Viva Diva (15:00) -Note: Adult themes
Rozene and Diva are partners on a road trip to get their gender affirmation surgeries. Along the way Rozene comforts Diva with humor when Diva has trouble reconciling she has HIV. Relying on sex work to pay for their operations, Rozene places an ad on Craigslist as they drive through the place where she grew up. Directed by Daniel Flores (Yaqui/Mexican)
Joe (5:31)
joe is forced to take a look in the mirror and have a talk with himself in regards to his addiction. he learns a lesson about self respect. Directed by jack belhumeur (Metis)
secret of the bigfoot tribe (6:02)
a father tells his sons of a great secret involving the legendary bigfoot. A secret treaty between a bigfoot tribe and indigenous elders long ago. Directed by jack belhumeur (Metis)
We Only Went Out at Night (4:00)
An undead woman must endure love and loss to discover a new reason to live. Directed by Brannigan Carter (Lumbee)
Sun and the Great Frog (4:37)
A Cherokee Eclipse Story in the Cherokee Language. A great frog tries to swallow the sun. Directed by joseph erb (Cherokee)
Stand up (18:00)
Anecdotes and stories told by the grandparents of Esteban, and also a moment with them from when he was a child, have stayed in his memory. A moment that always created questions within him. Little by little he began growing up and finding answers, and with them, a sense of cultural and ancestral belonging that he felt the need to know about and reaffirm. Directed by Esteban Lema (Kichwa Nation Diaspora)
Forgotten (6:15)
Levi lives a simple life until escalating visions too strong to ignore lead him to reconnect to his indigenous heritage. Directed by Jesse Spence (Mathias Colomb Cree/Lake Saint Martin First Nation)
Shirtnami (2:30)
A Shirtnami takes over a town, only to be conquered by Skateboarding Pants. Directed by Colton Sillier (Cree/Blackfoot)
Refraction (6:25) An afternoon excursion takes a spiritual turn when a photographer helps a lost soul find peace. Directed by Chad Baker (Choctaw)
Ghost Cop (9:00)
“Ghost Cop” tells the story of Detective James McClusky Jr. as he seeks answers for a troubling mystery. Directed by Jesse Monday (Cherokee)
The Importance of Dreaming (10:39)
Old lonely Owl dreams of having his own family. In his travels he comes upon a large skulk of foxes playing together. Owl thinks they are beautiful and he watches over them for many days and nights. He wishes he could have such a beautiful family. One fox is different, she notices Owl and watches him. Owl flies down to meet her and showing off his charms, becomes a part of the skulk. Foxx and Owl fall in love, but their love is met with contention driving Foxx and Owl away to try to find happiness together. This is a true legend based on a love story between a Native Canadian woman and a non-Native man, taking place sometime between 1867-1985 when the Indian Act of Canada suppressed the rights of Indigenous women married to a non-Native. Directed by Tara Audibert (Tobique First Nations, Canada)
Exulansis (1:52)
Exulansis is a visual representation providing insight into the experience and symptoms of anxiety and borderline personality disorders. For those with these experiences, it can be difficult to translate the abstract and nuanced feelings into something relatable to others. Directed by Melanie Weldon (Cherokee) & Adrienne Johnson
Paradise Lost (5:29)
A montage showing the destructive modern age of San Francisco’s outcasted youth. Directed by Nicholas Batres (Taino)
The Spider (7:12)
Chuck has a crush on the flower shop girl next door. Using a superhero card drawn by his co-worker Kelly, Chuck tries to strike up a conversation with her. Directed by Roger Boyer (Canadian Indigenous, Non-status)
“C & J Forever…” (6:37)
Jack returns home to visit his childhood friend Candace before she starts her new life. Directed by Roger Boyer (Canadian Indigenous, Non-status)
Generations (7:19)
A look into Contemporary Native life through the eyes of a mother and her children on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation of Northern Nevada. Directed by Anthony Florez (Pyramid Lake Paiute)
Gathered Places: An Indian Documentary Film (18:58)
What happens when two Indian filmmakers, one from southern India and the other from an Indian reservation in western New York State, visits each other’s homelands? What are the similarities or differences between these ancient cultures? How does the modern world affect how they see themselves, each other and the outside world?
GATHERED PLACES is a documentary film that shows the worlds of India and Native America through the “Indian” lenses of filmmakers Terry Jones and Govind Diece. Directed by Terry Jones (Seneca) & Govind Deice
Ode to the Nine (2:42)
This video is influenced by artist Jon Rafman. His work “9-Eyes” and “You, the World and I” inspired the filmmaker to make “Ode to the Nine”. This short experimental video allows the filmmaker to ponder the relevance of the moving image and what impacts it has on the Native experience of the past, present and future. Directed by Tery Jones (Seneca)
Reclamation (3:44)
A short poetic documentary film about Indigenous Identity Directed by Viveka Frost (Teques/Caribe)
The Mayors of Shiprock (52:00)
Every Monday in the small community of Shiprock, New Mexico, a group of young Navajo leaders meet to decide how they will help their community. For over seven years, the Northern Dine Youth Committee has worked to give youth opportunities to directly make changes within their community. But while the NDYC works to make changes, many members also consider their own futures, commitments to family and the world outside of the Shiprock. While they love their community, they all must consider their options both on and off the reservation. Directed by Ramona Emerson (Navajo)
Forget Winnetou! Loving in the Wrong Way (1:05:00)
“Winnetou”, the still popular American Indian character created by German author Karl May in the 19th century is a symbol of Native stereotypes, of lingering racism & colonialism: the self-bestowed privilege of taking and using whatever you want, even living peoples, for self-gratification. Intentional or not, these attitudes and behaviors continue the cycle of genocide, and can be harmful to everyone, no matter their ethnicity.
Most films on similar topics concentrate only on Native experiences in North America, but through discussions with Natives, living in or having visited Germany, the correction of Eurocentricized history & insight on German society, we’ll present why these stereotypes and practices must end: in Germany and worldwide. While some may minimize the effect or harm of stereotypes, they are evidence of much deeper societal issues of injustice, inequality and inequity based on racial or ethnic heritage, many countries face. Directed by Red Haircrow (Chiricahua Apache/Cherokee)
Innu Nikamu: resist and sing (1:32:00)
A documentary that tells the story of the Innu Nikamu Native Music Festival through the eyes of its founders and musicians. A story of healing, a duty of remembrance. Kevin Directed by Bacon Hervieux (Innu)
Hard Working Man: The Music and Miracles of Danny Brooks (1:42:29)
“Hard Working Man: The Music and Miracles of Danny Brooks” is a documentary film about the life of singer-songwriter Danny Brooks. An entertainer with over 40 years experience in the music industry who performs in a wide variety of forms; as a solo artist, in a duet with his wife Debi and as part of a band. His stage is diverse … bars, clubs, house concerts, churches, prisons and festivals. A true chameleon … one part street savvy musician; another part born again preacher, Brooks life and career runs the gamut of all spectrum’s of life much like his music which chronicles the good times, the bad times, relationships, heaven, hell and salvation. A man of deep religious belief and conviction Brooks has an uncanny capacity for reaching out and touching the lives of those around him. Directed by Christopher Darton (Metis)
The Smudging (1:34:32)
A group of paranormal researchers are called to investigate a Native American cultural center where the staff and community have been experiencing aggressive supernatural activity. What the group discovers is something they are not prepared to face. Directed by Mike J. Marin (Laguna/Navajo/Washoe)
Red Hand (1:20:00)
A man with the power to heal time-travels from the future to rescue a tech genius who is pivotal in saving the Native American race. They are helped by a psychic comic book artist who has foreseen them coming when an officer is sent from the future to destroy them. Directed by Rod Pocowachit (Comanche, Pawnee and Shawnee)
Drunktown’s Finest (1:33:00)
On a beautifully desolate Navajo reservation in New Mexico, three young people – a college-bound, devout Christian; a rebellious and angry father-to-be; and a promiscuous but gorgeous transsexual – search for love and acceptance. As the three find their lives becoming more complicated and their troubles growing, their paths begin to intersect. With little in common other than a shared heritage, they soon learn that the key to overcoming their respective obstacles may come from the most unlikely of sources, each other.
Inspired by a 20/20 story that called her hometown of Gallup, NM “Drunktown USA,” writer/director Sydney Freeland has constructed a moving and ultimately uplifting story about coming of age in the most challenging of circumstances while still finding hope, healing, and the chance for a better life. Directed by Sydney Freeland (Navajo)
Keep an eye on our SCHEDULE PAGE for upcoming Programming News
Native American first-voice and self-representation has been an on-going issue in many arenas of society. None, so deeply ingrained than film, where the image of Native peoples has been the subject of much controversy on past years. To promote a better representation, the First Nations Film and Video Festival has been at the forefront of promoting films by Native American Directors from the US, Canada Central and South America, and Mexico.
