Materials from the 2019 KU Indigenous Film Festival held on November 6, 2019
Festival Posters
Original Film Festival Poster
Social Media Banners
Films Featured at 2019 Festival
AmaAma tells an important and untold story: the abuses committed against Native American women by the US Government during the 1960s and 70s. The women were removed from their families and sent to boarding schools. They were subjected to forced relocation away from their traditional lands and, perhaps worst of all, they were subjected to involuntary sterilization.
AWAKE: A Dream from Standing RockThe Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota captures world attention through their peaceful resistance against the U.S. government's plan to construct an oil pipeline through their land. --IMDb
BreathsIn this evocative short documentary, Inuk singer-songwriter and humanitarian Susan Aglukark weaves together stories of artistry, family, and belonging as she explores the complex cultural shifts of the last 50 years of Inuit life. Turning her lens on the turbulence of colonial transition, director Nyla Innuksuk examines the forces that shaped Aglukark's voice and how that voice is now being translated for a new generation of Inuit artists.
First Stories: Two-SpiritedFilmmaker Lydia Nibley explores the cultural context behind a tragic and senseless murder. Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16 by a man who bragged to his friends that he 'bug-smashed a fag'. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition - the 'nadleeh', or 'two-spirit', who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits. Through telling Fred's story, Nibley reminds us of the values that America's indigenous peoples have long embraced. -IMDb
I Like GirlsIn this animated short from Diane Obomsawin, four women reveal the nitty-gritty about their first loves, sharing funny and intimate tales of one-sided infatuation, mutual attraction, erotic moments, and fumbling attempts at sexual expression. For them, discovering that they're attracted to other women comes hand-in-hand with a deeper understanding of their personal identity and a joyful new self-awareness.
Naked Island - Hipster HeaddressThis ultra-short film is an unapologetic confrontation of cultural appropriation and everything that's wrong with hipsters in headdresses. The takeaway? Just don't do it. Naked Island is a series of 14 super-short and incisive films that expose the dark underbelly of modern-day society.
Native Women: PoliticsAn emotionally moving and upbeat program that gives voice to Aboriginal women. Historical segments in the program contrast the traditional equality of power, male to female within native communities, versus the regression in the roles and power of First Nations women in Canada under European dominance. Strong women "leaders" emphasize how they view the rebuilding of balanced self-government within their community in the future. The Indian Act and Bill C31 are examined to highlight their effect on First Nations women. Broadcast: Global Television - AWARD - Best Documentary, Native American Journalists Assoc.
Owning Our Narrative as Native WomenIt's time for the big runway fashion show and pop-up shop showing off B.Yellowtail's new summer line, and as press coverage increases so too do Bethany's nerves.
Raven Goes FishingRaven is hungry. Fishing in the Great Grizzly’s stream gets him in trouble but he just can’t resist teasing the bear! TELUS STORYHIVE supports compelling, original stories told by filmmakers from BC and Alberta by providing production funding, training and exposure to new audiences.
Reel InjunThe history of the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood films. -IMDb
Rhymes for Young GhoulsRed Crow Mi'gMaq reservation, 1976: by government decree, every Indian child under the age of 16 must attend residential school. In the kingdom of the Crow, that means imprisonment at St. Dymphna’s. That means being at the mercy of “Popper,” the sadistic Indian agent who runs the school.
Stories from Our Land Vol. 2 - Finding HomeThis short film chronicles filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk's emotional journey to Nunavut to connect with the land of her ancestors and with her Inuk father, whom she has not seen in over 20 years. Nyla's return to her Igloolik birthplace culminates with a lesson on lighting a qulliq, the traditional Inuit oil lamp.
This RiverThis short documentary offers an Indigenous perspective on the devastating experience of searching for a loved one who has disappeared. Volunteer activist Kyle Kematch and award-winning writer Katherena Vermette have both survived this heartbreak and share their histories with each other and the audience. While their stories are different, they both exemplify the beauty, grace, resilience, and activism born out of the need to do something.
Tribal JusticeTwo formidable Native American women, both chief judges in their tribe's courts, strive to reduce incarceration rates and heal their people by restoring rather than punishing offenders, modeling restorative justice in action. -IMDb
Two SpiritsExamines the role of two-spirit people in the Navajo culture in the context of the story of a gay youth named Fred Martinez. Martinez was a nádleehí or a male-bodied person with a feminine essence, who was murdered in a hate crime at the age of sixteen. Discusses the traditional Native American perspective on gender and sexuality and the need for a balanced interrelationship between the feminine and masculine. Includes interviews with Martinez's mother, Pauline Mitchell.
Visual Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw ArtContemporary Chickasaw artists have a twenty-first century story to tell, interpreted through a thousand years of Southeastern indigenous histories. It is a two- and three-dimensional story of personal and collective Chickasaw identity, a story long overdue in American Indian art.
Warrior Women“Warrior Women” is the story of mothers and daughters fighting for indigenous rights in the American Indian Movement of the 1970s. The film unveils not only a female perspective of history, but also examines the impact political struggles have on the children who bear witness.
Without a WhisperWITHOUT A WHISPER - KONNON:KWE uncovers the hidden history of the profound influence Indigenous women had on the beginnings of the women’s rights movement in the United States.
