Sundance Indigenous Shorts Tour
On August 29, 2024, the 汤姆视频 (UAF) proudly hosted the Sundance Indigenous Shorts Tour, showcasing films created by Indigenous filmmakers from around the globe. The event, held at the Salisbury Theatre, featured a range of short films that delved into significant themes like land connection, language, and the importance of community. Through this collaboration between UAF鈥檚 Department of Theatre and Film and the Sundance Institute, students and the public were given a unique opportunity to engage with authentic Indigenous storytelling.
The film collection represented a wide variety of voices, from Alaska Native communities to Indigenous groups in New Zealand and North America. These films explored critical cultural themes and reflected the experiences of multiple generations within these communities. 汤姆视频 professor and Indigenous filmmaker Kavelina Torres emphasized the importance of self-representation in filmmaking, noting how it allows Indigenous creators to tell their stories in their own way. This personal touch resonated with audiences, offering an inside look into these communities and their narratives.
Ranging from comedies and dramas to documentaries, the films demonstrated the richness of Indigenous storytelling. Maya Salganek, Chair of UAF鈥檚 Department of Theatre and Film, highlighted the global relevance of these stories, explaining how they offer fresh, underrepresented perspectives. This event also reinforced the Sundance Institute鈥檚 dedication to elevating independent filmmakers, particularly those whose stories are often sidelined in mainstream cinema.
Featured films included:
Director: Sterlin Harjo
Three Seminole patients share some laughs and poignant truths as they wait for treatment
at the local Indian hospital. Fiction.
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Taietsar贸n:sere 鈥楾ai鈥 Leclaire, Producer: David
Spador
When an act of casual racism confronts a Queer Native man, he retreats into his mind
to find the perfect clap back from various versions of his own identity.
Directors: Alexandra Lazarowich, Ross Kauffman, Producer: Robin Honan
Eastern Shoshone MD-PhD student Jenna Murray spent summers on the Wind River Indian
Reservation helping her grandfather anyway she could. When he suddenly dies, she must
find a way to heal before realizing her dream of a life in medicine. Nonfiction.鈦
Director and Screenwriter: Nova Paul, Producer: Tara Riddell
At the edge of the playground close to the forest, the children of Okiwi School made
a refuge they call Hawaiki. Hawaiki has spiritual and metaphysical connections for
M膩ori as the children create a space for their self-determination. Fiction.
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Sky Hopinka
Movements of resistance are collapsed and woven together, from reflections of one鈥檚
own body in the world today, to documentation of Alcatraz, the reclamation of Cahokia,
and the repatriation of the ancestors. Fiction.鈦
Director: Jared James Lank
Calling on the strength of his ancestors, a young Mi鈥檏maq man reflects on the pain
of bearing witness to the destruction of his homelands. Fiction.鈦
Director: Mariah Eli Hernandez-Fitch
While learning to make gumbo, the creator shares personal stories about their grandparents
as a way to honor and preserve their Indigenous history and life. Nonfiction.鈦
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Alisi Telengut
The formation of Lake Baikal in Siberia is reimagined, featuring the voice of a Buryat
woman who can still recall some words in her endangered Buryat language (a Mongolian
dialect). Animation.鈦