WALKER ART CENTER SCREENINGS NATIVE AMERICAN FILMS FROM THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 06/20/2008, page 1 of 3

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact: June 20, 2008 Brooks Addicott [email protected] 435-776-7857

THE WALKER ART CENTER TO HOST SCREENINGS OF AWARD-WINNING NATIVE AMERICAN FILMS FROM THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ON JULY 10

Free Screenings of SIKUMI and FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND to be followed by Q& A with Filmmakers

The Walker Art Center in conjunction with will celebrate Native American filmmaking with free screenings on July 10, 2008 of SIKUMI (On the Ice), a short film directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Iñupiaq), followed by FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND, a full-length film directed by Sterlin Harjo ( and Creek). Both films earned prizes at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Highlights of the evening will include a Q&A with the films' directors moderated by Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache), Associate Director, Native American and Indigenous Initiative for the Sundance Institute.

The free screenings, part of the Walker Art Center's popular Target Free Thursdays series will begin at 7:30 p.m. with free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk at 6:00 p.m. and free gallery admission from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The Sundance Institute's Native American and Indigenous Initiative hosts screenings, panels, events, and workshops throughout the year designed to foster community and the exchange of ideas among Native American and Indigenous filmmakers. This is the Initiative's first collaboration with the Walker Art Center. Among the native community leaders in the arts and philanthropy who will be on hand are Juanita Espinosa (Dakota); Richard LaFortune (Yupik); Jo-Anne Stately (White Earth Ojibway); Georgia Wettlin-Larson (Assiniboine/Nakota).

"We are thrilled to be working with the Walker Art Center to bring these amazing films to Minneapolis, a truly art-supportive city," said Runningwater. "We hope that by engaging audiences and sharing a bit of Sundance, we will engage local Native American storytellers to consider film as a medium and to submit their work to the Festival for consideration," he added.

SIKUMI (On the Ice) , directed by Iñupiaq filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, is a short film about an Inuit hunter who inadvertently becomes a witness to a murder. The film earned a Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

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FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND , was directed by Sterlin Harjo, a member of the Seminole and Creek nations, and premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It tells the story of Cufe, a young boy who, after his father's untimely suicide, leaves his home in a Native American reservation in search of a more fulfilling life. Actress Tamara Podemski won a Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for her performance in the film.

Andrew Okpeaha MacLean is an Iñupiaq filmmaker born and raised in Alaska. His film Natchiliagniaqtuguk Aapagalu (Seal Hunting with Dad), which had its premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, was named one of the 10 best short films at the Festival by indieWIRE. His most recent film, When the Season Is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska , a full-length documentary, was a featured screening in the 2007 Arctic summer series at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He is a recipient of the John H. Johnson Film Award, a 2004 Princess Grace Foundation Graduate Film Fellowship, and the 2003–2004 Martin E. Segal Prize.

Sterlin Harjo is a native of Holdenville, , and a member of the Seminole and Creek nations. He studied painting at the University of Oklahoma before tackling screenwriting and film theory at the university's film and video-studies program. Harjo completed development on Four Sheets to the Wind through the Sundance Institute's Filmmakers Lab. In 2004, the Sundance Institute awarded him an Annenberg Fellowship, and Four Sheets to the Wind was a finalist for the NHK Award.

N. Bird Runningwater was born of the Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache peoples, and was reared on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. He is currently based in Los Angeles with Sundance Institute where he serves as the Associate Director of the Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Initiative. A past Woodrow Wilson Fellow and an alumnus of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas' LBJ School of Public Affairs, Runningwater has served as the executive director of the Fund of the Four Directions, and as a program associate in the Ford Foundation¹s Media, Arts and Culture Program. He serves as an advisor to Film Independent's Project: Involve Program and as a creative advisor to the WGBH's landmark documentary series We Shall Remain slated to premiere in 2009. He was also profiled in Farai Chideya's book The Color of Our Future .

Rooted in the recognition of the creative and artistic history of Native American and Indigenous artists, the Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Initiative supports the development of Native American and Indigenous filmmakers and the exhibition of their work. The Initiative scouts across the U.S. and worldwide for artists to participate in the Institute’s core programs including the Feature Film Program which operates the Screenwriters and Directors Labs; the Theatre Program which operates Theatre Labs; the Film Music Program with operates Composers Labs; the Sundance Documentary Program which houses the Sundance Documentary Fund and Documentary Film Labs; the Sundance Film Festival which programs Native Ameri

-more- WALKER ART CENTER SCREENINGS NATIVE AMERICAN FILMS FROM THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 06/20/2008, page 3 of 3 can and Indigenous films in all of its major categories; and the Sundance Independent Producers Conference which brings together filmmakers with the leaders of the independent film industry to explore the business of independent filmmaking.

Alumni of the Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Initiative include Sherman Alexie, Shirley Cheechoo, Chris Eyre, Greg Sarris, and Randy Redroad. The Initiative’s current work is focused on supporting emerging talent such as Zoe Hopkins, , Blackhorse Lowe, Aurora Guerrero, and Nanobah Becker. The Initiative is made possible, in part, by a major grant from the Ford Foundation.

About Sundance Institute Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Sundance Film Festival and artistic development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights, and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative risk-taking, and discovery continue to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with US artists and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world . www.sundance.org

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