#native filmmakers

[lavend3r-stardust]

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

[alihsi]

As if I needed more stuff to watch, but this is awesome, and I hope it brings more interest in these works.

from today (january 9, 2023) until january 30th you can stream for free about 60 works from indigenous filmmakers courtesy of the media city film festival. includes films from alanis obomsawin, macarthur recipient sky hopinka, and many more.

[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

[the-aila-test]

[iamodmk]

Last Saturday’s look as we made our way to the 8th anniversary for the Winnipeg Indigenous Filmmakers Collective meetup in our posh Exchange condo. I drove partway there & back in my boyfriends SUV from our place in Saskatchewan. Fuck I’m an unrecognizable person using words & sentences just a year ago we’re completely foreign to me! I’m so happy for the way life has changed 😍🥰😘 thank you @jrmcchickens! Your so supportive & sweet even tho you wanna be a bad guy your a good guy- a happy boy & all around heartthrob! I’m grateful for you & love sharing my love & life with you. . . . . . #iamodmk #blogger #socialmedia #gay #lgbt #twospirit #cree #indigenous #firstnations #native #queer #cute #follow #love #filmmaker #artist (at Exchange District) https://www.instagram.com/p/Clq4unuAyTd/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[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…

[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 

[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.

[artfilmfan]

The Unknown Country (Morrisa Maltz, 2022)

[lynxbatics]

One thing I really appreciate about Puss in Boots is that near the end, when Puss and Kitty decide to name Perrito, Kitty says:

And Puss replies with:

In English, this sounds a little bit janky - you would probably say "He doesn't look like a Jeff" instead. But in Spanish you would say "No tiene cara de Jeff." Which, translated word for word, means "He doesn't have a Jeff's face."

Not sure if it was intentional or not, but this little detail highlights Puss' Spanish heritage in such a subtle way that I can't help but applaud the filmmakers for it! I've seen so many native Spanish speakers make the same mistake of translating phrases word for word in order to match their Spanish counterparts, and I think it's so adorable that Puss does this too.

[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

[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