This year, the Sundance Film Festival will be taking to Park City, Utah from January 18 to 28 and will premier eight indigenous-made films. Not only is it an opportunity to introduce the Native Program’s Filmmaker Fellows for the coming year, but a special 20th Anniversary Archive Screening of Smoke Signals by Cheyenne and Arapaho Director Chris Eyre will take place as well.
The indigenous-made films to be featured are as follows:
Genesis 2.0; Switzerland: which includes Maxim Arbugaev (Yakut/Buryat) as part of the directing team. The film follows Siberian hunters that uncover a well-preserved mammoth carcass and it’s resurrection with genetics.
We the Animals; U.S.A.: with Christina D. King (Creek and Seminole Nations) on the producing team. The film follows three brothers with the youngest escaping reality into a world of his own.
Sweet Country; Australia: Directed by Warwick Thornton (Kaytej Nation), with David Tranter (Alyawarra Nation) on the producing team. Set in the 1920’s, the film follows an aged Aboriginal farmhand that shot a a white man in self defence and goes on the run.
Mud (Hashtl’ishnii); U.S.A.: Director and Screenwriter Shaandiin Tome (Dine) tells the story of Ruby, who faces the inescable remnants of alcoholism, family and culture on her last day.
The Violence of a Civilization Without Secrets; U.S.A.: Directors and screenwriters Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians) and Jackson Polys (Tlingit) take on the story of a reflection on indigenous sovereignty and the undead violence of museum archives more involving the “Kennewick Man.”
Nuuca; U.S.A., Canada: Directed by Michelle Latimer (Metis/Algonquin) who takes the film to the oil boom in North Dakota and all that follows the influx of new people to the region.
I like Girls; Canada: Director and screenwriter Diane Obomasawin (Abenaki) films four women that embrace the telling of intimate stories about their first loves and more.
Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock; U.S.A.: Directed by Cody Luich (Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe of Enterprise Rancheria) along with Ben-Alex Durpis (Colville) on the producing team take on the largest Native American occupation since Wounded Knee and captures the struggle and havoc of the peoples uprising in this chronicle.
