2003 Sundance Film Festival, held January 16 - 26 in Park City, Utah, announces its Native Forum selections of Native American, Aboriginal Australian and Maori works:

• Admirational. US. Director: Shane Lee Eagle Hannigan
• Beneath Clouds. Australia. Director: Ivan Sen
• Bundle in Good Standing. US. Director: Gabriel Whiteturkey
• Cradlesong. US. Director: Darlene Naponse
• Is the Crown at War with Us? Canada. Director: Alanis Obomsawin
• Moccasin Flats. US. Director: Randy Redroad
• Pikutiskwauu/Mother Earth. Canada. Director: Shirley Cheechoo
• Rangimarie. New Zealand. Director: Puka Moeau
• Sailing the Master Home. US/Pacific Islands. Director: Gilbert Salas
• Shit Skin. Australia. Director: Nicholas Boseley
• Withdrawl. US. Director: Dax Thomas

Other works of interest in the Festival are Whale Rider, a story of hereditary leadership in Maori tradition, and the issue arising when a young woman best qualifies for what is customarily a male right and duty (2002, Director: Nikki Caro) and The Passion of Maria Elena (2002, Director: Mercedes Moncada) a documentary in which a mother seeks justice for the death of her son from the Mexican and then Raramuri Indian authorities.
For contact information enter here.
1/16/03

Sundance Film Festival
January 10 - 22, 2002, Park City, Utah
On November 30th, 2001, the Sundance Institute announced its 2002 festival line-up. The Native Forum section includes: At This Time (USA) directed by Shawna Shandiin Sunrise; Caminantes (Spain) about the Zapatistas' march in Mexico, directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa; Christmas at Wapos Bay (Canada) directed by Dennis Jackson; Chrysalis (USA) by Gabriel Shaw; Contact the People (Canada) directed by Garry Oker; Miss 501 (Canada) directed by Jules Karatechamp; The People Dance (Canada) directed by Dana Claxton; Red Buffalo Skydive (Canada) by Judith Norris; Retrace (Canada) directed by Darlene Naponse; Running on Indian Time (USA) directed by Duane Allen Humeyestewa; and Yada Yada (USA) directed by Bennie Klain. Other films included in the Native Forum this year from/about indigenous peoples outside of the Americas are: Hotere (New Zealand) directed by Merata Mita; One Night the Moon (Australia) directed by Rachel Perkins; and The Hill (New Zealand) directed by Tainui Stephens.

Native films to showcase in other sections are: The Business of Fancy Dancing directed by Sherman Alexie in the American Spectrum category and Chris Eyre's Skins in the Premiere section. The Sundance Film Festival's events will take place January 10 - 22, 2002 in Park City, Utah.

For contact information, enter here.
12/10/01

Taos Talking Pictures

Taos Talking Pictures has closed its doors after nine wonderful and meaningful years, Interim Executive Director Glen Dickerson has announced. The Taos Mountain Award was given annually by Taos Talking Picture Festival to recognize the lifetime achievements of an outstanding Native film professional. The most recent had been awarded in April 2003 to the Native media organization Ojo de Agua Comunicación, in Oaxaca, Mexico. The organization was founded by producers from Indian communities throughout Oaxaca to produce for Native communities, develop local television initiatives, and support training and post production for Native media makers. The Taos Mountain Award has been given to outstanding Native American film and video professsionals in Canada and the US--Victor Masayesva, Jr (1995), Sandra Sunrising Osawa (1996), Alanis Obomsawin (1997), Loretta Todd (1998), Phil Lucas (1999), and Gary Farmer (2001), and to Maori filmmaker and actress Merata Mita (2000). Recognition of Latin American indigenous media organizations included Ojo de Agua and the CEFREC and CAIB national indigenous media organizations in Bolivia (2002).
1/30/04

True West Cinema Festival

The True West Cinema Festival, held August 25 - 28, 2005 in Boise, Idaho, is dedicated to the advancement of independently-produced feature and short subject films by filmmakers who are either from the West or whose films center on the landscape and/or spirit of the region. The 2nd annual festival featured several Native American works including 5th World (director: Blackhorse Lowe) and Trudell (director: Heather Rae). Water Flowing Together, a special work-in-progress about New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Jock Soto (Navajo), was discussed by Soto and director Gwendolyn Cates.
9/2/05

Video nas Aldeias

Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
An Indigenous View: A Retrospective of Video in the Villages, a retrospective of 45 videos produced by Video in the Villages/Video nas Aldeias was held April 19 - 25, 2004 during Rio de Janeiro’s Indian Week in one of the city’s most beautiful cultural centers. Discussion with the producers following the screenings and roundtable discussions on “Interethnic Communication” and “Democratization of Communications” focus on issues facing indigenous producers in Brazil and the role of Native video. An indigenous production workshop is being held, to produce videos on the image of Indians in the city, and the impact of Native videos on the public. An illustrated catalog is available with essays and information on the history of Video in the Villages and the emergence in Brazil of indigenous media, and on the videos and the numerous indigenous producers who have produced them.
For more information on Video in the Villages/Video nas Aldeias go to www.videonasaldeias.org.br .
4/19/04

Wairoa Maori Film Festival

The first Wairoa Maori Film Festival, held June 2 - June 4, 2005 at the Gaiety Theatre and Cinema in Wairoa, Aotearoa/New Zealand
featured an international line up of indigenous films, including Chris Eyre's A Thousand Roads and a reprise of the 1st National Geographic All Roads Film Festival. Four fillms were recommended for special inclusion in the 2005 All Roads festival.

Festival judges were Cliff Curtis, Merata Mita, and Tania Cotter, moderated by Leo Koziol. The award-winning works:

• Festival Prize: Pear Ta Ma 'On Maf/The Land Has Eyes. Director: Vilsoni Hereniko (Rotuman)
  
• Best Indigenous Entry: Te Toa Aniwaniwa. Director/producer: Robert Pouwhare
  
• Runners-up - Indigenous Entry:
  Raven Tales. Directors: Chris Kientz and Simon James
  Estos Delores Somos. Director: Roberto Olivares
  
• Best Long Documentary (Aotearoa): Tuhoe: A History of Resistance. Director: Robert Pouwhare
  
• Runners Up - Long Documentary (Aotearoa):
  Hikoi Inside Out. Director: Kay Elmes.
  Hone Tuwhare: The Return Home. Director/producer: Michelle McGregor
  
• Best Short Documentary (Aotearoa): Buy, Bi, Bye Culture. Director: Mark Sweeney
  
• Runners Up - Short Documentary:
  Passion and Conflict. Director/producer: Tony Burt
  Turangawaewae: A Place to Stand. Director: Steven Mahoney.
  
• Best Dramatic Feature: Whale Rider. Director: Niki Caro
  
• Best Dramatic Short (Aotearoa): Two Cars One Night. Director: Taika Waititi. Producers: Ainsley Gardiner and Catherine Fitzgerald
  
• Runners-up - Dramatic Short (Aotearoa):
  Kerosene Creek. Director: Michael Bennett
  Tama Tu. Director: Taika Waititi

For more information go to www.manawairroa.com.
7/15/05

Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival

Coming soon!

Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival

(formerly the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival)

The Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival took place November 15 - 18, 2007, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, screening 70 films. On its first day actor and director Gary Farmer and other professionals conducted a workshop for young people in the fundamentals of acting, production, and screenwriting.

The festival award winners were:

• Best Feature Film: Eagle vs. Shark (director: Taika Waititi)
  
• Best Feature Documentary: Flight from Darkness (director: Trevor Grant)
  
• Best Short Film: The Colony (director: Jeff Barnaby)
  
• Best Short Documentary: The Fighting Cholitas (director: Mariam Jobrani)
  
• Best Experimental: Wabak (directors: Kevin Papatie and Gilles Penosway)
  
• Best Animation: Tainá-Kan, the Big Star (director: Adriana Figueiredo)
  
• Best New Talent: Days Like These (director: Martin Adams)

For more information, go to www.aboriginalfilmfest.org.
12/5/07

The 4th annual Winnipeg Aboriginal Film & Video Festival was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on November17 - 20, 2005, with screenings, panels and a Filmmaking Bootcamp for Youth. Opening night featured Johnny Tootall (director: Shirley Cheechoo), preceded by First Stories: Patrick Ross (director: Ervin Chartrand (Metis)), with remarks by elder Nelson James (Ojibwe) and festival director Coleen Rajotte (Cree/Metis). Closing entertainment included fiddle music and dancing, hoop dancing, a rap performance, and the presentation of festival awards:

• Best Drama-Feature: Johnny Tootall. Director: Shirley Cheechoo (Cree)
  
• Best Drama-Short: A Thousand Roads. Director: Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho)
  
• Best Actress: Alex Rice (Mohawk) in A Thousand Roads
  
• Best Actor: Nathaniel Arcand (Cree) in From Cherry English
  Best Documentary-Feature: Rocks with Wings. Director: Rick Derby
  
• Best Documentary-Short: Team Spirit: The Jordin and Terence Tootoo Story. Director: Ken Malenstyn
• New Talent Award: Ervan Chartrand (Metis) for 504938C

12/07/05

The 3rd annual Winnipeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival, November 17 - 19, 2004, presented Native productions, panel discussions, and media workshops at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba. Actress Tantoo Cardinal (Métis) gave the opening night key note address and introduced a new episode of the series Moccasin Flats. Highlights included the premiere of Back to Pikangikum, attended by director Coleen Rajotte (Cree/Métis) and Peter Quill (Ojibwe), the chief of Pikangikum First Nation. Other films included Deep Water (director: Shirley Cheechoo) and I Am Inuk, I Am Alive (directed by 8 Inuit students) and the independent film The King of Zinacatan. Representatives of the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada led panels, and a competitive youth pitching forum offered winners internships and broadcasting opportunities at CBC Television.
For more information, go to www.aboriginalfilmfest.org.
11/30/04

The Winnipeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival was held November 8 - 9, 2002 at the University of Winnipeg. Among the works screened were the new documentaries The Spirit of Annie Mae by Catherine Anne Martin (Mik'maq) and Is the Crown at War with Us? by Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki).
For information contact programmer Liz Barron at liz-barron@shaw.ca.
11/18/02

Other Festivals (A-Z)

Warwick Thornton's Green Bush was screened at the AFI Fest, presented November 3 - 13, 2004, by the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.
9/2/05

In New York, the 15th African Diaspora Film Festival was held November 23 - December 9, 2007. Among the approximately 100 works screened were several with indigenous themes, including the US premiere of Gene Boy Came Home (director: Alanis Obomsawin), a profile of a Wabanaki man and his struggle against the trauma of military service in the Vietnam War. Two from Australia included The Tracker (director: Rolf de Heer), a complex thriller starring David Gulpilil as a professional tracker leading police as they pursue a wanted man and a documentary about the actor by Aboriginal director Darlene Johnson, Gulpilil: One Red Blood. For more information go to www.nyadff.org/
12/09/07

The African Diaspora Film Festival was held November 24 - December 10, 2006, in New York, New York. Two films with indigenous themes were screened: The Canary Effect, directed by Robin Davey and Yellow Thunder Woman, and Muxes: Authentic, Intrepid Seekers of Danger, directed by Alejandra Islas.
3/26/07

The 15th annual African Diaspora Film Festival, held in New York City, November 25 - December 11, 2005, screened Tales of Sand and Snow (director: Hyacinthe Combary) in which a filmmaker from Africa films his encounter with members of a Cree community in northern Quebec. It also included Roberto Olivares' documentary on African-Mexican communities on the coast of Oaxaca and Guerrero.
12/07/05

The 2nd annual Alaska Native Revolution Film Festival was held in Fairbanks on October 26 - 27, 2007, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, hosted by Native Movement and Alaska Community Action on Toxics. Films selected from Canada, New Zealand, and the US included:

• The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (directors: Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn)
  
• Milepost 398 (director: Shonie De La Rosa)
  
• Conversion (director: Nanobah Becker)
  
• Seeking Bimaadiziiwin (directors: Dave Clement and Kelly Saxberg)

For more information go to www.nativemovement.org/alaska/filmfest.html
2/18/08

On November 16, 2002 the Alutiiq Film Festival!, sponsored by the Anchorage Museum of History and Art and the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, screened nine recent documentaries on Alutiiq and Sugpiaq life made with much community participation. The day-long event was shown in connection with the exhibition "Looking Both Ways: Heritage and identity of the Alutiiq People."
11/18/02

The Native American Student Association of Rice University organized an American Indian Film Festival at the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston, focused on the past and present struggle of American Indian peoples. The festival, held June 17-18, 2005, included Black Cloud (director: Rick Schroder), introduced by lead actor Russell Means (Lakota) and American Holocaust: When It's All Over I'll Still Be Indian (director: Joanelle Romero), introduced by the director.
6/6/05

The 5th annual American Indian Film Festival at Bellevue Community College took place November 15 - 16, 2007 near Seattle. The festival opened each day with a ceremony led by Jessy Lucas, followed by screenings of new Native films. On the opening night, following a community potluck, the festival presented "Honoring the Legacy of Phil Lucas," a retrospective of works by the award-winning Choctaw director, who made more than 100 films. Phil Lucas founded this festival in 2003 and was a faculty member at the college until his death in February, 2007. The next evening featured a keynote address by John Trudell, following the screening of Trudell (director: Heather Rae). Other works, presented by their directors, included The Duck-In (director: Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson), Half of Anything (director: Jonathan Tomhave), Finding Dawn (director: Christine Welsh), and works by Native youth, produced by Longhouse Media and Native Lens.
11/17/07

The American Indian Film Festival at Bellevue Community College was held April 12 - 14, 2006 in Bellevue, Washington. Actor Gary Farmer, independent filmmakers Heather Rae and Phil Lucas, Native Voices Graduate Program filmmakers Rachael Nez and Alicia Woods from the University of Washington, Frank Blythe—head of Native American Public Telecommunications, and hip-hop artist Redskin presented their work at the festival. Special highlights were a panel discussion, "The Canoe Journey and Native Youth", and a demonstration of canoe construction. Screenings included Pulling Together (director: James Fortier), The Border Crossed Us (director: Rachael Nez) and Dead Man with lead Gary Farmer (director: Jim Jarmusch). The festival opened with a performance by the Snoqualmie Drum Group. The closing night film was Trudell (director: Heather Rae).
4/14/06

The 2004 American Indian LA Film and TV Awards were announced on March 5, 2004 in Hollywood:

• Best Picture Award: Nate and the Colonel
• Best TV Movie or Mini-Series: Dreamkeeper
• Best Lead Actor in a Feature Film: Irene Bedard in Greasewood Flat and Guy Ray Pocowatchit in Dancing on the Moon
• Best Supporting Actors in a Feature Film: Irene Bedard in Tortilla Heaven and Gary Farmer in The Republic of Love
• Best Lead Actors in TV Movie or Mini-Series: Sheila Tousey and August Schellenberg in Dreamkeeper
• Best Supporting Actors in TV Movie or Mini-Series: Delanna Studi and Gil Birmingham in Dreamkeeper
• Best Guest Actors on TV Show: Sheila Tousey in Law and Order and Graham Green in Mr. Sterling
• The honorary award was given to actor Crystle Lightning for her portrayal of Iraq war hero Lori Piestewa in the NBC movie Saving Jessica Lynch.

5/21/04

The 25th Amiens International Film Festival, held November 10 - 20, 2005, in Amiens, France, presented a retrospective of film and video of Brazilians "on the margins," presenting an homage to Brazil's Video Nas Aldeias (Video in the Villages), screening thirteen films made during VNA's history, including first indigenous works made in Brazil and discussions with several indigenous filmmakers from the project, and a section on Indians in the history of Brazilian cinema.
12/30/05

Plastic Warriors, a work about American Indian stereotypes directed by Amy Tall Chief (Osage), was awarded Best Documentary Short in the Arlene's Grocery Film Festival, an extensive event produced by one of New York's best Lower East Side music clubs.
12/07/05

Director, actress and community activist Joanelle Romero was given Arpa's Armin T. Wegner Award for her film American Holocaust: When It's All Over I'll Still Be Indian by the 2005 Arpa International Film Festival in Los Angeles. The festival, October 3 - 7, is organized by the Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art, which is dedicated to the work of "filmmakers who explore the issues of Diaspora, exile and multi-culturalism."
11/01/05

The 14th Aspen Shortsfest, held April 6 - 10, 2005 in Aspen, Colorado, included 66 short films and videos from 25 countries and awarded cash prizes to winners. An Ellen Certificate for Excellence and Originality was awarded Taika Waititi's Tama Tu. Winner of a Special Jury Recognition was Sterlin Harjo's Goodnight Irene.
7/15/05

Each year the Augsburg College Native American Film Series in Minneapolis presents four kinds of film events: "Documentaries at Augsburg" focusing on current and historical issues in Indian country, "New Voices in Native Media" honoring youth and new filmmakers, "Native American Voices" presenting the current winners from the Fargo Film Festival, and special events with regional tribal communities. All events are free and open to the public.

In the 2006-7 season the documentaries screened were:

• American Indian Homelands: Matters of Truth, Honor and Dignity-Immemorial (director: Barry ZeVan)
  
• A Tattoo on My Heart: Warriors of Wounded Knee 1973 (directors: Charles Abourezk and Brett Lawlor)
  
• Maria Tallchief (director: Sandy Osawa)

In April "New Voices" presented short works by directors Mike Medicine Horse, Tory Mendoza, Amy Tallchief, Missy Whiteman, and youth media groups New Voices and TVbyGirls; selections from this programming traveled during the summer to tribal communities. In May selections from "Native American Voices" in the 7th Fargo Film Festival were screened. Special events included an "Indigenous Environmental Film Series" in November 2006, "Indigenous Films and Media from South America," with indigenous filmmakers Caimi Waiásse and David H. Palmer, in May and the Summer 2007 tribal touring program of works from "New Voices."
12/27/07

The Available Light Film Festival, presented in Whitehorse by the Yukon Film Society (YFS) on March 15 - 18, 2007, featured The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (directors: Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn). In summer 2007 YFS also presented "Picturing the Yukon: Yukon Films on Tour" in Dawson City and Whitehorse, with event screenings in Atlin, Haines Junction and Keno City. Works with indigenous themes included Land Unlocked (director: Sameer Singh), The Gravel Magnet (director: Barb Bardie), My Indian Bum (director: Kerry Barber), and Aydaygooay (director: Mary Code)
12/27/07

The Available Light Film Festival, presented in Whitehorse by the Yukon Film Society, February 28 - March 5, 2006, featured an Artist's Talk with Dennis Allen (Inuvialuit) and screened two Native documentaries, My Father, My Teacher (director: Dennis Allen) and Trudell (director: Heather Rae).
4/4/06

The 57th Berlin Film Festival, February 8 - 18, 2007, included two films with indigenous directors. Tuli (director: Aureaeus Solito) dramatically explores experiences of coming of age in a remote tribal village in the Philippines was in the Forum section. Eagle vs. Shark (director: Taika Waititi), a romantic comedy from New Zealand, was in the Generation section. Manoomin, The Sacred Food (director: Jack Pettibone Riccobono), a film on wild rice shot at White Earth Reservation, was included in the thematic program Eat, Drink, See Movies: Celebrating Culinary Cinema. In the Generation section Hawaikii (director: Mike Jonathan) tells the story of a young Maori girl and her father. For more information go to www.berlinale.de/en/.
12/27/07

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros/The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (director: Auraeus Solito) won three awards at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival. It won the 20th Anniversary Teddy Award for Best Feature Film, and two awards in the Kinderfest Grand Prize competition: the International Jury Grand Prize and the Kinder (Children's) Jury Second Prize. The film is the story of a gay 12-year-old in Manila, The Philippines, where Solito, a member of the Palawan indigenous people, lives.
3/5/06

The 55th Berlin International Film Festival, held in Berlin, Germany on February 10 - 20, 2005, announces the winners of its Panorama section, naming two indigenous works for the top prizes. The prize for Best Short Film was awarded to Green Bush, directed by Warwick Thornton (Aboriginal Australian) and a Special Jury Prize was awarded to Tama Tu, directed by Taika Waititi (Maori). The Panorama section is dedicated primarily to art house films, and films directed by their writers. All films presented are either world premieres or European premieres outside the country of origin. Panorama not only presents feature films, it is considered by the Festival as one of its most significant venues for short films.
2/21/05

The 54th Berlin International Film Festival, held in Berlin, Germany on February 5 - 15, 2004, announces that Maori director Taika Waititi is the winner of the Panorama Short Film Award for Two Cars, One Night. "Panorama" is a section of the festival dedicated primarily to art house films and films directed by their writers. All films are presented as world premieres or European premieres, outside the countries of origin. Panorama not only shows features and documentaries, it is considered by the festival as one of its most significant venues for short films.
2/23/04

On November 27, 2004, the Canadian Aboriginal Festival and Powwow in Toronto screened three feature films, followed by "A Conversation with Chris Eyre" moderated by Andre Morrisseau. Director Chris Eyre and actor Adam Beach presented the screenings of Smoke Signals and A Thief of Time and Randy Redroad's The Doe Boy.
12/07/05

Yellow Fella, directed by Ivan Sen, was an Official Selection at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, May 11 - 22, 2005, in France. The 25-minute documentary is the first indigenous Australian documentary to be selected for Cannes, and was screened in "Un Certain Regard," a section of the festival dedicated to innovative films with personal vision. The film travels on a 6000 km journey across northern Australia with Tom E. Lewis, who in 1978 played the lead role in Fred Schepisi's Australian feature, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.
6/19/05

Changing Hands: Art without Reservation 2
The Museum of Arts & Design in New York has opened the second part of its continuing exhibition of contemporary Native North American art, focusing on art from the West, Northwest and Pacific. Among the installation pieces is the animated production Raven Tales: How Raven Stole the Sun (directors: Chris Kientz and Simon James).
10/3/05

The 22nd Chicago Latino Film Festival, held in Chicago on April 21 - May 3, 2006, was presented by the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago in cooperation with Columbia College Chicago. Native-directed work included Mirando Hacia Dentro: La Militarizacíon de Guerrero (director: Carlos Efrain Perez Rojas) and Sipakapa No Se Vende (director: Álvaro Revenga). Other productions on indigenous themes were Muxes: auténticas, intrépidas buscadoras de peligro (director: Alejandra Islas); Oaxacan Hoops (director: Yolanda Cruz); and Tu Sangre (director: Julián Larrea Arias).
3/26/07

The Festival Petrobras de Cinema Brasileiro de New York, now called CineFest Petrobras Brasil, was presented in New York August 6 - 12, and included Maksuara: Twilight of the Gods (diretor: Neville D'Almeida) an experimental documentary focused on the noted Brazilian indigenous leader Maksuara.
11/19/07

Cinema Chile, presented in New York, November 9 - 15, 2007, included Üxuf Xipay/El Despojo/The Plunder (director: Dauno Tõtoro), a documentary examining the resistance of the Mapuches to exploitation of their lands in the south of Chile by powerful ranchers and corporations.
11/17/07

CineVegas, June 10 - 18, 2005 selected Blackhorse Lowe's 5th World and Sterlin Harjo's Goodnight Irene. The festival features independent films, documentaries, and short films from first-time filmmakers to the masters of the craft.
For more information go to www.cinevegas.com.
7/15/05

Cowichan International Aboriginal Festival of Film & Art
Festival: April 13 - 17, 2011
Duncan, British Columbia  
http://aff.cowichan.net/
7/5/11

The Cowichan Aboriginal Film Festival was held April 26-28, 2007 in Duncan, British Columbia. The festival opened with a Coast Salish Gala Reception, with performances by Butch Dick & the Unity Drummers, Ray Peter & the Tzinqua Dancers, the Little Raven Dancers, the Black Owl Singers, and M’Girls Unplugged. Nathaniel Arcand and Dakota House gave two joint workshops, one on working in film and television, the other on acting and improvisation. 23 workshops were given on all aspects of working in the film industry. Twelve short films were screened from Brazil, Canada, and the United States. Participants included Janet Rogers, director of A Rightful Place and Dorothy Christian, director of A Spiritual Land Claim. Other films screened included Conversion, directed by Nanobah Becker; Wabak, directed by Kevin Papatie and Gilles Penosway; and Xina Bena/A New Era, directed by Zezinho Yube. For more information, please go to aff.cowichan.net.
9/13/07

The Cowichan International Film Festival was held March 23 - 25, 2006 in Duncan, British Columbia. The festival opened with a reception and Coast Salish art exhibition, with performances by Ray Peter & the Tzinquaw Dancers and the Unity Drummers & Singers. Simon James (Kwakwaka'wakw) gave a workshop on legends and culture as a source for narrative films. Adult workshops were also given on acting, sound, and traditional arts. Youth workshops were given on acting, production, and costume design. Youths presented short works in a competitive screening. Other films screened included:

• A Thousand Roads (director: Chris Eyre)
  
• Clean Fight (director: Bob Fugger)
  
• Raven Tales: How Raven Stole the Sun (directors: Chris Kientz and Simon James)
  
• Urban Inuk (director: Jobie Weetaluktuk)

3/29/06

The twenty-first annual DC International Film Festival in Washington took place April 19-29, 2007. 70 feature-length films and 6 short films were screened. The following films by indigenous directors or with indigenous content were screened: Eagle vs. Shark, directed by Taika Waititi; Naming Number Two, directed by Toa Fraser; Samoan Wedding, directed by Chris Graham; and Ten Canoes, directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr.
9/4/06

In 2007 the Argentinian human rights film festival DerHumAlc was held May 9 - 16 in Buenos Aires and May 29 - 30 in Santiago del Estero. Among this year's award-winning films was Meu Primero Contacto/My First Contact (directors: Mari Correa and Kumare Txicao) which received Special Mention in the Feature Film category.

Other films included with indigenous stories were Yaipota Ñande Igüi/Queremos nuestra tierra (director: Lorena Riposati), concerned with the struggle of a Guarani community in Argentina against the occupation of their lands by a multinational corporation, and En la senda de la escuela (director: Lucas Mouzas) about the development of a school in a Chatin village in the state of Oaxaca. Other works screened included Mal de Ojo TV, grassroots news documentaries of the 2006 strike in Oaxaca and recent resistance to the state's government. Other works on indigenous themes were Akulliku (directors: G. Garcia and S. Sandúa) and La zafra (director: Blanca E. Alvarez Pulido). For more information go to www.derhumalc.org.ar/
12/01/07

The 7th DerHumALC Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de Derechos Humanos/International Human Rights Film Festival was held August 10 - 17, 2005, in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. The festival, a partner with Amnesty International Film Festival, is concerned with films of human rights issues globally, this year featuring 102 films and videos. Three films about indigenous human rights were screened. Rio Arriba (director: Ulises de la Orgen) was concerned with the historical exploitatiojn of Aymara communities in northeastern Argentina. Mensaheras de las Luz, Parteras del Amazonas (director: Evaldo Mocarzel) focused on indigenous midwifery in the Brazilian Amazon. In The Real Thing (director Jim Sanders) the focus was on the impact of U.S. foreign policy on Native farmers in Bolivia. DerHumALC has joined with a number of other festivals to form the Human Rights Film Network to further the activities of individual human rights festivals and to build a stronger support system.
For more information about this festival, go to www.derhumalc.org.ar.
9/2/05

The Indigenous Arts Service Organization (IASO) in partnership with Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations launched Echoes of Ancient Art: Inaugural Arts Festival in British Columbia to bring together traditional indigenous artists and mentors in a regional event with a focus on youth and community participation. The festival took place July 13 - 16, 2005 in Tofino, July 27 - 30 in Prince George, and August 10 - 13, in Kelowna, British Columbia. The four areas programmed included performing arts (mentor artist/composer Sandy Scofield) and visual arts (mentor carver Mark Mickey). The filmmaking/media arts mentor Richard Story is a writer, producer, director, and educator of Cast Salish and Native Hawaiian descent, and is based in Toronto. He has served as artistic director of ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival and a 2003 participant in the National Screen Institute's Aboriginal Cultural Trade Initiative in 2004. The literary arts mentor Jordan Wheeler (Gordons First Nation) is of Cree, Ojibwe, Assiniboine and European descent. He has written fiction, poetry and drama, and for the past 15 years has been writing and story editing for dramatic television. IASO president is filmmaker and cultural activist Barbara Cranmer. The organization was founded in 1995 by a group of senior Aboriginal artists who recognized that First Nations' arts were underrepresented within the art and cultural worlds of British Columbia, initially starting a program within the British Columbia Festival of the Arts, Canada's largest Western multi-arts festival, and continues now with its own festival series.
For more information contact Melody Charlie, Regional Coordinator, by phone at 250-726-2507 or e-mail melodycharlie1124@hotmail.com.
2/2/06

The Fargo Film Festival, held in Fargo, North Dakota, March 7 - 10, 2007, screened 63 films. Winners of the Native American Voices awards were:

• Best Narrative Feature: Mile Post 398 (director: Shonie De La Rosa)
  
• Best Documentary Feature: Waterbuster (director: J. Carlos Peinado)
  
• Best Documentary Short: Gesture Down (I Don't Sing) (director: Cedar Sherbert)

Other fiction and documentary films with Native directors included:

• American Cowboys (directors: Cedric Wildbill and Tania Wildbill)
  
• Johnny Tootall (director: Shirley Cheechoo)
  
• Share the Wealth (director: Bennie Klain)
  
• Yukon Circles (director: Karin Williams)

Other works with Native themes were Buffy Saint-Marie: A Multimedia Life (director: Joan Prowse), Manoomin: The Sacred Food (director: Jack Riccobono), Silent Thunder (director: Angelique Midthunder) and Teachings of the Tree People (director: Katie Jennings).
For more information go to www.fargofilmfestival.com.
11/17/07

The Fargo Film Festival, March 2 - 5, 2005, screened four films in its "Native American Voices" section, including Reuben Steindorf's Gifts of the Seven Grandfathers and Missy Whiteman's Taking November and Walking in Shadows. American Nizhoni (director: John Goheen) was selected for the Native American Voices Award.
12/07/05

First Nations\First Features: A Showcase of World Indigenous Film and Media was presented May 12 - 23, 2005 by the National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Modern Art, and New York University. The festival began with a symposium at NMAI, "Cultural Creativity and Cultural Rights: On and Off Screen". More than 20 groundbreaking feature-length films, short fictions, documentary and experimental works by an international group of outstanding Native directors were screened.
For a complete program information, enter here.
2/2/06

The First Vision Filmmakers Forum was held on April 27, 2007 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The forum was organized by Charmaine Jackson-John (Navajo) of the New Mexico Film Office. The panel “Stories from the Reel World: A Conversation with Industry Professionals”, featured George Burdeau (Blackfeet), Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho), Gary Farmer (Cayuga), Vangie Griego, Barbara Martinez-Jitner, Laura Milliken (Ojibwe) and Frank Zuniga. The panel “Getting Your Work Seen: Media Networking” featured representatives from National Geographic’s All Roads Film Project, Latino Public Broadcasting, ImagineNative Film & Media Arts Festival, VTape, and Native American Public Telecommunications. Other panels featured local film industry representatives such as New Mexico Screen Actor’s Guild Branch President Tom Schuch and New Mexico Film Office director Lisa Strout. The day ended with short film screenings, including Conversion, Moccasin Flats, and Raven Tales, and a networking reception with a musical performance by Los Jaraneros del Valle Norte.
8/24/07

The Flatwater Native Film Festival, held August 6 - 18, 2005, was presented by VisionMaker Video and the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Among the outstanding documentaries and short films were Indian Country Diaries: A Seat at the Drum, The Great American Footrace (directors: Dan Bigbee and Lily Shangreaux), Trudell (director: Heather Rae), Indians for Indians (director: Ava Hamilton), Homeland: Four Portraits of Indian Action (director: Roberta Grossman), Race is the Place (directors: Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Telles), Reality Show (director: Lurline Wailani McGregor) and A Thousand Roads (director: Chris Eyre. Producer: NMAI). The festival, co-sponsored by Native Voice and the Lincoln Journal Star, also presented screenings at the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) meetings, held in Lincoln on August 11 - 14.
8/22/05

Forumdoc.bh.2007, the 11th Festival do Filme Documentario e Etnografico Forum de Antropologia, Cinema e Video, was held November 23 - December 5, 2007, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The festival screens approximately 24 films in national and international competition and showcases several curated series and retrospectives. Included in this year's program were two films with indigenous content Pirinop, My First Contact directors: Maria Correa and Karané Txicão) and Djuungguwan/Speaking to the Future (director: Trevor Graham). Forumdoc.bh.2006 included a retrospective of the ethnographic filmmaker Timothy Asch, including his extensive project filming among the Yanomami of Venezuela in the 1970s.

For more information go to www.filmesdequintal.com.br/2007.
1/12/08

The film festival forumdoc.bh.2004, held December 14 - 23, 2004, in Brazil in the city of Belo Horizonte, featured both international and national documentaries. This year's events included a focus on works by indigenous directors working with Video nas Aldeias/Video in the Villages, screening about 20 productions. Other festival programs included independent productions on Brazilian indigenous life. Program introductions and a roundtable discussion,"From Video IN the Villages to Video FROM the Villages," featured Divino Tserewahú, Kumaré Txicão, Karane Txicão, Yuwipo Txicão, Isaac Pinhanta, Valdete Pinhanta, Tania Stolze of the National Ethnological Museum in Rio de Janeiro, and Vincent Carelli and Mari Corrêa, coordinators of Video nas Aldeias.
For more information, go to www.usp.br/cinusp/mostras/forum_doc_bh_2003/index.php (in portuguese)
1/05/05

The inaugural Gallup Inter-Cultural Film Festival was held in Gallup, New Mexico, September 28 - 30, 2005. Award winning films were:

• Shandiin Award: A Brief History of Things to Come. Director: Stanley Shunkamolah
  
• Audience Choice-Best Overall Film: Where the Highway Ends. Director: Annabelle Janssen
  
• Audience Choice-Most Culturally Sensitive Film: Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action. Director: Roberta Grossman
  
• Honorable Mention: La Provencia de Navajo
  
• Best Student Film: Siege at Valley High. Produced by the Film Studies program, Valley High School, Sanders, AZ

12/07/05

The Governor's Cup Film Festival has been launched in 2004 in New Mexico as a statewide competition that spotlights talented filmmakers from around the state. The project is sponsored by HDNM Entertainment, LLC, a company committed to the New Mexico film industry and emerging digital technologies. From among 150 entries, fifteen finalists were selected for the festival. The Governor's Cup-Second Place was won by Raven Tales, an animation by Chris Kientz and Simon James.
1/05/05

The 13th Hamptons International Film Festival, held in Southampton, New York, October 19 - 23, 2005, presented two films with indigenous subject matter, Roberta Grossman's Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action and The Djarn Djarns, a short fiction for young people set in Aboriginal Australia.
12/07/05

The 2005 HatcHFest, held October 4 - 9 in Bozeman, Montana, inaugurated a Native American Showcase this year, featuring Edge of America (director: Chris Eyre). Eyre was selected to receive the festival's first Native Spirit Award. Hatch is an organization dedicated to mentoring new talent in the arts. The panel discussions, concerned with both the art and business of filmmaking, included one session with directors and actors in the Showcase. Among the participating Native performers was actor/musician Michael Spears and Va:rik, a dance company from Phoenix that performed a commissioned piece showcasing the designs of Cochiti Pueblo potter/designer Virgil Ortiz. Closing night featured a performance by First Nations blues guitarist George Leach.
12/7/05

The 27th Luis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival, held October 18 - 28, 2007, in Honolulu, featured nearly 200 films. The Pacific Panorama Award was presented by Pacific Islanders in Communication to Lahaine: Waves of Change (director: Eddie Kumae), concerned with the story of the west Maui town once a center of the sugar industry, and filmed over 8 years as the industry closed down there. Indigenous works made up "Pacific Islander Shorts:" Uso/Brother and Rites of Courage, both directed by Miki Magasiva, Hawaikii (director: Mike Jonathan), Taua/War Party and The Speaker, both directed by Tearapa Katti, Tavake (director: Paul Stoll) and, from Papua New Guinea, Hands Up! Your Betel Nut or Your Life. A special initiative of the festival screens programs on five Hawaiian islands, and "Pacific Islander Shorts" were selected for screenings on Kaua'i and Moloka'i. The jury for the Shorts Competition included Janu Cassidy, co-founder of the Hawai'i Cultural Foundation and Pacifika: New York Hawaiian Film Festival.
1/28/08

The 25th Louis Vuitton Hawai'i International Film Festival held October 20 - 30, 2005, in Honolulu and on other islands, screened more than 200 films, documentaries, shorts and animations, representing over 40 countries. The "Hawaii Panorama" featured more than 25 works, including many with Native Hawaiian themes. The two films selected as "Best of Hawaii Panorama" were Keepers of the Flame (director: Eddie Kamae), a chronicle of three women who helped shape the Hawaiian renaissance, which won the festival's Hawaiian Airlines Audience Choice Award for Documentary. Wahine O Ke Kai (director: Vince Keala Lucero) focused on the story of Donna Kahi Kahakui who canoed nearly 200 miles alone to emphasize Hawaiians' responsibility to protect the ocean. The director received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Hawaii Film & Videomaker Award-Honorable Mention.
For more information go to www.hiff.org.
12/30/05

Events: March 11 - 20, 2005
Performing Heritage: Contemporary Indigenous and Community-Based Practices, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
The Hemispheric Institute at New York University is a center for exchange for professionals in performing arts and others who investigate the relation between performance and politics in the Americas. It links people from throughout the Americas through its shared teaching and special features on the Internet through biennial "encuentros" which bring together participants in rotating locations in the Americas for discussion, performances and work teams. Among the indigenous groups featured in its 2003 encuentro, held in New York City, were FOMMA, the Maya women's theater group in Chiapas, Mexico; Bently Spang from Montana; and both the Colorado Sisters and the Spiderwoman Theater, performance groups in New York.

In March 2005 the Institute's 5th encuentro, on "Performing Heritage: Contemporary Indigenous and Community-Based Practices," will be held in Brazil. Approximately 300 participants will present work and participate together in themed work groups on such topics as cultural agency, indigenous identities and communication, and grassroots use of new media technologies. Entries are being solicited for performance arts, installations, visual arts, video and professional papers to be presented as part of the events. Applications are available at http://hemi.nyu.edu/eng/seminar/brazil2005/application_form.html
Submissions include a one-page abstract/description of the work in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
For more details and to ask questions, write hemi.encuentro@nyu.edu.
8/30/04

Herland Film and Video Festival took place May 3-10, 2007, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The program “More than Four Directions – Works by Aboriginal Women” took place on May 6. The following films by Aboriginal women were screened at the festival:

• Divided by Zero. (director: Danis Goulet)
• From the Heart: The George Manuel Story. (director: Doreen Manuel)
• Nganawendaanan Nde’ing (I Keep Them in My Heart). (director: Shannon Letandre)
• Niitsitapiima – Family. (director: Sable Sweetgrass)
• Sparkling Igloo. (director: Brigitte Lebrasseur)
• Sunshine. (director: Elizabeth Day)
• Tree. (director: Shelley Niro)

For more information, go to www.herlandfestival.com.
9/6/07

The 2005 Herland Feminist Film and Video Festival, held in Calgary, Alberta, on May 1 - 13, featured an Aboriginal program, "More than Four Directions." Works screened were InterTribal Time (director: Jude Norris), Lessons in Conquest (director: Ariel Lightningchild), The Hill (director: Dana Claxton), Love and Numbers (director: Thirza Cuthand), This Bleeding Place (director: Susan Cormier), Prayer for a Good Day (director: Zoe Leigh Hopkins), and Storing (director: Darlene Naponse).
12/07/05

Hoop of Life American Indian Film, Television and New Media Festival
Spring 2002 in Los Angeles, CA
Organized by Red Crow Creations, Eyapaha Institute and the American Indian Center at UCLA. A kick-off gala and a day-long symposium on Native film festivals was held in May 2001 at UCLA. Among the panelists were Sandy Osawa, Vine Deloria, Jr., Michael Smith, Paul Apodaca, and Floyd Red Crow Westerman.
10/25/01

HotDocs
Festival: April 28 - May 8, 2011 
Toronto, Canada 
www.hotdocs.ca/
7/5/11

The 12th Toronto Hot Docs, held April 22 - May 1, 2005 in Toronto, presented 100 documentaries, many national and world premieres, from 23 countries to local audiences and more than 1500 international industry delegates. Special honors were given to filmmaker Errol Morris. The festival is one of the world's "A-List documentary festivals," according to International Documentary magazine.

Titles on indigenous issues included:
Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow. Canada. Director: Nadja Drost.
The Devil's Miner. US and Austria. Directors: Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani.
The Lynching of Louie Sam. Canada. Director: David McIlwraith. World Premiere.
Switch Off. Spain. Director: Mayel Manol. World Premiere.
The Tunguska Project. Canada. Director: Gisèle Gordon. World Premiere.

The Devil's Miner, about a 14-year-old Indian boy who works in the notorious silver mine at Cerro Rico in Bolivia, was awarded the FIPRESCI prize for Best First Documentary.
For more information about 2005 festival go to www.hotdocs.ca/assets/2005_Media_Kit_final.pdf. For information about the next festival go to www.hotdocs.ca.
8/01/05

2007 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival took place March 21 - 30 in London and June 14 - 28 in New York. Three films with indigenous themes were included: Cocalero (director: Alejandro Landes) about the election campaign of Evo Morales for the Bolivian presidency; Everything's Cool (directors: Daniel Gold and Judith Helfand) about global warming with scenes in Inupiat communities in Alaska; and El Violin (director: Francisco Vargas), a fiction about the impact of a military campaign in rural Guerrero, Mexico, starring musician Don Angel Tavira.
11/17/07

The 2006 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival presented screenings in New York's Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, June 8 - June 22. Apaga y Vamanos/Switch Off, directed by Manel Mayol, presented the conflicts between the hydroelectric company Endesa and Mapuche communities, which have been forced to relocate from Chile's Ralco Valley, after the damming of the Bíobío River.
3/26/07

9th Annual Independent Film Festival Boston
Festival: April 27 - May 4, 2011
Boston, Massachusetts
www.iffboston.org/2011/index.php
7/5/11

The 2007 Maui Film Festival took place June 13-17, in Kahului, Hawai’i. Films by indigenous directors from the Pacific or with indigenous content included Eagle vs. Shark, directed by Taika Waititi; Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula, directed by Lisette Flanary; and Hawaiian Waterfall Prayer, directed by John Zak. For more information, please go to www.mauifilmfestival.com.
9/6/07

In Hawai'i the Maui Film Festival, held June 16 - 19 , 2005, in Wailea, Maui, featured films by Native directors: Vilsoni Hereniko's The Land Has Eyes, Heather Rae's Trudell and Edgy Lee's The Hawaiians: Reflecting Spirit, and works with indigenous themes, including Wayne Middleton's Kamakakehua: The Precious Gift, and Trevor Graham's Hula Girls.
For more information go to www.mauifilmfestival.com.
7/15/05

The Melbourne International Film Festival took place July 25-August 12, 2007, in Melbourne, Australia. This festival screened works from 50 countries. Films by and/or about indigenous people were screened from Australia, Bolivia, Canada, and New Zealand. 16 shorts with indigenous content were screened, including Crocodile Dreaming, directed by Darlene Johnson; The Fighting Cholitas, directed by Mariam Jobrani; Moon Man, directed by Luke Jurevicious and Toby Quarmby; Nanna, directed by Warwick Thornton, and Run, directed by Mark Albiston. Features included Eagle vs. Shark, directed by Taika Waititi; The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn; September, directed by Peter Carstairs; and The Waimate Conspiracy, directed by Stefen Lewis. Eagle vs. Shark was voted one of the Top 10 Drama Features in the festival’s audience poll. For more information, please go to www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au.
9/7/07

The 54th Melbourne Film Festival selected Tama Tu (director: Taika Waititi) to screen on opening night on July 20, 2005, along with the premiere of Rowan Woods Little Fish. This marks a return to the Melbourne festival for director Waititi, whose short Two Cars, One NIght screened on opening night in 2004.
9/2/05

The 15th Message to Man International Documentary, Short and Animated Film Festival was held June 15 - 22, 2005 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The program includes an International Competition and International Debut Competition, and more than 1,000 films were received from over 57 countries. The Golden Centaur Grand Prix and US$4,000 for the best festival film was awarded to Fata Morgana, directed by Anastasia Lapsui (Nenets) and Markku Lehmuskallio/Finland. The film has also recently won the Interreligious Jury Prize at Visions du Reel in Nyon, Switzerland. The film documents the life and world view of the Chukchi, the indigenous people of Chukotka, the far northeast corner of Siberia, who are both coastal hunters of sea mammals and interior reindeer breeders and herders.
3/15/06

In April 2005 the 7th annual Method Fest Independent Film Festival in Los Angeles screened Blackhorse Lowe's 5th World. The festival, named for the "Stanislavski Method" which stresses performances based in natural language and gestures, focuses on "breakout acting performances of emerging stars and established actors in story-driven independent films."
For more information go to www.methodfest.com.
7/15/05

The Mill Valley Film Festival was held October 4 - 14, 2007, in Mill Valley, California. One of the features screened was Native produced, directed and acted, Four Sheets to the Wind (director: Sterlin Harjo). Two other films with indigenous themes and participants were Kiviuq (director: John Houston), and Luna: Spirit of the Whale (director: Don McBrearty).
11/17/07

The Mill Valley Film Festival, presented by the California Film Institute, October 6 - 16, 2005, has selected Trudell, directed by Heather Rae (Cherokee). Other works with indigenous themes include Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, a profile of artist James Luna in Race Is the Place, The Devil's Miner, and Tropic of Cancer.
10/10/05

The Audience Favorites-Short Documentary selected at the Moondance International Film Festival, held May 12 - 15, 2005, in Boulder, Colorado, was Steve Bilich's Native New Yorkers**. The festival program included feature and short films, with workshops focusing on screen and theatrical writing, music, and issues for women directors. A special Columbine Award is given by the festival to a filmmaker whose works depict alternatives to violence as a means to deal with conflict.
For more information go to www.moondancefilmfestival.com.
7/14/05

One Night the Moon, directed by Rachel Perkins, won the 2002 Moondance International Film Festival best feature film award.
For more information: www.moondancefilmfestival.com
Related content on this site: 2002 At the Movies
10/7/03

The 2007 Mount Shasta International Film Festival, held October 12 - 14 in Mount Shasta, California, included two films with indigenous themes: Nā Kamalei: The Men of Hula (director: Lisette Flanary), a documentary about master Robert Cazimero's hula school for men and Ten Canoes (directors: Rold de Heer and Peter Djigirr), a feature from Australia with an all-Aboriginal cast that honors traditional Aboriginal story structure.
11/17/07

The 2006 Mount Shasta International Film Festival took place October 12 - 14, in Mount Shasta, California. Documentary screenings included Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, directed by Roberta Grossman.
3/26/07

The Mount Shasta International Film Festival, held October 7 - 9, 2005, in Mount Shasta and Weed, California, screened about 25 features and award-winning documentaries, including Return of Navajo Boy (director: Jeff Spitz).
12/30/05

The Native American Film Festival was presented November 4 - 6, 2006 at the in Columbia, South Carolina. Screenings took place Nickelodeon Theatre of the Columbia Film Society and the Columbia Museum of Art. The festival opened with two shorts from the youth media organization Native Lens, Searching and Rez Life, followed by Ben Gluck's Brother Bear 2. Several local filmmakers participated in the festival, including Sufi Giza, director of Toledo District: Eco Park, Alicia Woods, director of American Red & Black of Afro-Native Identity, and Will Goins, producer of Mending the Circle. Director Charles Thomas presented Morning Song Way. Other screenings included Bayou Landfall: the Houma vs. the Hurricanes, directed by Leslye Abbey; Black Indians: An American Story, directed by Chip Richie; The New Pequot, directed by Kenneth Simon; Teachings of the Tree People, directed by Katie Jennings; and Trespassing, directed by Carlos DeMenezes. Music videos showcased the songs of Hovia Edwards, Gilles Sioui, Red Hawk, and XIT.
3/26/07

The Native American Film Series of Augsburg College in Minneapolis, January - July, 2005, presents monthly screenings and a summer exhibit of art and video works by Jonathan Thunder and Missy Whiteman. The films are screened with discussions.

• January 25 - Red Road: Ocangu-sa, the Barry Hambly Story. Presented by Sandra White Hawk, Director of First Nations Orphan Association, with a video cam interview with Barry Hambly and producer Dan Petrusich
  
• February 22 - Two Films by Dustinn Craig: I Belong to This and Home
  
• March 29 - Honoring Our Voices. With Marlene Helgemo, Pastor of All Nations Indian Church, Ernest M. Whiteman III, director of First Nations Film and Video, and Stephanie Autumn of Reducing Rural Violence
  
• April 21 - New Voices in Native Media. Works by emerging Native American filmmakers
  
• April 28 - 29 - Native American Voices. Selections from the 6th Annual Fargo International Film Festival: Reservation War Parties, Mohawk Girls, Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, and Manooman

For more information go to www.augsburg.edu/home/ais/filmseries.
4/5/06

On January 13 - 14, 2006, the 2nd annual Native Film Festival was held at the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) in Anchorage, Alaska. The festival opened with a performance by the ANHC Dance Group, and films were accompanied by discussions led by filmmakers or community members. Speakers included Wampanoag tribal council member Tobias Vanderhoop, for the screening of Black Indians: An American Story (director: Chip Richie) and Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, introducing his films Kinna Nigaqtuqtuaq/The Snaring Madman and Natchiliag'niaqtuguk Aapagalu/Seal Hunting with Dad;. Also speaking were Joy Harjo, co-screenwriter of A Thousand Roads (director: Chris Eyre), Laurence Goldin, director of This Land Is Ours, Gilbert Salas, cinematographer of Trudell (director: Heather Rae), and Brian Wescott, co-producer of Christmas in the Clouds (director: Kate Montgomery).
2/2/06

Native Films at The New School
On October 7, 2005, Beverly Singer (Tewa and Dine) presented "Native Americans in Film and Video: Their Perspectives" discussing works by Native directors: I Belong to This (director: Dustinn Craig), The Snowbowl Effect (director: Klee Benally), and Paatuwaqatsi (director: Victor Masayesva, Jr.), and a documentary of the IAIA Summer Film and Television Workshop, produced by the workshop participants. Beverly Singer, an independent filmmaker and author, is currently an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico. The program was co-sponsored by the Association on American Indian Affairs and the Wolfson Center for National Affairs at The New School in New York City.
10/10/05

The Native Spirit Festival was held June 4-9, 2007, in London, England. The festival showed 37 films about indigenous issues in the Americas, including A Thousand Roads, directed by Chris Eyre for National Museum of the American Indian. The films represented the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Spain, the United States, and Venezuela. Directors in attendance included Phillip Cox and Valeria Mapelman, directors of We Are the Indians; Manuel Mayol, director of Switch Off; Silvia Moreira, director of The Colombian Indigenous Educative Thought Layout; and Antonio Rosa, director of Not A Game.
8/30/07

Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival 2011
Festival: April 22 - 25, 2011
Kathmandu, Nepal 
http://ifanepal.org.np/
7/5/11

New York Festivals provides international award competitions in film and video, television, radio, interactive media, and advertising. In 2005 A Seat at the Table (director: Gary Rhine) was recognized as a Film and Video Competition Finalist. This film has screened at the Amnesty International Film Festivals in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, Artivist Film Festival, Palm Springs Native American Film Festival, Native Voice Film Festival, and American Indian Film Festival, and at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona, Spain.
12/30/05

In November 2004 the award for Best Social Documentary was given to Circle of Justice, directed by Brian J. Francis (Mikmaq), by the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. In April 2004 the festival screened Roderick Pocowachit's feature film Dancing on the Moon. Presenting six festivals each year in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Las Vegas, the organization bills itself as the largest indie film festival in the world.
For more information go to www.nyfilmvideo.com.
12/23/04

Festival, directed by Marion Cheeks, has been selected for the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in New York City, September 18 - 27, 2002. The documentary focuses on the impact of participation in theater on youth in Innu, Inuit and Settler communities in Labrador.
9/13/02

NextFest: Digital Motion Picture Festival was held October 14 - 18, 2004 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, featuring screenings and workshops on digital technology with professionals from cinema and television. The 2004 winners included:

• Best of NextFest, Best Director, Best Animation, Best Convergence/Experimental, and Best Post-production Sound: Two Winters: Tales From Above the Earth. Director: Carol Geddes (Tlingit)
  
• Best Documentary: Ekopsi Namew: At the Time of the Sturgeon. Director: Dennis Jackson (Cree)
  
• NextFest Signature Award - Drama: On the Corner. Director: Nathaniel Geary.

Filmmaker Carol Geddes was on the "Directors Panel" and was also a panelist discussing "Making Multi-Platform Work." NextFest is hosted by the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Association.
For more information go to www.whatsnextfest.ca.
8/22/05

Twenty-four films were presented at the North American First Nations Film Festival, held November 18 - 28, 2004, in Stuttgart, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland. The festival features the "best of" works screened over the past eight years at the American Indian Film Festival (AIFF) in San Francisco. Organized in cooperation with AIFF and the Canadian Embassy in Germany, it has received support from UNESCO, the Linden Museum and James-Byrnes Institute in Stuttgart, and the North American Native Museum and the Filmpodium in Zurich. Participants included Michael Smith (Lakota), president of the American Indian Film Institute (AIFI); actress Alex Rice (Mohawk); singer Tamara Podemski (Salteaux), and filmmakers Dan Golding (Quechan) and James Kinistino (Salteaux). Jennifer Podemski (Saulteaux) led a workshop for teachers, "Native Americans and First Natons: Cultural Integration of a Minority" in Stuttgart. The festival was coordinated by Gunter Lange, an associate with AIFF.
For more information go to www.indianerwoche.de.vu.
1/6/05

The 2007 North American Native Film Festival: Indianer, Inuit took place March 21-25, 2007, in Stuttgart, Germany. The festival included a retrospective of 11 works featuring Canadian actress Tantoo Cardinal. Older selections in the retrospective included Black Robe, directed by Bruce Beresford, and Where the Rivers Flow North, directed by John Craven. New films with performances by Cardinal included Indian Summer - The Oka Crisis, directed by Gil Cardinal, and Unnatural & Accidental, directed by Carl Bessai. 26 other films screened in the festival, including the short music video La Cumbia del Mole, directed by Lila Downs and Johnny Moreno; the feature Expiration Date, directed by Rick Stevenson; and the documentary Trespassing, directed by Carlos DeMenezes. Festival participants gave several presentations at the Linden Museum, including a hoop dance performance by Steve LaRance and Nakotah LaRance. Joy Harjo gave a musical performance at the city’s German-American Center.
9/12/07

The National Screen Institute-Canada has announced that the NSI Film Exchange, its film festival in Winnipeg, is retiring after a successful 9-year run and will not be produced in 2008. The popular SnowScreen evening that traditionally opened the festival-where animated shorts are projected for the general public on an outdoor movie screen made of snow-will continue as a hallmark Winnipeg event, accompanied by an industry reception one of several such receptions being organized regionally by NSI. In 2008 NSI will expand its production and training programs with two new Web-based initiatives.

One of NSI's highly successful programs has been the First Stories initiative, led by Lisa Meeches, for emerging First Nations directors to develop 5-minute documentaries. At NSI Film Exchange, March 1 - 3, 2006, works from First Stories-Manitoba premiered: Patrick Ross (director: Ervin Chartrand), Nganawendaanan Nde'ing (I Keep Them in My Heart) (director Shannon Letandre), My Indian Name (director: Darryl Nepinak), and Apples and Indians (director: Lorne Olsen). On February 28 - March 3, 2007, works from First Stories-Saskatchewan premiered: Power Center of a Horse (director Cory Generoux), Lifegivers: Honouring our Elders and Children (director: Janine Windolph), O Mother Where Art Thou? (director: Paul John Swiderski) and ata-wîhcasin (It's Getting Easier) (director Teresa Desnomi). For more information go to www.nsi-canada.ca.
1/12/08

The 7th annual NSI FilmExchange Canadian Film Festival, produced by the National Screen Institute, was held March 2- 5, 2005 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Opening Night featured SnowScreen, with approximately 800 people seeing the latest National Film Board animated shorts and two world premiere NSI ZeD Drama Prize films projected on a screen carved from snow. This year's festival hosted delegates from Australia and New Zealand part of the NSI Aboriginal Cultural Trade Initiative (ACTI), a program with the goal of creating film and television co-productions between First Nations, Maori, and indigenous Australian producers. Outdoor clothing was provided by Roots Canada to help the delegates prepare for the chilly temperatures outside. ACTI participant, actor and producer Cliff Curtis (Maori), star of the international hits Whale Rider and Once Were Warriors, served as the festival's keynote speaker.
7/5/05

Photophobia 7 Contemporary Format Film and Video Screening
This open access, open-air event was held in August 11, 2005 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in Hamilton, Ontario. Among the works screened, selected from more than 270 entries, were From Cherry English (director: Jeff Barnaby) and Little Indians (director: Gail Maurice).
10/3/05

The 3rd Premios del Publico/People's Awards International Short Film Festival, held in June 2005 in Quito, Ecuador, screened 51 short films from ten countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The festival is a project of Quito-based Octaedro Foundation. The Best Documentary Award was given to Carnaval Intercultural Kuski Raymi 2005 by Ecuadorian filmmaker Franklin Quizhpe (Kichwa).
For more information go to www.octaedro.org.ec.
7/14/05

The Provincetown Film Festival, held June 13 - 17, 2007, in the seaside town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, screened approximately 50 short and feature films. These included two Native directed features, Miss Navajo (director: Billy Luther) and Four Sheets to the Wind (director: Sterlin Harjo). A short film, Sovereign Nation/Sovereign Neighbor (director: Kendall Moore), about the Narragansett tribe of Rhode Island, was also screened. For more information go to http://ptownfilmfest.bside.com.
2/25/08

Rencontres Cinematographique de Digne-les-Bains
Festival: April 4 - 8, 2011
Digne les Bains, Haute-Provence, France
7/5/11

Reel to Real International Film Festival for Youth 
Festival: April 9 - 15 
Vancouver, British Columbia 
http://2011.r2rfestival.org/
7/5/11

In Vancouver, British Columbia, the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth took place February 23 - March 2, 2007. Short works by Native directors included Kaka'Win (director Leah Nelson), Raven Tales: Bald Eagle (directors Chris Kientz and Caleb Hystad), and Wapos Bay: Journey Through Fear (director: Melanie Jackson). A feature with Native themes shows was Luna: The Way Home (director: Don McBrearty)
11/17/07

Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth was held March 1 - 10, 2005 in Vancouver. A team of media professionals and youth selected 35 films from more than 100 submissions. Among the awards, the National Film Board of Canada prize for Best Animation was won by Raven Tales (directors: Chris Kientz and Simon James). On March 2, First Nations Day, First Nations films for students with accompanying media studies workshops included Raven Tales and Two Winters: Tales From Above the Earth (director: Carol Geddes). Other works screened were Inuuvunga, I am Inuk, I am Alive (producer: Pierre Lapointe) and Team Spirit: The Jordin and Terence Tootoo Story (producer: Ken Malenstyn). Weird Sex and Snowshoes, a fresh and funny documentary about Canadian cinema, had clips and interviews with celebrated Canadian directors including Zacharias Kunuk.
For more information about the festival go to www.eciad.bc.ca/r2r.
8/15/05In Portland, Oregon, Reel Music 22, curated by the Northwest Film Center, January 7 - February 13, 2005, presented Pepper's Powwow with filmmaker Sandra Osawa. The screenings were organized in association with the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival's series of events celebrating the legacy of the unique Native jazz musician Jim Pepper (1941-1992).
10/24/05

At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Homeland: Four Portraits of Native American Action (director: Roberta Grossman) won both the Award for Documentary Film and the Audience Award for Documentary Film. Produced by Katahdin Productions, the feature-length film presents cases of environmental destruction on Native lands through the eyes of Native activists Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe), Evon Peter (Gwich'in), Gail Small (Northern Cheyenne), Mitchell and Rita Capitan (Navajo), and Barry Dana (Penboscot).
7/15/05

The 2005 Seattle International Film Festival, which screened nearly 350 films over 25 days, awarded the Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary to Trudell (director: Heather Rae).
9/2/05

The 4th annual Silverdocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival was held June 14 - 19, 2005, at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Springs, Maryland. One Native American work was screened, Trudell (director: Heather Rae), about activist and spoken word artist John Trudell. Of additional interest was Being Caribou, a documentary of a 5-month 1000-mile journey following the Porcupine Caribou herd's migration to their calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
10/10/05

The 5th Sin Fronteras Film Festival was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 20, 21, and 28, 2007. The festival screens works about Latin American and indigenous peoples. The 2007 festival was coordinated by Yvette Morales, of the University of New Mexico's Student Organization for Latin American Studies. Screenings were held at Out Ch'Yonda, a studio space in the Barelas neighborhood south of Downtown, and the Lobo Theater near the university.

Works by indigenous directors included:

• The Agouti's Peanut (directors: Komoi Panara and Paturi Panara)
  
• Conversion (director: Nanobah Becker)
  
• Coureurs de Nuit (director: Shanouk Newashish)
  
• Crazy Ind'n (director: Ian Skorodin)
  
• Gesture Down (director: Cedar Sherbert)
  
• Making a Stand at Desert Rock (produced by Indigenous Action Media)
  
• La Petite Chasse (produced by Wapikoni Mobile)
  
• Powwow 101 (director: Angelo Baca)
  
• Sueños Binacionales (director: Yolanda Cruz)
  
• When Your Hands Are Tied (director: Mia Boccella Hartle)

Other works with indigenous themes included Buffy Saint Marie (director: Joan Prowse), Class Clown (director: Roseanne Archibald), Hombres y Mujeres Ikoots (director: Guillermo Monteforte), Popol Vuh (director: Ana María Pavez), and Hapunda (director: Dominique Jonard).
7/17/07

Stories-n-Motion Film Festival was held March 9 - 11, 2006 at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. Wes Studi (Cherokee) and Gary Farmer (Cayuga) led workshops on their work. Productions screened included: In Whose Honor? American Indian Mascots in Sports (director: Jay Rosenstein), One Dead Indian (director: Tim Southam) and Trudell (director: Heather Rae).
3/29/06

The inaugural Stories-n-Motion Film Festival, organized March 31 - April 2, 2005, at Haskell Indian Nations University, in Lawrence, Kansas, screened 22 films. Highlights of the event were three feature films, introduced by their directors: Black Cloud (director: Rick Schroder), American Indian Graffiti (directors: Tvli Jacob and Steve Judd), and Dancing on the Moon (director: Rod Pocowatchit).
For more information enter here.
12/30/05

The inaugural Sweet Grass Cinema Native Film Festival, held September 14 - 16, 2005, at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, screened feature films including Edge of America, Black Cloud, American Indian Graffiti, A Thousand Roads, and The Doe Boy. Among the documentaries and fiction shorts programmed were Goodnight, Irene (director: Sterlin Harjo), and Tattoo on My Heart (directors: Charles Abourezk and Brett Lawlor). The events included dialogues between the filmmakers, panel discussions, and workshops on Native cinema. Brent Michael Davids, a noted Mohegan composer, discussed the musical score of Last of the Mohicans (director: Michael Mann) and offered an alternative score.
For more information enter here.
12/30/05

The 2nd SWIFT/Southwest Indian Film Theater festival, programmed by Tazbah McCullah, was held August 12 - 14, 2005 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The feature film Don't Call Me Tonto (director: Annie Frazier Henry) and several short works were screened in cooperation with the 2005 Native Cinema Showcase in Santa Fe. Directors participating were Shonie De La Rosa, introducing several of his productions, and Nanobah Becker, director of Flat. Other short works included Yada Yada (director: Bennie Klain) and Plastic Warriors (director: Amy Tall Chief).
9/2/05

The Sydney Film Festival, held in Sydney, Australia in June 2005, has recognized the short film Green Bush (director: Warwick Thornton). The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films that it received were the Best Film over 15 Minutes, and the coveted Rouben Mamoulian Award which is selected from the 17 festival short film finalists by a panel of the festival's guests.
7/31/05

On September 22, 2007, the Tamejavi Cultural Festival: Hands that Forge History, held in Fresno, California, focuses on the traditions, struggles, and contributions of the California Central Valley's immigrants and Native peoples. Films screened were Hmong, Latino. Mexican and Native American, including the feature El Violín (director: Francisco Vargas Quevedo), the story of an old musician from an impoverished community in Guerrero faced with the encroachment of the Mexican military, and Native American and indigenous short films from Mexico and the United States followed by a Q&A with Cedar Sherbert (Kumeyaay) whose short film Gesture Down (I Don't Sing) was part of the program.

For more information go to www.tamejavi.org and click on "Film Series" at the bottom of the screen.
1/06/08

The 4th annual Tribeca Film Festival, held April 19 - May 1, 2005, featured Trudell (director: Heather Rae), screened in association with NMAI's At the Movies cinema series in New York, with the director, producer, members of the crew, and activist and poet John Trudell present to talk about the work with audiences. Goodnight Irene (director: Sterlin Harjo) was screened in the "Scenic Overlook" program.

Tribeca All Access Connects, a directors/producers and scriptwriters workshop held during the festival, invited several Native American filmmakers to participate, Randy Redroad, Yvonne Russo, and Billy Luther. The workshop includes half-hour sessions arranged with some of the more than 100 film professionals participating. John Trudell served as a juror in the TAA Creative Promise Awards documentary competition.
For more information go to www.tribecafilmfestival.org.
12/30/05

The Vancouver International Film Festival, September 27 - October 12, 2007, screened the international premiere of Lillie and Leander: A Legacy of Violence (director: Jeffrey Morgan).
1/07/08

The 11th Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival (VIFVF) was held March 4 - 13, 2005, in Victoria, British Columbia. Short works screened included:

10. Director: Dana Claxton
Raven Tales. Directors: Chris Kientz and Simon James
The Shirt. Director: Shelley Niro
Two Winters: Tales From Above the Earth. Director: Carol Geddes

Raven Tales was selected for VIFVF's Jumpcuts: A Festival for Young Filmmakers presented in Victoria on July 23 - 24, 2005.
For more information go to www.vifvf.com.
8/22/05

The VisionMaker Film Festival, formerly the Flatwater Film Festival, was held November 16 - 29, 2007 in Lincoln, Nebraska, co-sponsored by Native American Public Telecommunications and the Ross Media Arts Center, in collaboration with Lincoln's Indian Center, the University of Nebraska, and other venues. The program featured 12 feature films and 11 short works. Participating filmmakers included Chris Eyre, Sterlin Harjo, Bennie Klain, and J. Carlos Peinado who screened their recent works. The program was curated by Chris Eyre, Bird Runningwater, Danny Ladely, and NAPT's Shirley Sneve and Penny Costello. For more information go to www.nativetelecom.org/festival/
12/07/07

The Winnipeg International Film Festival, June 1 - 9, 2007, featured three films with indigenous subjects. Expiration Date (director: Rick Stevenson) is a romantic comedy about Charlie Silvercloud III, as he faces a predicted tragedy on his 25th birthday, the story told by Ned Romero, as an elderly Indian on the reservation, to a teen trying to leave, played by Nakotah Larrance. The documentary Dream Makers (director: Susan Cardinal) addresses the reality of "being Indian" in the make-believe world of film and TV. Somba Ke: The Money Place (director: David Henningson) is about the mining of uranium in northern Canada and its impact on the Sahtu Dene community.
11/17/07

The Women of Color Film and Video Festival, organized by the Women of Color Research Cluster at the University of California at Santa Cruz, was held April 23 - 26, 2005. This year's event was entitled "Disrupting Borders: Seeing Silences and Imagining Trans-Formations." Among the Native American works screened were Plastic Warriors (director: Amy Tall Chief) on current American Indian stereotypes, The Border Crossed (director: Rachael J. Nez) on the impact on the Tohono O'odham of the Mexican/US border patrol, and Century of Genocide in the Americas: The Residential School Experience (director: Rosemary Gibbons).
For more information go to www2.ucsc.edu/woc
10/10/05

In its 10th year, the 2005 Women of Color Film Festival, organized by the Women of Color Film Project at the University of California at Berkeley, was screened at the Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley, March 2 - 6, and at the San Francisco Cinematheque on March 13. Works selected included Prayer for a Good Day (director: Zoe Leigh Hopkins).
For more information go to the website for the Pacific Film Archives, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa_programs/women_of_color/
10/3/05

Worldfilm Festival
Festival: March 2 - 27, 2011
Tartu, Estonia 
www.worldfilm.ee/
7/5/11

On November 14 - 16, 2002 the Ullusintem Yi Skwansixtixtet/Gathering Our Images opened with the screening of Sherman Alexie's The Business of Fancy Dancing. The event provided a 3-day series of professional development workshops for emerging media artists from the province, was organized by the ULLUS Collective of independent media artists and IASO/Indigenous Arts Service Organization and held in Penticton, British Columbia at the En'owkin Centre. Tina House (Metis) conducted an all-day workshop for youth in theater and video production. Industry panels included "Cultural Diversity and Inclusion within the 500 Channel Universe."
Visit the IASO website (www.geocities.com/iaso 1/1.html) or call IASO director Tracey Jack at 250-493-7181.
11/18/02

Rocks with Wings, directed by Rick Derby, received the HBO Documentary Feature prize at the 2002 UrbanWorld Film Festival in New York and the Rigoberta Menchu Tum 2nd Prize for Community Media at Montreal's First Peoples' Festival. The film follows the story of the championship Navajo women's basketball team. It has been featured at numerous festivals including Naal Kid, Native Cinema Showcase and Taos Talking Pictures.
9/02/02

Zion Independent Film Festival (name changed to Red Rock Film Festival of Zion Canyon in 2007), held November 10 - 13, at Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, included four Native American films in its "Cinema Kokopelli" section. Spirit Riders (director: James Kleinert) won Best Documentary Feature. Other Native films screened were 5th World (director: Larry Blackhorse Lowe), Healing Our Spirits (directors: Lexie Tom and Michael Shephard) and Afkeme 1345 (director: Shonie De La Rosa).
For more information go to www.redrockfilmfestival.com.
12/30/05

In the New York Theaters
Throughout February three feature films--2 documentaries and one narrative--will have their theatrical releases in New York and nationally.

• Filmed in Mexico, Blossoms of Fire (director: Maureen Gosling) portrays Zapotec women of Juchitan, Oaxaca, famed for their strength and beauty. Its release in New York was celebrated with a reception and photographic show from Oaxaca at the Consulate General of Mexico. It screens February 3 - 9 at Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street. The film had its world premiere at NMAI's Native American Film + Video Festival.
• Christmas in the Clouds (director: Kate Montgomery), which opens at Cinema Village on February 17, played January 20 - 26 in Washington, DC. Set at a Native American ski lodge, and shot at Robert Redford's Sundance Resort in Utah, the film offers a refreshingly positive look at contemporary Native American people. The film premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, and has been screened in NMAI's At the Movies in New York and Native Cinema Showcase in Santa Fe.
• Trudell (director: Heather Rae) opens February 24 at the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, and is also playing this month on the West Coast. John Trudell has been fearless in confronting difficult realities that exist in our history and culture. Trudell was a leader of the American Indian Movement, and, more recently, one of rock-and-roll's most distinctive talents. The documentary skillfully weaves together archival footage, impressionistic scenes, a deeply affecting soundtrack, and interviews with Kris Kristofferson, Robert Redford, Jackson Browne, and Gary Farmer. Trudell premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and has screened and won awards at numerous other festivals. It was screened in a joint presentation by NMAI and the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and at NMAI's Native Cinema Showcase in Santa Fe.

2/9/06

** indicates that a short description of the film can be found in the PDFs of titles screened at the 1995, 1997 and 2000 Native American Film and Video Festivals. To open the PDF sorted by title, enter here.

Image credit: Carlos Efraín Pérez being interviewed by Marcelino Pinto, 2000 Native American Film and Video Festival - Photograph by Amalia Cordova, NMAI

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