WASHINGTON,
DC.- The Smithsonians National
Museum of the American Indian announced today the complete lineup
for its 2009 Native American Film and Video Festival. Fourteen features
and 43 shorts representing 10 countries were chosen from more than
350 submissions. This years festival celebrates its 30th anniversary
and the richness and growth of indigenous film and media. The works
reflect vibrant contemporary voices of Native filmmakers telling
their stories and histories and sharing their unique, individual
dreams and concerns, as well as those of their communities. The
festival will run from Thursday, March 26, through Sunday, March
29, at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the
George Gustav Heye Center.
The
festival opens with the world premiere of We Shall Remain:
Trail of Tears directed by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho),
Thursday, March 26, at 7 p.m. The screening will be introduced by
Eyre, executive producer Sharon Grimberg and lead actor Wes Studi
(Cherokee). The screenings will be introduced by the producers and
community members. During the four-day festival, the voices of least
100 members of the geographically widespread, but deeply connected,
community of Native American filmmakers will be heard.
Features
will include Older Than America by Georgina Lightning
(Cree), starring Adam Beach (Saulteaux) and Studi. Lightning tells
the story of a womans haunting visions that bring to light
a plot to conceal atrocities that occurred at a Native American
boarding school. Pachamama by Toshifumi Matsushita is
a coming-of-age story that takes place along the salt route of the
Andes in Bolivia, where a boy confronts the complexities of adult
life, including death, suffering and, most sweetly and powerfully
of all, first love.
Among
the highlights of the short films presented will be Sikumi/On
the Ice by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Inupiaq), a story of an
Inuit hunter who witnesses a murder; Mémère
Métisse/My Métis Grandmother by Janelle Wookey
(Métis), in which the filmmaker leads her own grandmother
to finally embrace their Native heritage; The Colony
by Jeff Barnaby (Mikmaq), a graphic depiction of a displaced
Native man; and Dustinn Craigs (White Mountain Apache/Navajo)
experimental 4 Wheel War Pony. A Gente Luta mas
Come Fruta/We Struggle but We Eat Fruit by Bebito Piãko
(Ashaninka) and Isaac Piãko (Ashaninka) is a loving portrait
of the videomakers community in Acre, Brazil, and A
Cielo Abierto/Under the Open Sky, a documentary by José
Luis Matías (Nahua) and Carlos Perez Rojas (Mixe), documents
how community landowners successfully win concessions from a gold-mining
company.
Complete
festival listings can be found at www.nativenetworks.si.edu
and www.redesindigenous.si.edu.
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