Reel Indians
Two Native film fests
Undoubtedly the nation’s strongest Native American film festivals both present programs in Santa Fe this week as part of the events surrounding Indian Market, the Indigenous Fine Art Market, and We Are the Seeds. The Native Cinema Showcase is cosponsored by Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, organizers of Indian Market. The free screenings are held at the New Mexico History Museum (113 Lincoln Ave.). There’s also an “on the road” edition of the Los Angeles-based Red Nation Film Festival. These screenings carry a cover charge and take place at multiple venues, including Violet Crown Cinema (1606 Alcadesa St.), Jean Cocteau Cinema (418 Montezuma Ave.), and ZOHI Gallery (130 Lincoln Ave.).
Visit the festivals’ respective websites — www.nmai.si.edu/ncs and www .rednationff.com/santa-fe-rnff — to see the full film schedules and descriptions, including many shorts collections. Here are a few highlighted selections from each.
TUESDAY, AUG. 15
The Girl Called Hatter Fox — This year marks the 40th anniversary of this 1977 CBS movie-of-theweek, starring Joanelle Romero as an incarcerated Native woman and Ronnie Cox as the doctor who struggles to bring her out of a deep funk. Plays with End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock, Shannon Kring’s new documentary about indigenous women and their allies trying to block the Dakota Access oil pipeline. 7 p.m., ZOHI Gallery. (Red Nation Film Festival)
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 16
100 Years: One Woman’s Fight for Justice — The story of Blackfeet tribal member Elouise Cobell, who has been called the Native Rosa Parks, and her lengthy campaign to compel the U.S. government to fulfill its promise to pay oil and mining royalties to Natives living on lands where extraction is occurring. 7 p.m., New Mexico History Museum. (Native Cinema Showcase)
THURSDAY, AUG. 17
Angry Inuk — This Canadian-made film by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, an Inuk filmmaker from Nunavut, Canada, has one of the funniest credit lines you’ll ever see. She thanks her husband for not seeking a divorce over the eight years she toiled on the film. The movie is a defense of her tribe’s seal hunts, which have been attacked by the likes of Brigitte Bardot and various other celebs. 3 p.m., New Mexico History Museum. (NCS)
FRIDAY, AUG. 18
First Daughter and the Black Snake — Keri Pickett’s film follows Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke as she thwarts the Enbridge Corporation’s plans to lay oil pipelines near patches of wild rice her tribe cultivates in northern Minnesota. The film was chosen as best documentary made in Minnesota at this year’s Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. 7 p.m., Violet Crown Cinema. (RNFF)
SATURDAY, AUG. 19
The Mayors of Shiprock — Yes, it’s a New Mexico story, and an uplifting one, about Navajo youths improving life for tribal members from Shiprock. Albuquerque-based filmmaker Ramona Emerson has made an exceptional documentary. 3 p.m., New Mexico History Museum. (Native Cinema Showcase)
Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation — This rousing sports documentary follows members of the Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee, tribe, as they compete in lacrosse — a game invented by their ancestors in the tribe. 7 p.m., Jean Cocteau Cinema. (RNFF)
SUNDAY, AUG. 20
Rise Above Shorts Program — This shorts anthology includes two new works by Razelle Benally, an Institute of American Indian Arts graduate who won the 2016 New Mexico Film Foundation’s Student Showcase. Her new works are called Raven and He Walks With Thunder. 1 p.m., New Mexico History Museum. (NCS)
Through the Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film — Indigenous artists defy prevailing border politics by setting up a land-art project: a line of balloons stretching one mile into Mexico and one mile north of the border near Douglas, Arizona, just west of the New Mexico “bootheel.” The screening is slated to feature an appearance by art critic Lucy Lippard. 3 p.m., New Mexico History Museum. (NCS)