Native Cinema Showcase August 18 - 24, 2004 1050 Old Pecos Trail • Santa Fe, New Mexico • 505 982 1338 ON THE CORNER (2003, 90 min.) Canada. Director: Nathaniel Geary. Actors: THE NATIVE CINEMA SHOWCASE Alex Rice (Mohawk) and Simon Baker (Cree). is an international film and video festival held during Indian Named the best Canadian film by the critics at the 2003 Toronto Market to celebrate the creativity of Native cinema today. International Film Festival, On the Corner is a raw, true-to-life This yearʼs showcase features Native stories and peoples from view of Native people living on the mean streets of Vancouverʼs Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, the Siberian Downtown Eastside. Angel, supporting her heroin addiction by Arctic, and the United States. Produced by the Smithsonian working as a prostitute, tries to turn her life around when she sees National Museum of the American Indian and the Center for Black Cloud her teenage brother sinking into the same black hole thatʼs consum- Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe, the showcase exhibits preemi- ing her. Compelling performances bring to life the ravages of this nent contemporary Native cinema to the northern New Mexico unforgiving world, as well as the humanity and courage of those community and national and international visitors who come to who are caught in it. Santa Fe for Indian Market. A THIEF OF TIME (2003, 94 min.) U.S. Director: Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho). THE COMPLETE PROGRAM Executive Producers: Robert Redford and Rebecca Eaton. Producer: Craig McNeil BLACK CLOUD (2004, 97 min.,) U.S. Director and writer: Rick Schroder. for PBSʼ Mystery! Actors: Adam Beach (Saulteaux), Wes Studi (Cherokee), Tantoo Cardinal (Métis), Peter Fonda, Sheila Tousey (Menominee), Alex Rice (Mohawk), and Executive producer: Adam Batz. Actors: Eddie Spears (Lakota), Saginaw Grant (Sac A Bride of the Seventh Heaven and Fox), Russell Means (Lakota), Rick Schroder, Tim McGraw, Wayne Knight, and Kelly Byars (Choctaw). Peter Greene. In the latest episode of Mystery! to be based on a Tony Hillerman Set on the Navajo Reservation, Black Cloud tells the story of a novel, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn go into action again. This time young Navajo man who must face down his inner demons if he the Navajo tribal policemenʼs search for a missing archeologist wants to make the U.S. Olympic boxing team. The film was inspired puts them squarely in the sights of Anasazi pot pickers. The storyʼs by the real-life accomplishments of the Damon Bahe Boxing Club events revolve around a serious issue for indigenous peoples: illegal of Chinle, Arizona—an after-school program for local youths at excavations of sacred sites. The filmʼs title refers to a sign outside of risk—which has 27 national champions to its credit. Funded by Chaco Canyon, a major center of ancestral Puebloan cultures, which Donʼt Call Me Tonto tribes in California, Minnesota and Oklahoma, Black Cloud has reads “Thief of Time: Pot Hunters Destroy Americaʼs Past.” Discussion won several awards, including the Best Picture Audience Award at with the director follows. Invited: Adam Beach, Wes Studi. the 2004 Phoenix Film Festival. Discussion with the director follows. Invited: Russell Means. MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH: SHORT FICTIONS TRT: 100 minutes. An explosion of Native film talent is seen in new works by directors A BRIDE OF THE SEVENTH HEAVEN (2003, 85 min.) Finland/Russia. from North America and the Pacific Rim that tell stories of resistance, Directors: Anastasia Lapsui (Nenet) and Markku Lehmuskallio. Actors: Angelina spiritual strength, and transformation. Kava Kultcha (2003, 10 min.) Saraleta (Nenet), Viktoria Hudi (Nenet), Ljuba Filipova (Nenet), Jevgeni Hudi (Nenet), U.S./Hawaiʻi. Director: Leah Kihara (Native Hawaiian) Set in a futuristic world Dreamkeeper and Gennadi Puikko (Nenet). dominated by an enforcement agency intent on eliminating cultural Filmed in the indigenous homeland of the Nenets of northwest diversity, a peaceful Polynesian resistance group dares to practice Siberia, A Bride of the Seventh Heaven is a tale of a woman set their own traditions, including the drinking of kava. The Shirt (2003, 6 apart from her people by her betrothal to Num, the high god of the min.) Canada. Director: Shelley Niro (Mohawk) An experimental video featur- Nenets. The old womanʼs life unfolds in flashbacks that transport ing Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie that uses the teeshirt to express history viewers to the traditional Nenet world. The director based her film and irony. Memory (2002, 14 min.) U.S. Director: Cedar Sherbert (Kumeyaay) on an elderʼs story heard during her childhood in the stark and The heartache of memory is explored as an elderly aunt (Tantoo beautiful lands of the Yamal peninsula. Cardinal) mysteriously returns to attend the memorial for a familyʼs On the Corner young son. Dotʼs Death (2002, 20 min.) New Zealand. Director and lead actor: DONʼT CALL ME TONTO (2003, 83 min.) Canada. Directors: Alan Smithee Stan Wolfgramm (Tongan), Teresa, a white woman estranged from her and Philip Spink. Executive producer and writer: Annie Frazier Henry (Blackfoot/ Sioux/French). Actors: Gordon Tootoosis (Cree/Stoney), David Hasselhoff, Michael bigoted mother, Dot, since marrying a Tongan man named Willie, Moriarty and Michelle Thrush (Cree). receives word that her mother is dying. In keeping with his own Media-maker Annie Frazier Henry is always exploring new ways culture, and against his wifeʼs wishes, Willie decides to bring Dot of storytelling through film and video with an emphasis on making into their home for her final days. Wind (1999, 35 min.) Australia. Director: old teachings and stories more accessible to younger generations. Ivan Sen (Gamilaroi) Set in 1850s Australia, a young black tracker is brought along with his commanding sergeant to hunt down a sus- Her work has been presented at the Sundance Film Festival, Taos A Thief of Time Talking Pictures, Santa Fe Film Festival, ImagineNATIVE Media Arts pected Aboriginal murderer. Wind won the Best Debut Film Award Festival and the Native American Film and Video Festival. In this at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival. Music Is the Medicine (2003, 5 min.) rollicking comedy an unlikely pair—a washed-up rodeo star and a Canada. Directors: Randy Redroad (Cherokee), Derek Miller (Mohawk) and Jody Native corporate lawyer—are forced to go on the run together after Martin Matthew Hill. A landscape video of Millerʼs song, described being accused of robbing a bingo hall. Pursued by a Colombo- by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch as “Hank Williams meets Link Wray.” like detective, they race to clear their names and, in the process, Discussion with performer Derek Miller follows. develop a newfound respect for each other and a new outlook on FROM THE ARCTIC TO THE AMAZON: A FAITH HUBLEY life. Filmed in Calgary and on the Tsuu Tʼina Nation. Invision: Annie Kava Kultcha Frazier Henry. RETROSPECTIVE TRT: 60 minutes. A focus on the work of Faith Hubley (1925-2002), whose anima- tions were inspired by world cultures and indigenous oral tradi- Free Screening: DREAMKEEPER (2003, 120 min.) U.S. Director: Steve Barron. Executive producer: Robert Halmi Sr. Produced by Hallmark Entertainment. tions. Hubleyʼs revolutionary, independent visions connect deeply Actors: Tantoo Cardinal (Métis), Gary Farmer (Cayuga), Michael Greyeyes (Cree), to Mother Earth and her inhabitants. Inspired by three South Sage, August Schellenberg (Mohawk), Eddie Spears (Lakota), Chaske Spencer American myths, Amazonia (1990, 10 min.) is a plea to save the tropi- (Lakota), Gordon Tootoosis (Cree/Stoney), John Trudell (Santee Sioux), Sheila Tousey cal rain forest and its unique inhabitants. Northern Ice, Golden Sun (Menominee), and Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman (Dakota). (2001, 10 min.), the 25th and final solo film completed by Hubley, is Pete Chasing Horse (August Schellenberg) is an elder storyteller. Wind a lyrical visual tribute to environmentalism and to the Inuitsʼ attach- Shane (Eddie Spears), his 16-year-old grandson, who is having ment and ability to adapt to the natural world. Starlore (1983, 10 min.) trouble with local Native gang members, lives in a world apart is an animated presentation of five Native American origin stories from his elders. As the two generations embark on a cross-country reflected in the constellations. In Cloudland (1993, 10 min.) mythic journey, Grandpa Pete brings the boy back to a Native place with creatures, surreal landscapes, and an evocative soundtrack are traditional stories of many Native Nations. Native actors young and drawn from Australian Aboriginal art and mythology. Discussion old bring the stories to life under the experienced hand of direc- follows with Faith Hubleyʼs daughter, award-winning animator tor Steve Barron. Discussion with the associate producer Georgina Emily Hubley. Lightning (Cree) follows. Free Admission. Music is the Medicine NEW GENERATIONS TRT: 90 minutes. WIPING THE TEARS TRT: 80 minutes. The growing talent of the next generation of Native filmmakers is Estos Dolores Somos (2003, 6 min.) Mexico. Director: Roberto Olivares. making waves already. This program presents outstanding new pro- Produced by Ojo de Agua Comunicación. In Spanish with English subtitles. This ductions from Native youth media projects in the U.S. and Canada. video, based on the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the From the American Indian Resource Center in Tahlequah, Okla- March of the Color of the Earth in Mexico, pays tribute to the homa, How the Red Bird Got His Color (2002, 5 min.) is a claymation Zapatista movement in Chiapas. The Ghost Riders (2003, 58 min.) U.S. of a traditional Cherokee tale by animators from grades 6–8 at the Director: V. Blackhawk Aamodt (Blackfoot/Lakota/Mexican). Executive producer Dahlonegah Elementary School. From Big Soul Productions comes a How the Red Bird Got His Color and narrator: Benjamin Bratt (Quechua). The Bigfoot Memorial Ride, an sci-fi claymation, Might of the Starchaser (2003, 24 min.) Director: Joseph annual 300-mile journey on horseback, helps the Lakota Nation Lazare (Mohawk) that premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.