Last year's Native fest was good, but this year's line up is great. The fest kicked into gear last night with a nice little wine-under-the-tent shindig, though most of my time was spent outside chattin' with Toronto fellas Shane Belcourt and Duane Murray, director and actor respectively of Tkaronto.
They're very cool guys who grew up together and supposedly have a terrible first homemade movie that I was trying to convince them would make a great DVD extra, a la M. Night Shyamalan. Belcourt is a former musician and compared the loose dialogue of the film to improving music -- as long as you hit the right progressive chords, the notes you play in between are just gravy. Dig it.
Just two months after the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the valley is already suffering from cinematic withdrawal.
Good thing the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum is ready with the 7th Annual Festival of Native Film and Culture, featuring American Indian Festival award winners and North American premieres.
The festival kicked off Wednesday and runs through Sunday. Topics range from tough reindeer-herding women to adults in search of cultural identity to gay Navajo ballet dancers.
Here's the lineup:
Four Sheets to the Wind
Synopsis: The festival's opening film has won awards at both Sundance and the American Indian Film Festival. When a family's father commits suicide, they finally discuss his life and the relationships that he influenced.
Review: The film earns comparisons to Smoke Signals — a father's death spurs his son's journey, said son in both is played capably by Cody Lightning and the characters face cultural ignorance — but this film is worthy of acknowledgment independent of such a standard.
Writer-director Sterlin Harjo presents a snapshot of Cufe, a young man who has never left his small town and who provides a calm foil for Miri, his wild sister in the city who seems to be following in her father's drunken footsteps (who gave himself the nickname of the film's title). All social occasions require intoxication, constantly interrupting any chance for closure. The story does not attempt to tie all loose ends, but rather opens doors to the possibility for change.
Herdswoman
Synopsis: Women crossing three generations from Sweden's native Sami community share the skill of herding reindeer. However, the traditionally nomadic practice depends on the ability to migrate with the herd, and businesses and leisure activities have begun to block their routes.
Review: With a culture that relies on an oral history, it is hard to establish the necessary paperwork to prove that the Sami people have a claim to the land they use. Director Kine Boman follows the women through an emotionally draining journey until the long-awaited court ruling is decided concerning their rights.
Cinematographer Hans-Olof Utsi captures the beautifully sparse and snowy landscape of Sápmi and the people who are connected to the land and animals which inhabit it. Although each woman was raised in the culture to a different extent, all of them describe the inner strength required to maintain their custom and identity.
Killer Whale and Crocodile
Synopsis: Two of the world's greatest wood carvers are brought together through a common relationship with gallery director Elaine Monds and museum curator Dr. Carol Mayer. Culture and artistic knowledge are eagerly exchanged between John Marston of British Columbia and Teddy Balangu of Papua New Guinea.
Review: Perfectly representing the broader cultural umbrella of this year's festival, the film notes the similarities and distinctions of cultures on opposite ends of the world. Monds and Mayer demonstrate respect for the individuals as artists rather than sources of souvenirs, and Marston and Balangu find inspiration in each other's folklore and environment when creating captivating works of art.
Director Peter Campbell delivers a beautiful snapshot of Balangu's life on the Sepik River where carving is a way of life versus Marston's modern world where traditions are reserved for special occasions.
Maria Tallchief
Synopsis: Native American ballerina Maria Tallchief began dance lessons at age four in Oklahoma, left her Osage Indian Community to find stardom in the Big Apple and became nearly immortal by helping to establish the New York City Ballet while serving as muse for her husband/choreographer, George Balanchine.
Miss Navajo
Synopsis: Director Billy Luther follows Crystal Frazier through an unconventional beauty contest. Miss Navajo contestants are judged on their inner beauty, how fluent they are in Navajo and their proficiency in traditional tribal skills: frying bread, rug weaving and sheep butchering.
Our Land, Our Life
Synopsis: Carrie and Mary Dann, two elderly Shoshone sisters, have had a 30-year battle with the U.S. government over the rights to their own land, which has taken them to the Supreme Court and beyond.
A Place Between: The Story of an Adoption
Synopsis: Director Curtis Kaltenbaugh examines the life that he and his brother Ashok led as children who were removed from their Ojibwe mother in Manitoba and adopted by a white pastor and his family in Pennsylvania. At 30, he makes the bold decision to unite the two families and cultures for the first time.
Review: Curtis bravely films an intensely private and emotional visit between the families. Though Ashok rebelled against a racist culture that fought his natural inclinations, Curtis internalized his feelings and attempted to straddle both traditions. The film documents his search for a connection and resolution to conflicting emotions.
The film is significant not only to cultures who have lost a sense of their own history but to coexisting societies who are ignorant of the other's belief system. The interviewees remember the boys' childhood with biased eyes, but communication allows for an overdue healing process.
Tkaronto
Synopsis: The centerpiece film finds two strangers staying in a Toronto home, one interviewing Native elders for a collective art series, the other being interviewed by TV producers who want to take advantage of his Native status for funding. They bond over their struggle to embody their heritage.
Review: Two Canadian Aboriginals long to explore their roots, but their personal lives create an impasse. Ray, a Métis writer, looks white and is concerned about the cultural future of his unborn child. Jolene, an Anishnabe artist, finds no compassion from her white husband for nourishing her Native spirituality.
They develop an immediate connection, and long talks stir emotions. Filmmaker Shane Belcourt creates a thoughtful study about communicating with others in order to better know oneself. Conversations are viewed like memories as the visual focus pauses while their words continue to narrate, seemingly in improvisation. The atmosphere is natural, but the topics are significant.
Water Flowing Together
Synopsis: The closing film follows ballet great, Jock Soto, from his early roots on a remote Arizona reservation through a career filled with triumphant performances to his emotional retirement from the New York City Ballet at age 40 in 2005.
Weaving Worlds
Synopsis: In its West Coast premiere, director Bennie Klain captures the intricate relationship between Navajo rug weavers, reservation traders and the balance between maintaining cultural traditions, economic survival and artistic validation.