INAUGURAL BRATTLEBORO ROTARY 5TH ANNUAL BRATTLEBORO ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL (INDIAN) FILM & CLUB INTERNATIONAL (NATIVE FOOD FESTIVAL – 2009 AMERICAN) FILM & FOOD FESTIVAL – 2014
Outsourced DOCUMENTARY: Monsoon Urban Rez
ND 2 ANNUAL BRATTLEBORO ROTARY FEATURE FILM CLUB INTERNATIONAL (MEXICAN) FILM & Pow Wow Highway FOOD FESTIVAL – 2010
SHORT FILM PROGRAM (56 min) 1. El armadillo fronterizo (“The Border Armadillo”) 2. Iker pelos tiesos (“Iker Stiff Hairs) 3. El relato de Sam Brennan (“Sam Brennan’s Story”) 4. Niña que espera (“Little Girl Waiting”) 5. Xáni Xépika (“Lazybones”) 6. La leche y el agua (“Milk and water”)
FEATURE FILM (100 min): Espiral
3RD ANNUAL BRATTLEBORO ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL (MEXICAN) FILM & FOOD FESTIVAL – 2011
SHORT FILM PROGRAM (62 min) 1. Luna (Moon) 2. La Mina de Oro (The Gold Mine) 3. Miramelinda (Look at Me Beauty) 4. Moyana (Moyana) 5. La Nuera de Don Filemón (Don Filemon’s Daughter in Law) 6. Firmes (Attention)
FEATURE FILM (87 min): Una Pared Para Cecilia (A Wall for Cecillia)
4TH ANNUAL BRATTLEBORO ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL (NATIVE AMERICAN) FILM & FOOD FESTIVAL – 2013
FEATURE FILMS Smoke Signals Skins
INAUGURAL BRATTLEBORO ordering my American eagle from India?" Answer: ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL "It is not made here, sir. It is made in China." Average length of a call, over 12 minutes, Todd's (INDIAN) FILM & FOOD FESTIVAL – instructions: Get it down to six. Impossible. He 2009 starts with pep talks and lessons in pronunciation: "Say you are in Chicago. Pronounce it sha-CAW- Outsourced ga." They obediently repeat, "Shy-CALL-go." But Hello, Central, give me Bangalore one employee seems ahead of the curve. This is Release Date: Sep 28, 2007 • Ebert Rating: *** the beautiful, helpful Asha (Ayesha Dharker), who By Roger Ebert you may have seen in the title role of "The Terrorist" and the quite different role of Queen Jamillia in There is nothing in India more "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones." mysterious than the lovely land She questions Todd during his classes, tells him he itself. The riot of colors, the needs to know more about India, has a smile that careless jumble of the cities, the dismisses his doubts. She becomes his teacher on frequent friendliness and good such mysteries as Kali, the goddess of destruction humor of a people who are so ("Sometimes it is good to destroy. Then things can different from us, except that, start again.") And of course they fall in love, often, they speak the same although it is not to be, because she was promised language. More or less. in an arranged marriage at the age of 4. "Then why "Outsourced" begins with an American sent to India are we here?" he asks her on a business trip, as to train the low-paid employees of a new call center they debate a position they find in a book at the for his company, American Novelty Products. It Kama Sutra Hotel. "This is like a trip to Goa," she sells, he explains, "kitsch to redneck schmucks." says, referring to the idyllic southern province of His Indian assistant asks him, "Excuse me. What is India, formerly Portuguese. In her mind, before a 'redneck'? What is 'kitsch'? What is 'schmuck'?" And lifelong arranged marriage, one trip to Goa is what are these products? American eagle permitted. sculptures. Wisconsin cheesehead hats. Branding "Outsourced" is not a great movie, and maybe irons for your hamburgers. couldn't be this charming if it was. It is a film The American is named Todd (Josh Hamilton), bursting with affection for its characters and for although everyone hears it wrong and calls him "Mr. India. It never pushes things too far, never stoops to Toad." His assistant has a much more sensible cheap plotting, is about people learning to really see name, Purohit N. Virajnarianan (Asif Basra). one another. It has a fundamental sweetness and Although wages are low in India, Purohit will make innocence. Josh Hamilton, a veteran of more than 500,000 rupees as the new manager. That comes 40 movies, finds a defining role here, as an out to about $11,000, enough for him to realize a immensely amiable man. To look upon Ayesha long-delayed marriage to his betrothed. Dharker is to like her. And in a time when the word Todd is a stranger in a very strange land. Some of "chemistry" is lightly bandied about, what they his experience reminded me of my own at the generate is the real thing. As in most Indian movies, Calcutta and Hyderabad film festivals. He wildly there is no explicit sex, but because this is a U.S. overtips a beggar woman at the airport. He finds production, there is some kissing and waking up himself riding in one of those three-wheeled open- together under the sheets, and wow, it beats air taxis. He makes the mistake of eating street anything in the Kama Sutra. food. He encounters new definitions of the Cast & Credits: Todd Anderson: Josh acceptable (on a crowded bus, a young boy politely Hamilton Asha: Ayesha Dharker Purohit N. stands up to offer Todd his seat, then sits back Virajnarianan: Asif Basra Dave: Matt down on his lap). He is constantly bombarded by Smith Veteran tourist: Larry Pine ShadowCatcher offers to go here, go there, buy this, see that. Entertainment presents a film directed John Sometimes these offers are worth listening to, as Jeffcoat. Written by George Wing and Jeffcoat. when they lead him to a charming rooming house. Running time: 103 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for some And what about the call center itself? It looks like a sexual content). Opening today at local theaters. concrete-block storage hut, still under construction. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article Inside, Purohit oversees 12 or 15 employees ?AID=/20070927/REVIEWS/709270303/1023 struggling with customer complaints. Question: "I'm Deshpande (Bhumika, Hech Majhe Maher, Akka) The film was co-produced by Dileep Singh Rathore and his OTR Productions who produced the internationally acclaimed Maya (2001) and the Oscar nominated short The Little Terrorist (2004). Synopsis:
Mumbai, India -- Present Day. The sweltering dead heat of the Indian summer. The only hope for relief are the elusive monsoon rains, already 3 weeks delayed. Into this sweaty inferno comes Govinda, a hotshot Californian Cardiologist and conditioned scientist who has journeyed back to his native country to treat his father's ailing health. Govinda despises India almost as much as he does his father who embraces it. It is dirty, disorganized, superstitious and the place where his beloved wife was killed in a tragic accident the year before. Much to his frustration, his father, a devout Hindu Brahmin and the hard headed patriarch of the family, refuses medical treatment claiming that only God can heal him. As the tension between father and son grows, Govinda gets drawn back into the mystery surrounding his wife's death stirring up old skeletons that threaten to split the family apart forever.
About the Film:
MONSOON is a 20 minute film shot on location in and around Mumbai, India. It was made as part of the graduate film production program at the University of Southern California by graduates Shyam Balsé (writer/director) and Joseph Itaya (producer) under the faculty supervision of the chair of USC's film production program, Michael Taylor (producer of Phenomenon and Bottle Rocket). It was shot over 8 days in early December 2005 using a primarily Indian cast and crew, many of whom work in the Bollywood film and television industry. Post production took place in Los Angeles, California and was completed July 2006. The film stars a combination of new rising Indian talent and award winning Bollywood veterans. The lead role of Govinda is played by newcomer Bhanu Uday (Special Squad, Return to Rajapur) who only a few years before graduated from the top dramatic academy in India, the National School of Drama. The second lead is played by the great Ravi Baswani (Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Yun Hota To Kya Hota), a well known and loved character actor and director in India. The cast is rounded out with the supporting performance by one of India's most respected and acclaimed Marathi actresses whose work appears in over 50 feature films, Sulabha 2ND ANNUAL BRATTLEBORO FEATURE FILM (100 min) ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL Espiral (MEXICAN) FILM & FOOD FESTIVAL – 2010 Intensa historia de amor que refleja la realidad de muchos inmigrantes SHORT FILM PROGRAM (56 min) quienes buscando una mejor vida termina 1. El armadillo fronterizo (“The Border destruyendo lo que ellos Armadillo”) mas quieren; sus propias familias. Santiago y Macario An ingenious armadillo leaves his wife and rapidly son forzados a salir de multiplying family at home México en busca de un and heads out in search of food, but finds trouble mejor futuro dejando atrás instead. (10 min) las mujeres de sus vidas, 2. Iker pelos tiesos (“Iker Stiff Hairs) Diamantina y Araceli tienen que luchar para Iker thinks that everyone looks like an animal. He sobrevivir. Cuando los hombres retornan a la villa se encuentran con que todo ha cambiado y que would have liked to be a bear, like his dad, but no he is just like his grandfather, a será muy difícil recuperar lo que dejaron atrás. El porcupine. (10 min) papel de la mujer y su lucha permanente por mantener sus familias tomando las riendas de sus 3. El relato de Sam Brennan (“Sam Brennan’s vidas a la par de un hombre. Nominada como Story”) Mejor Film en el Festival de Cartagena 2009. Sam is a boy who dreams of fantastic voyages With the desire to improve their lives, the men of while he works in his father¹s tavern. One day he gets the chance to see if Huajuan de Leon emigrate without realizing that adventure is as he imagined it. (6 min) they are destroying that which they want to save most, their families. This is the story of Diamantina 4. Niña que espera (“Little Girl Waiting”) and Araceli, two young women from the Oaxacan Angélica, an eight-year-old girl, runs up to Carlos Mixtec who watch their men, Santiago and Macario, and Ana in the airport leave for the States in search of a better life. insisting that they are her parents. They deny it. Santiago tries to raise money in order to marry Who is right? (11 min) Diamantina, whose father abides by the tradition of a marriage dowry. Macario is looking to alleviate his 5. Xáni Xépika (“Lazybones”) familys poverty. When the men return to the village A young boy’s quest to prove himself worthy of his they try to recover what they had left behind, but bride. (7 min) things are no longer the same. Spiral is a generational story about patriarchal society, the 6. La leche y el agua (“Milk and water”) power of community and family . A love story that explores with beautiful cinematography and A woman tries to get back her only companion in complex characters the archaic social and moral life: a cow. (12 min) codes that still prevail in the small towns of Mexico. Nominated for the 2009 Cartagena Film Festival Golden India Catalina Award for Best Film
3RD ANNUAL BRATTLEBORO FEATURE FILM (87 min) ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL Una Pared Para Cecilia (MEXICAN) FILM & FOOD FESTIVAL – (A Wall for Cecillia) 2011 A free-spirit from Tijuana and a troubled young boy are brought together under SHORT FILM PROGRAM (62 min) unusual circumstances, yet forge a bond that will 7. Luna (Moon) help them both endure in A little girl named Zoe discovers a beautiful troubled times. At first moon in the middle of a dark, mechanized frightened when she is world. attacked by a 10-year old (8 min) child, compassionate Cecilia recognizes the desperation faced by her impoverished assailant, 8. La Mina de Oro (The Gold Mine) and becomes his faithful guardian. Only by learning Betina finds love over the Internet. She leaves to rely on each other will these two lost souls find her world behind to meet her virtual fiancé. the courage to face life when it seems that all hope (10 min) is lost. (87 min) 9. Miramelinda (Look at Me Beauty) Don Jorge Rivas’ daily existence is populated by ghostsfrom his chronicles and his own past. (13 min) 10. Moyana (Moyana) Juanelo lives completely alienated by television. During a power failure, start a new adventure in a world full of mind-blowing scenery and characters as charming as dangerous. (11min) 11. La Nuera de Don Filemón (Don Filemon’s Daughter in Law) Don Filemón will have to get used to living with Remigia, his daughter-in-law, who can't stand him, until she discovers something about Don Filemón that makes her love him like her own father. (10 min) 12. Firmes (Attention) Over a long formal ceremony, a private tries to stand to attention despite the many obstacles he faces. (10 min)
4TH ANNUAL BRATTLEBORO ``Smoke Signals'' was written by Sherman Alexie, based on his book ``The Lone Ranger and Tonto ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL Fistfight in Heaven.'' He has a good ear for speech, (NATIVE AMERICAN) FILM & FOOD and he allows his characters to refer to the real FESTIVAL – 2013 world, to TV and pop culture and the movies. (The reserved Victor, impatient with Thomas's chatter, accuses him of having learned most of what he Smoke Signals knows about Indians by watching ``Dances With BY ROGER EBERT / July 3, 1998 Wolves,'' and advises him to spend more time ``looking stoic.'') There are references to Gen. ``It's a good day to be indigenous!'' the Custer and the U.S. Cavalry, to John Wayne and to reservation radio deejay tells his U.S. policies toward Indians over the years, but American Indian listeners as ``Smoke ``Smoke Signals'' is free of the oppressive weight of Signals'' opens. We cut to the station's victim culture; these characters don't live in the past traffic reporter, who scrutinizes an and define themselves by the crimes committed intersection that rarely seems to be against their people. They are the next generation; I used. ``A big truck just went by,'' he would assign them to Generation X if that didn't limit announces. Later in the film, we will them too much. hear several choruses of a song about John Wayne's false teeth. If they are the future, Arnold, the Gary Farmer character, is the past. Victor nurses a ``Smoke Signals'' comes billed as the first feature resentment against him, but Joseph is written, directed, co-produced and acted by understandably more open-minded, since the man American Indians. It hardly seems necessary to did, after all, save his life. There are a few even announce that: The film is so relaxed about its flashbacks to help explain the older man, and characters, so much at home in their world, that we although they're brief, they're strong and well done: sense it's an inside job. Most films about Native We see that Arnold is more complicated than his Americans have had points to make and scores to son imagines, and able to inspire the respect of the settle, like all those earnest 1950s white films about woman he was living with in Phoenix (Irene blacks. Blaxploitation broke the ice and liberated Bedard). unrehearsed black voices, and now here are two young Indians who speak freshly, humorously and ``Smoke Signals'' is, in a way, a continuation of a for themselves. 1989 movie named ``Powwow Highway,'' in which Farmer starred as a huge, gentle, insightful man, The film opens in Idaho on a significant day: the and A Martinez as more ``modern.'' It, too, was a Fourth of July, 1976. It's significant not only for road movie, and it lived through its conversations. America but for the infant Thomas Builds-the-Fire, To see the two movies side-by-side is to observe who is saved by being thrown from an upper how Native Americans, like all Americans, are not window when his house burns down at 3 a.m. He is exempt from the melting pot--for better and worse. caught in the arms of Arnold Joseph (Gary Farmer), a neighbor with a drinking problem, who is The director, Chris Eyre, takes advantage of the eventually thrown out by his wife (Tantoo Cardinal) road movie genre, which requires only a goal and and goes to live in Phoenix. He leaves behind his then permits great freedom in the events along the son Victor Joseph (Adam Beach). way. The two men will eventually obtain the ashes, we expect, and also some wisdom. Meanwhile, we And then, 20 years later, word comes that Arnold can watch them discover one another: the taciturn, has died. Victor has a deep resentment against his inward man who was abused as a child, and the father, but thinks he should go to Phoenix and pick orphan who, it's true, seems to have gotten his up his ashes. He has no money for the journey, but world view at secondhand through the media. Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) does--and offers to buy the bus tickets if Victor will take him There's a particular satisfaction in listening to along on the trip. That would be a big concession people talk about what they know well and care for Victor, who is tall and silent and has never much about. The subject isn't as important as the feeling. liked the skinny, talkative Thomas. But he has no Listen to them discuss the ins and outs of an Indian choice. And as the movie settles into the rhythms of specialty known as ``frybread,'' and you will sense a road picture, the two characters talk, and the what they know about the world. dialogue becomes the heart of the movie. impotent as every other form of expression seems Skins to be. BY ROGER EBERT / October 18, 2002 When "Skins" premiered at Sundance last January, "Skins" tells the story of two Eyre was criticized by some for painting a negative brothers, both Sioux, one a cop, portrait of his community.Justin Lin, whose "Better one an alcoholic "whose mind Luck Tomorrow" showed affluent Asian-American got short-circuited in Vietnam." teenagers succeeding at a life of crime, was also They live on the Pine Ridge attacked for not taking a more positive point of view. reservation, in the shadow of Recently the wonderful comedy "Barbershop" has Mount Rushmore and not far been criticized because one character does a comic from the site of the massacre at riff aimed at African-American icons. Wounded Knee. America's In all three cases, the critics are dead wrong, founding fathers were carved, the film informs us, because they would limit the artists in their into a mountain that was sacred to the Sioux, and community to impotent feel-good messages instead that knowledge sets up a final scene of uncommon of applauding their freedom of expression. In all power. three cases, the critics are also tone-deaf, because The movie is almost brutal in its depiction of life at they cannot distinguish what the movies depict from Pine Ridge, where alcoholism is nine times the how they depict it. That is particularly true with national average and life expectancy 50 percent. some of the critics of "Barbershop," who say they Director Chris Eyre, whose previous film was the have not seen the film. If they did, the audience's much-loved "Smoke Signals" (1998), has turned joyous laughter might help them understand the from comedy to tragedy and is unblinking in his context of the controversial dialogue, and the way in portrait of a community where poverty and despair which it is answered. are daily realities. "Skins" is a portrait of a community almost without Rudy Yellow Lodge (Eric Schweig), the policeman, resources to save itself. We know from "Smoke is well-liked in a job that combines law enforcement Signals" that Eyre also sees another side to his with social work. His brother Mogie (Graham people, but the anger and stark reality he uses here Greene) is the town drunk, but his tirades against are potent weapons. The movie is not about a crime society reveal the eloquence of a mind that still plot, not about whether Rudy gets caught, not about knows how to see injustice. Mogie and his buddy how things work out. It is about regret. Graham Verdell Weasel Tail (Gary Farmer) sit in the sun on Greene achieves the difficult task of giving a the town's main street, drinking and providing a touching performance even though his character is running commentary that sometimes cuts too close usually drunk, and it is the regret he expresses, to to the truth. his son and to his brother, that carries the movie's burden of sadness. To see this movie is to Flashbacks show that both brothers were abused understand why the faces on Mount Rushmore are as children, by an alcoholic father. Mogie probably so painful and galling to the first Americans. The began life with more going for him, but Vietnam and movie's final image is haunting. drinking have flattened him, and it's his kid brother who wears the uniform and draws the paycheck. Those facts are established fairly early, and we think we can foresee the movie's general direction, when Eyre surprises us with a revelation about Rudy: He is a vigilante. A man is beaten to death in an abandoned house. Rudy discovers the two shiftless kids who did it, disguises himself, and breaks their legs with a baseball bat. Angered by white-owned businesses across the reservation border that make big profits selling booze to the Indians on the day the welfare checks arrive, he torches one of the businesses-- only to find he has endangered his brother's life in the process. His protest, direct and angry, is as 5TH ANNUAL BRATTLEBORO modern and impatient - he's Type A - but as their ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL journey unfolds, he can begin to see the sense of it. (NATIVE AMERICAN) FILM & FOOD The movie develops a certain magical intensity during the journey, and much of that comes from FESTIVAL – 2014 the chemistry between the two lead actors.
Anyone who can name his Philbert is played by Gary Farmer, a tall, huge man 1964 Buick "Protector" and with a long mane of black hair and a gentle talk to it like a pony has a disposition. He speaks softly and sees things with a philosophy we can learn blinding directness. Buddy (A Martinez) is more from. Philbert Bono is the "modern," more political, angrier. Their friendship name of the philosopher. He has survived their differences. is a member of the Northern The movie was shot entirely on location, and the set Cheyenne tribe, and near decoration, I suspect, consists of whatever the the beginning of "Powwow camera found in its way. (If this is not so, it is a Highway" he and a friend, great tribute to the filmmakers, who made it seem Buddy Red Bow, set out to that way.) We visit trailer parks and dispossessed ride Protector from Lame Deer, Mont., to Sante Fe, suburbs and pool halls and conve nience stores. N. M. We watch the dawn in more than one state, and we They go by way of the Dakotas, because to Bono get the sense of the life on the road in a way that is the best way to get to a place is not always the both modern (highways, traffic signals) and timeless straightest way. (the oneness of the land and the journey). And although I have made this all sound important and "Powwow Highway" is the story of their journey, and mystical, "Powwow Highway" is at heart a comedy, in one sense it's a road movie and a buddy movie, and even a bit of a thriller, although the way they but in another sense it's a meditation on the way spring Buddy's sister from prison belongs to the American Indians can understand the land in terms comedy and not the thriller. of space, not of time. Philbert never states it in so many words, but it's clear he doesn't think of a trip The movie is based on a novel by David Seals, to Santa Fe in terms of hours or miles, but in terms which I have not read; the story resembles the tone of the places he must visit between here and there in some of W. P. Kinsella's stories about North to make it into a journey and not simply the physical American Indians. In Buddy it shows the somewhat relocation of his body. fading anger of a man who once was a firebrand in the American Indian Movement (he has a concise, The movie supplies a plot in order to explain why bitter speech about the programs "for" the Indians the two Indians need to take their journey, but the that will be an education for some viewers). In plot is the least interesting element of the film. It Philbert it finds a supplement to that anger in a man involves a scheme against Buddy, who is a tribal whose sheer, unshakable serenity is a political activist and opposes a phony land-rights grab that's statement of its own. being directed at some Indian territories. His sister is thrown into jail in Santa Fe, and he must go there One of the reasons we go to movies is to meet to bail her out, and that will get him out of Montana people we have not met before. It will be a long time at a crucial time. And so on. before I forget Farmer, who disappears into the Philbert role so completely we almost think he is The plot is not the point. What "Powwow Highway" this simple, openhearted man - until we learn he's does best is to create two unforgettable characters an actor and teacher from near Toronto. It's one of and give them some time together. the most wholly convincing performances I've seen. It places them within a large network of their Indian Most of the people who go to see "Powwow friends so we get a sense of the way their Highway" will already have seen "Rain Man," the community still shares and thrives. As Philbert box-office best seller. Will they notice how similar points Protector east instead of south, as he visits the movies are in structure? Philbert does not have friends and sacred Indian places along the road, he any sort of mental handicap, as the man with autism doesn't try to justify what he's doing. It comes from does in "Rain Man," but he has a similar, absolutely inside. And it comes, we sense, from a very old direct simplicity. Both characters state facts. Indian way of looking at things. Buddy is much more They catalog the obvious. Deep beneath the Urban Rez's unique approach to this historical reflection simplicity of Philbert's statements is a serene of the Voluntary Relocation Program is interspersed with profundity (we cannot be quite sure what lies at the modern-day analysis which makes clear that the program bottom of the autistic's statements). In both movies that started over 60 years ago still has an effect in today's the other man - younger, ambitious, impatient - world. Hosted by actor, musician, and Oglala Lakota learns from the older. Meanwhile, in both movies, member Moses Brings Plenty, this insightful film shines the men become friends while they drive in ancient light on a seldom told chapter in American history. Buicks down the limitless highways of America. From award-winning producer Lisa D. Olken and — Roger Ebert, April 28, 1989 director Larry T. Pourier (Lakota), the film features http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/powwow personal stories from multiple tribal perspectives with -highway-1989 both urban- and reservation-based views. Olken, Pourier, AWARDS and the Urban Rez crew traveled to reservations and urban areas to chronicle these stories that are very different in nature from the stereotypical American — Sundance Film Festival — Filmmakers Indian narrative of land loss, poverty, and scant Trophy – Dramatic (Jonathan Wacks) resources. — Native American Film Festival – Best Picture (Jan Wieringa, George Harrison & Denis "These are stories of tumultuous lives filled with both O'Brien) opportunity and disappointment and that of identities lost — Native American Film Festival – Best and reclaimed," commented Olken. Director (Jonathan Wacks) Interviewees speak about the wonderful opportunities — Native American Film Festival – Best Actor (A. provided to them such as the work-education programs Martinez) but also of the challenges of maintaining their tribal — traditions, speaking their language, isolation, racism, and being separated from family and friends.
2013 Winner Urban Rez explores the controversial legacy and of the Heartland Chapter modern-day repercussions of the Urban Relocation Emmy Award Program (1952-1973), the greatest voluntary upheaval of for Best Native Americans during the 20th century. During the Cultural Documentary documentary, dozens of American Indians representing tribal groups from across the West recall their first-hand experiences with relocation, including the early hardships, struggles with isolation and racism. Interviewees also speak about the challenges of maintaining one's own tribal traditions — from language to hunting — while assimilating into the larger society. Actor, musician and Oglala Lakota member Moses Brings Plenty narrates this insightful film about this seldom-told chapter in American history. The Voluntary Relocation Program, spanning from 1952- 1973, was the greatest voluntary upheaval of Native Americans during the 20th century. Urban Rez explores the lasting legacy of the relocation policies that encouraged Native Americans to leave their homelands and relocate to urban areas across the country.