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Native Eyes Film Showcase
November 14–16, 2008Grand Cinemas Crossroads Haunting Visions, Ghostly Voices and Modern Love from Today’s Best Native Filmmakers! Arizona State Museum and the Hanson Film Institute, College of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, bring to Tucson the fifth installment of the collaborative project Native Eyes Film Showcase. Native Eyes celebrates the creative work of American Indian directors, producers, writers, and actors by presenting their high-quality work. This year’s showcase spans three days and includes three new feature films, five shorts, and two short documentaries made by Tohono O'odham youth. Screenings include provocative discussions with nationally recognized filmmakers Georgina Lightning, Dustinn Craig, Sterlin Harjo, Velma Craig and Jon Proudstar. Fun visual storytelling activities will accompany Saturday afternoon’s screenings of shorts. “The world of Native filmmakers has been steadily growing since Sherman Alexie and Chris Eyre's ground breaking film "Smoke Signals," says Vicky Westover, program director for the University of Arizona Hanson Film Institute. "The films in this year's Showcase, like "Four Sheets to the Wind" which screened competitively at Sundance and earned the lead actress an award, deserve to be seen by diverse audiences who want to enjoy original, well-made stories." “The feature films bring mystery, suspense, anguish, ghosts, lawyers, memories and love to the screen," says Lisa Falk, director of education for Arizona State Museum. "The shorts are gentler, highlighting a horse, rain, skateboarders, identity and respect.” Screening ScheduleMeet filmmakers in person! Georgina Lightning, Sterlin Harjo, Dustinn Craig, Velma Craig, and Jon Proudstar will attend screenings and conduct Q & A sessions. Friday, November 14, 7 p.m., $4
Scene from 4-Wheel War Pony" 
Scene from "Older Than America" 4-Wheel War Pony - Director Dustinn Craig (White Mountain Apache), 2008, 8 min. Older Than America - Director Georgina Lightning (Cree), 2008, 102 min. Saturday, November 15, 7 p.m., $4Female Rain - Director Velma Craig (Navajo), 2006, 2 min. I Belong To This - Director Dustinn Craig (White Mountain Apache), 2003, 15 min. Four Sheets To The Wind - Director Sterlin Harjo (Creek/Seminole), 2008, 81 min. Sunday, November 16, 2006, 2 p.m. matineeBenito’s Gift - Director Rick Romancito (Taos), 2006, 12 min. Imprint - Director Chris Eyre, producer (Cheyanne/Arapaho), 2007, 85 min. Free Family Program at Arizona State MuseumIn addition, on Saturday afternoon, November 15, a related free family program at Arizona State Museum will allow participants to explore different methods of storytelling and learn what goes into movie making. Saturday, November 15 Enjoy these films, which will play during the Culture Craft Saturday program at Arizona State Museum: Benito’s Gift - Director Rick Romancito (Taos), 2006, 12 min. 4-Wheel War Pony - Director Dustinn Craig (White Mountain Apache/Navajo), 2008, 8 min. Horse You See - Director Melissa Henry (Navajo), 2007, 8 min. And two short documentary films produced by Tohono O’odham youth: No Boundaries about the game of Toka and A Better Life about the problem of trash. These were produced during a summer workshop held at the Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum. Featured Films and Filmmaker Bios(All bios and information from www.nativenetwork.org Older Than America (2008, 102 min.) US 
Georgina Lightning, director of "Older Than America" In Georgina Lightning's debut feature film, a woman's haunting visions lead to the discovery of a criminal plot—and its cost in human suffering. This suspenseful drama goes right to the heart of the Native American boarding school experience and its lasting impact on Native communities. Alternative description: (from www.olderthanamerica.com A woman's haunting visions reveal a Catholic priest's sinister plot to silence her mother from speaking the truth about the atrocities that took place at her Native American boarding school. A contemporary drama of suspense, Older Than America (filmed on location in Cloquet, Minnesota) delves into the lasting impact of the cultural genocide and loss of identity that occurred at these institutions across the United States and Canada. Actress and producer Georgina Lightning (Cree) has recently directed her first feature film, Older Than America, a story with supernatural elements that is concerned with the impact of the boarding school experience on generations in a Native community. In 2007 she was named by Filmmaker Magazine in its annual survey as one of the year's "New Faces of Independent Film." She was selected to participate by the Independent Feature Project in its 2007 Rough Cut Lab in New York City, a national IFP program that connects new directors with mentors. In 2008 Older than America had its world premiere at South by Southwest and was in the competition in numerous other festivals, three times winning the award for Best Feature. Lightning is founder and producer of Tribal Alliance Productions, an independent film company dedicated to the production of projects that highlight the talents of indigenous communities. Her acting credits include Sawtooth, Dreamkeeper, and guest appearances on The West Wing and Walker, Texas Ranger. Talent runs in the family: her children Cody, Crystle, and William all have careers in film and television. "What boarding schools did was take away our culture, our ceremonies, our religion. How do we find our way home after something like that? It is important for my characters to confront these issues and for them to see our traditional ways." Four Sheets To The Wind (2007, 81 min.) US 
Sterlin Harjo, photo by James Kinestino (Saulteaux) The coming-of-age story of a young Seminole Indian man dealing with the tragedy of his father’s suicide. He sets out on an offbeat journey of mourning and learns about living life, one day at a time. (from www.mediasartists.org) Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek) was selected in 2006 as one of the inaugural recipients (and the first Native American recipient) of the prestigious United States Artists Fellowship, which is supported by a consortium of major foundations. He was selected for a 2006 Media Arts Fellowship from Renew Media (now a fellowship program of the Tribeca Film Institute). Also in 2006 Harjo won the top Creative Promise Award from Tribeca All Access for his script Before the Beast Returns (working title). Harjo's first feature film Four Sheets to the Wind premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and has been widely screened nationally and internationally at film festivals and art cinemas. To enable concentrated work on this production, Harjo was selected in 2004 as one of the Sundance Institute's first five Annenberg Film Fellows, a multi-year program launched to provide filmmakers with financial support and full involvement in Sundance's professional workshops. Harjo's short film Goodnight, Irene, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, was cited for Special Jury Recognition at the Aspen Shortsfest. In 2008 he served as a member of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute film and video faculty. Harjo grew up in Holdenville, Oklahoma, and lives in Tulsa. "Making a film is a very scary thing. You just put your heart into it and hope that things go right. You also hope that special things happen during the process that you didn't expect. So much is out of your hands, but you have to make a film that you are proud of…hopefully other people will like it as well." Imprint (2007, 88 min.) US 
Scene from "Imprint," depicting the attorney When a Native American attorney prosecutes a Lakota teen in a controversial murder trial, things spin out of control, and strange visions and ghostly voices propel her on an unexpected journey. This first feature weaves Native mythologies into a Sixth Sense-style supernatural thriller. Michael Linn is the director of Imprint, a thriller produced by Chris Eyre which premiered at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Other films include the short comedy Market 175 and the drama Into His Arms. His play Billie the Bug was presented in 2007 at Storybook Island Children's Theater in Rapid City, South Dakota. He formerly worked as a reporter for the ABC affiliate KOTA. With his brother Marc Linn, he created the KOTA film criticism segment Michael & Marc's Movie Minute Show, which incorporated spoofs of current releases into each film review. The Linn brothers began creating movie spoofs in high school, when they co-directed two films, Indiana Jed and the science fiction feature Escape Through Time. Linn was born in San Antonio, Texas. He studied film at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. Linn is the creative director of Linn Productions, a commercial video production house in Rapid City. "Imprint has been an exciting opportunity to create contemporary leading roles for Native actors in a genre where you don't typically find them—the supernatural thriller. In the case of Imprint, I feel that the Native perspective elevates the genre above the norm, and using indigenous actors heightens the credibility of the subject matter. I feel honored to have worked with such a talented cast, and look forward to a day when strong roles are more widely available for Native actors." 
Chris Eyre, courtesy Gwendolen Cates and Native Peoples magazine Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho) has been described as "the preeminent Native American filmmaker of his time" by People magazine. In 2007 he was selected for two prestigious artist awards—the United States Artists Fellowship and the Bush Foundation Artists Fellowship in Film/Media. In 2007 he also received an All Roads Film Project Seed Grant for Lazarus Rises (working title). Eyre has been awarded many other artists honors and fellowships. He was one of three established filmmakers selected to participate in the inaugural Tribeca All Access program in 2004. He was a 1995 recipient of the Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship (now a fellowship program of the Tribeca Film Institute). Eyre recently has been chosen to direct three of the five films in the groundbreaking Native American history series We Shall Remain, produced by PBS' American Experience and scheduled for broadcast in 2009. He has also been working with emerging filmmakers as an executive producer and producer, and recent works include Imprint (director: Michael Linn) and California Indian (director: Tim Ramos (Pomo)). Eyre's first feature, Smoke Signals, was one of the five highest-grossing independent films in 1998. It won the Audience Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, and Eyre was awarded the festival's Filmmaker's Trophy. In 2004 Eyre was again honored at Sundance when Edge of America, based on a true story of a reservation high school girls basketball team's road to the state finals, was selected for the festival's Salt Lake City opening night. In 2006 Edge of America, produced by Showtime, received the Peabody Award, one of the most prestigious awards in electronic media. The film also received the 2005 Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement from the Directors Guild of America and the 2006 Parents' Choice Award. In 2005, for the opening of the new National Museum of the American Indian, Eyre produced the museum's signature film, A Thousand Roads, and has been invited to be a selector for NMAI's 2009 Native American Film + Video Festival. His other films include A Thief of Time and Skinwalkers, based on the novels of Tony Hillerman, for the PBS series Mystery!, documentaries and music videos. He currently resides in Rapid City, South Dakota, with his daughter, Shahela. "With my work I like the shades: very rarely are our thoughts really black or white except in the case of our own bias and the limitations of our own experience. We tend to be so limited in our perceptions of what AMERICA is. We don't know about our own history, about being real with those that aren't of us. We need some more social/shared understanding and laughter. There is no one truth to our diversity." Four Shorts4-Wheel War Pony (2008, 8 min.) US 
Scene from 4-Wheel War Pony" 
Dustinn and Velma Craig, courtesy of POV 4-Wheel War Pony skateboarding footage links cultures past and present. Dustinn Craig (White Mountain Apache/Navajo) grew up in Arizona, living in White River on the Fort Apache reservation and later in Window Rock on the Navajo Reservation. As a teenager, Craig began making skateboarding videos of himself and his friends. But with fatherhood at age nineteen, Craig's desire to create "something I hoped my kids would see and watch some day," resulted in a production reflecting on family and tribal ties, for the national PBS series Matters of Race (Executive Producer; Orlando Bagwell). His documentary Home has been shown as part of the Heard Museum exhibit "HOME: Native People in the Southwest" since May 22, 2005, and will continue to screen until 2010. Craig has worked on film projects for the John Hopkins Center for American Indian Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. He is a producer, director of episode four of We Shall Remain: A Native History of America, a PBS American Experience production that will air in 2009. In the future, he would like to collaborate with other young Native filmmakers to produce self-defined representations of Indian identity. He is pictured here with his wife and co-writer, Velma Craig. "I want to point out all the disparities and all of the injustices that we are still living with. As young Native people in the twenty-first century, we are really in a position to take charge of our image. We need to speak out, we have real ethical and moral obligations." Female Rain - Nilts'a Bi'aad (2006, 2 min.) US In a piece based on a poem by Navajo writer Laura Tohe, the filmmaker expresses her love of the Navajo language. 
Velma Kee Craig, courtesy of filmmaker Velma Kee Craig (Navajo) is the co-founder of Better Ones Productions, which she runs with her husband and fellow director Dustinn Craig. She is currently working on a screenplay for a short film, and enjoys writing short stories and poetry. Female Rain - Nilts'a Bi'áád, Craig's directorial debut, is available on You Tube, and will eventually be part of a larger video magazine on Native artists. In 2008 she participated in "Native Women in Documentary Film," a community discussion featuring filmmakers at various stages in their professional work, organized by the NMAI Film and Video Center staff in Washington, DC. Craig is a graduate of Arizona State University with a BA in English Literature and a minor in American Indian studies. She lives with her family in Mesa, Arizona. "I believe there is power in visibility. I am responsible for what I put out there. I would like my mark on everything that comes from me to be clear and evident. I need everything that I produce to have meaning, to serve some purpose." Benito’s Gift (2006,12 min.) US "Benito's Gift" is a ten-minute family movie about how a young Pueblo Indian boy fulfills a special promise, which, in turn, helps bring his family together. The screenplay, written by Rick Romancito, is winner of the 2006 New Mexico Governor’s Cup Short Screenplay Competition, sponsored by the National Geographic All Roads Film Project and the New Mexico Film Office. The movie is directed by Rick Romancito, produced by Lisa Wieneke-Rich, photographed in widescreen digital video by Doug Crawford, and assisted by the New Mexico Film Office, Santa Fe Community College and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Synopsis: Rick Romancito is an award-winning photographer and journalist, motion-picture actor, filmmaker, fine artist, and in his most rewarding role, father and husband. He has been editor of Tempo Magazine of The Taos News since 1994. During that time he has been privileged to interview or photograph artists and celebrities including Larry Bell, Ron Davis, Cheech Marin, Elizabeth Taylor, Julia Roberts, Claudia Schiffer and Edward James Olmos. He also contributed to the Cultural Reporter curriculum through the Smithsonian Institute and was a policy council president for three years at the Taos Pueblo Head Start, where his daughter Ella was enrolled. He is a leader in the Taos community and a proud member of the Taos Pueblo Indian tribe. (From : http://www.romancito.com/benitosgift/index.html Horse You See (8 minutes) In Horse You See Ross, from the Navajo Nation, explains the very essence of being a horse. Melissa Henry is a filmmaker and producer of new media. In 2007 she was awarded a competitive New Visions/New Mexico contract by the New Mexico Film Office for her experimental film Blue Heeler (working title). Henry was selected as a 2007 Sundance Institute-Ford Foundation Film Fellow from the Sundance Native American and Indigenous Initiative for her short film project Moso Lizhiní (working title). After college, Henry completed internships in both the Film and Video Center and the media archives of the NMAI. She is the president of Red Ant Productions, a digital media company based in New Mexico, and teaches film courses at the University of New Mexico. "[Young people] think you have to go to NYU or LA to make films, but you don't have to. You can just do it where you are—it doesn't matter where you go to school. As long as you have talent, you have some equipment and know how to work with lighting, you'll be fine." Quote from interview by Renee Gick appearing in the Summer 2008 online edition of Native American Indigenous Cinema and Arts
For more information on Native media throughout the Americas, visit Native Networks, a project of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian's Film and Video Center This icon |
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