#native filmmakers

[lavend3r-stardust]

Stormee Kipp as Ray - "The Sound", 2024, Children of the Setting Sun Productions

[artfilmfan]

Lakota Nation vs. United States (Jesse Short Bull & Laura Tomaselli, 2022)

[darkwood-sleddog]

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A post shared by ZEPPELIN ZEERIP | Field Work (@zeppelinzeerip)

Those familiar with this blog will be familiar with my various posts highlighting the Indigenous Iditarod dog musher, and first out trans woman to run the Iditarod, Apayauq. Those posts are still amongst my most popular and continually reblogged posts, they really seem to resonate with a lot of people.

During Apayauq's most recent Iditarod, where she came in last and took the Red Lantern, a documentary by Zeppelin Zeerip was made. I've been closely watching the documentary's success on the film festival market and not only has it recently won Best Indigenous Short at BENDFilm, but APAYAUQ has been nominated for an Academy Award!

This is huge news!

[fibula-rasa]

Sun, Moon, and Feather (1989)

[youtube | spiderwoman theater]

Directors: Bob Rosen & Jane Zipp

Photography: Jerry Pantzer & Brian Kellman

Performers: Gloria Miguel, Muriel Miguel, & Lisa Mayo

[fourstarsflag]

research day for the documentary

[womantoday]

Jacob Latimore (Langston), Jennifer Hudson (Naima Cobbs), Forest Whitaker (Reverend Cornell Cobbs), Angela Bassett (Aretha Cobbs): Black Nativity {2013}

[kimwexlers-brownhair]

SEEDS Official Trailer (2024)

!!

[markashtonlund]

The Pequot

Pequot Museum on X In what has become a personal tradition of mine, on my birthday I spend the day at a museum. I often seek a museum I’ve never visited to mark the occasion and to learn something new. With my 59th birthday this past Thursday (I know, I still can’t believe it!), I visited the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center in Mashantucket, CT. To quote from their website, “The…

[jun-hug]

A final for one of my classes, my profesor said i should post this somewhere :)

words belong to Alanis Obomsawin,

an American-Canadian of Abenaki descent, a documentary filmmaker, though this is not where I first heard them.

When the Last Tree Is Cut Down,

The Last Fish Ate

The Last Stream Poisoned.

You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money.

Native American saying, first written in 1972. Still relevant when more than half a century old, and we can see how it manifests itself in real time. I personally came across a version of it in Aurora's song "The Seed," originally titled "Eat Money." Quoting her "It's about human history, about how we've co-existed in the world and how we've forgotten how to live with nature and the power we have."

❗️Do not upload / repost my art anywhere.❗️

[icedsodapop]

As Indigenous woman filmmakers, we knew that our path through the industry would be narrow and that our film, Fancy Dance, would have a small window for success based on the abysmal record of representation for Indigenous folx in Hollywood. As such, we channeled our collective wills as granddaughters of Dust Bowl survivors, descendants of genocide and avowed followers of the indomitable Merata Mita to give this film the best shot possible. If there existed a “how to make a successful movie in Hollywood” checklist, we followed it to a tee. Step one: Create a compelling script (after her sister’s disappearance, a hustler kidnaps her niece from the child’s white grandparents and takes her to the state powwow in hopes of keeping what’s left of her family intact) – check. Step two: Find top-tier producing partners (Nina Yang Bongiovi, Tommy Oliver) – check. Step three: Cast amazing actors at the top of their field (soon-to-be Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone) – check. Step four: Premiere and screen at world-renowned festivals (Sundance, SXSW, BFI London) – check. Step five: Receive excellent reviews (THR called it “exceptional”) and festival prizes (Hamptons, L.A. Outfest, Mill Valley, NewFest, Sun Valley, Tacoma) – check. Step six: Get a distribution deal – …crickets.

[uwmspeccoll]

Cannupa Hanska Luger, New Myth, Future Technologies, 2021

Dana Claxton, Headdress-Jeneen, 2018

Teresa Baker, Hidatsa Red, 2022

Raven Chacon, For Zitkala Sa Series, 2019

Caroline Monnet, Echoes from a near future, 2022

Marie Watt, Skywalker/Skyscraper (Calling Sky World), 2021

Anna Tsouhlarakis, The Native Guide Project, 2019

Meryl McMaster, Harbourage for a Song, 2019

Marie Watt, Companion Species (Calling Back, Calling Forward), 2021

Staff Pick of the Week

An Indigenous Present proposes that a book can be a space for community engagement through the transcultural gathering of more than sixty contemporary Indigenous and Native artists. Published by BIG NDN Press and Delmonico Books in 2023, An Indigenous Present was conceived of and edited by Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972) over the course of nearly two decades. 

In Gibson’s own words, “An Indigenous Present celebrates the work of visual artists, musicians, poets, choreographers, designers, filmmakers, performance artists, architects, collectives, and writers whose work offers fresh starting lines for Native and Indigenous art. But the book does not attempt comprehensiveness. Rather, those included here are makers I admire, have collaborated with or been inspired by, and who’ve challenged my thinking. . . . These artists and what they make will guide us to Indigenous futurities authored by us in unabashedly Indigenous ways.”  

An Indigenous Present features over 400 pages of color photographs, poetry, essays, and interviews resulting in a stunning visual experience for readers and a shift towards more inclusive art systems. The front cover art shown here is by Canadian artist Caroline Monnet entitled Indigenous Represent. 

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

View more posts featuring Decorative Plates.

View other Staff Picks.

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[lizardsfromspace]

The backlash to the snub of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig (for directing) at the Oscars is bizarre for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that they're going with a "the Academy hates women directors!" narrative even though there is a female nominee for best director this year, Justine Triet.

But this one quote is just. Jokerfying

...Margot Robbie was kept out of Best Actress by Annette Benning's nod for Nyad. That's the one everyone hates and thinks is undeserving, too. But instead the stakes being Barbie Is Feminism And If It Loses Feminism Loses means you have to dismiss a film written & directed by a woman, and single out...Lily Gladstone? She's insulting a film about a real survivor of real Native American genocide to burnish Barbie. She's not only insulting actresses and female filmmakers in the name of feminism, and attacking sex workers, she's dismissing the stories of real women too

And, again: Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Anatomy of a Fall didn't keep Barbie out of Best Actress! That was Nyad! But that doesn't fit her narrative about how the Oscars only like it when women ~suffer~ so she has to bash *checks notes* the first ever Native American nominated for Best Actress instead

(To be fair I checked the article; she doesn't mention Nyad once; it doesn't mention Justine Triet once, either)

I mean the Academy did give it eight nominations. America Ferrera, Ryan Gosling, adapted screenplay and Best Picture. The Academy obviously considered it important. Ferrera's nom is likely entirely down to the monologue scene, too, so it's not like they're mad about that.

(actually a lot of people are going "hohoho, didn't it just prove the movie's point that they only nominated Gosling?" like. They very much did nominate America Ferrera, can they like. Read)

And her case doesn't make the slightest bit of sense bc, again, the surprise nom that deprived Robbie of a Best Actress nom wasn't a dark movie about feminine suffering, it was a Netflix sports biopic

[artfilmfan]

The Unknown Country (Morrisa Maltz, 2022)

[alinahdee]

I am not a professional video editor or filmmaker and I treat video essays as a hobby because I know that if I turn it into a job, I'll hate it. And I'd rather love doing it.

I would also love to see more Native American / First Nations / Indigenous people making content on Youtube, tiktok, etc and any help or advice that I can provide, I will.

If you like to analyze and talk about media and would need footage, OBS is free to use and REALLY useful. https://obsproject.com/

If you need video editing software, Da Vinci Resolve is free to use and tutorials exist online: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

If you want a simpler and easy to use free video editor, Clip Champ suffices nicely: https://clipchamp.com/en/

You can get a decent microphone for like $20 on Amazon. I use this one:

You can find ring lights and the usual "video content creating kits" in pretty much any electronics department in grocery stores, department stores, Best Buy, etc.

And while you ---CAN--- save up some money for a camera, more often than not your phone will suffice.

Most important of all, your early works may be rough and choppy, but the important thing is to just BEGIN. Start making things. Watch your work evolve as you keep creating, keep talking, and putting yourself and your work out there.

Go forth and be glorious. Colonizers don't want us at the table. Bring your chair and sit there anyways. Take up space. DEMAND your voice be heard. Do it for yourself, do it because you love your people and your community.

[fibula-rasa]

Sun, Moon, and Feather (1989)

[youtube | spiderwoman theater]

Directors: Bob Rosen & Jane Zipp

Photography: Jerry Pantzer & Brian Kellman

Performers: Muriel Miguel, Gloria Miguel, & Lisa Mayo

[albertserra]

I’m not sure how many of you guys still remember Yanni who I met on here (and I’ve shared his mutual aid posts occasionally here as well) years ago but he started a gfm to help relocate back to nyc due to struggling to find and keep jobs that would let him have even enough money to survive especially due to being disabled from long covid.