First Nations/First Features: A Showcase of World Indigenous Film and Media
May 12–23, 2005

First Nations/First Features celebrates the groundbreaking feature films of indigenous directors from around the world. Three institutions—The Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), and New York University—have collaborated on this showcase. Indigenous directors have broken barriers to native film production over the past two decades, receiving accolades from both native and general audiences and winning prestigious recognition on the world stage. Their work represents media production among a host of First Nation communities, including indigenous Australian, Inuit, Maori, Native North and South American, Nenet, Rotuman, and Sami. For program details, consult the First Nations/First Features Web site, which includes information on the symposium "Cultural Rights and Cultural Creativity: On and Off Screen," Thursday, May 12, at the NMAI in lower Manhattan, and screenings in Washington, D.C., May 18–22.

Organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media, The Museum of Modern Art; Elizabeth Weatherford, Director, Film and Video Center, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian; Faye Ginsburg, Director, Center for Media, Culture, and History, and Center for Religion and Media, Department of Anthropology, New York University; and Pegi Vail, filmmaker and independent curator.

First Nations\First Features is made possible by the Ford Foundation, John and Margot Ernst, Penelope Seidler, Canadian Embassy, Finnish Film Foundation, New Zealand Film Commission, Australian Film Commission, Australian Consulate, Norwegian Film Institute, Pacific Islanders in Communications, Mexican Consulate (New York and Washington D.C.), Mexican Cultural Institute (New York and Washington, D.C.), Norwegian Consulate, Secretaría de Cultura del Estado de Michoacán, and Foreign Affairs Canada.

Identity and Web site design is provided by OgilvyOne Worldwide.

Additional assistance is provided by Ulrika's, Smörgås Chef, and The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers.

Thanks to the American Indian Community House, American-Scandinavian Foundation, Canadian Consulate, Center for Social Media at American University, Australian Embassy, Finnish Embassy, New Zealand Consulate, New Zealand Embassy, Swedish Embassy and Swedish Consulate, and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Radiance. 1998. Australia. Directed by Rachel Perkins (Arrernte/Kaldakoon). Screenplay by Louis Nowra. With Rachael Maza, Trisha Morton-Thomas, Deborah Mailman. Perkins's riveting first feature follows three Aboriginal women who return to their ramshackle childhood home on Australia's rural north coast for their mother's funeral. Over twenty-four hours they begin to unravel their complicated pasts, discovering family secrets that permanently alter their relations. 83 min.
Thursday, May 12, 6:00 (introduced by Sally Riley, Director, Indigenous Unit, Australian Film Commission, and Rachel Maza). T1

Smoke Signals. 1998. USA. Directed by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho). Screenplay by Sherman Alexie, based on his novel The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. With Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Irene Bedard, Gary Farmer, Cody Lightning. A young Native American man embarks on a life-changing journey with his childhood friend to retrieve the body of his estranged father. Eyre's directorial debut is the first major feature film to be written, directed, and coproduced by Native Americans. 89 min.
Thursday, May 12, 8:30 (introduced by Eyre with Gary Farmer and Cody Lightning). T1

Te Rua. Aotearoa/New Zealand. 1991. Written and directed by Barry Barclay (Maori). With Wi Kuki Kaa, Gunter Meisner. In veteran director Barclay's witty thriller, Maori tribe members attempt to recover ancestral taonga carvings stolen from their homeland, now in the vaults of a Berlin museum. In English and Maori, English subtitles. 96 min.
Friday May 13, 6:00 (introduced by filmmaker Merata Mita); Friday, May 20, 5:30. T1

Mauri. 1988. Aotearoa/New Zealand. Written and directed by Merata Mita (Maori). With Anzac Wallace, Eva Rickard, James Hayward. In her breakthrough dramatic feature Mauri (the Maori word for "life force"), a romantic suspense story is beautifully set in a small Maori community in 1950s New Zealand. The people face the loss of both their land and their young people who are migrating to the cities—conflicts sharpened by the arrival of the mysterious Rewi, a man on the run from prison. 99 min.
Friday, May 13, 8:30 (introduced by Mita); Friday, May 20, 8:30. T1

Pear ta ma ‘on maf (The Land Has Eyes). 2004. Fiji. Written and directed by Vilsoni Hereniko (Rotuman). With Sapeta Taito, Rena Owen, John Fasiu Fatiaki. This autobiographical first feature was directed by playwright Hereniko using nonprofessional Rotuman actors. It tells the story of a young girl who, inspired by a Warrior Woman legend, stands up to authorities when her father is unjustly accused. In Rotuman, English subtitles. 87 min.
Saturday, May 14, 2:00 (introduced by Hereniko). T2

Jumalan morsian (A Bride of the Seventh Heaven). 2003. Finland/Russia. Directed by Anastasia Lapsui (Nenet) and Markku Lehmuskallio. Screenplay by Lapsui. With Jana Hudi, Ljubov Lapsui. Shot in the Nenet homeland of northwest Siberia, this film portrays a woman set apart by her betrothal to Num, the high god of the Nenets. Her life unfolds in flashbacks that transport viewers to the traditional Nenet world. In Nenet, English subtitles. 85 min.
Saturday, May 14, 4:00 (introduced by A. Lapsui, Lehmuskallio); Saturday, May 21, 2:00. T1

Pathfinder. 1987. Norway. Directed by Nils Gaup (Sami). With Mikkel Gaup, Nils Utsil. A young Sami boy witnesses his family's murder by a gang of Tchudes marauders, and is forced to be their pathfinder. Gaup's debut feature—the first Sami-language feature film—is based on a twelfth-century saga, and achieved considerable international acclaim, setting the path for the Sami filmmaker to make many other international coproductions. In Sami, English subtitles. 90 min.
Saturday, May 14, 6:30 (introduced by Gaup). T1; Saturday, May 21, 6:00. T2

5th World. 2005. USA. Written and directed by Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo). With Liva'ndrea Knoki, Sheldon Silent Walker, Ernest Tsosie III. Lowe's first feature, shot in an unconventional style against the drama of the Navajo landscape, captures the intimacy of Navajo lives. The film traces the contours of a budding romance between two young adults as tribal culture shapes their bond in powerful and unexpected ways. 75 min.
Saturday, May 14, 8:45 (introduced by Lowe); Wednesday, May 18, 8:00. T1

The Doe Boy. 2001. USA. Written and directed by Randy Redroad (Cherokee). With James Duval, Kevin Anderson, Andrew J. Ferchland. Set in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, The Doe Boy tells the story of Hunter, a young man of mixed parentage, who is never quite at home in the complicated circumstances of his life, including his hemophilia. Eventually he finds a way to be his own man, facing love, death, and the perils of his illness. Introduced by Redroad. 83 min.
Sunday, May 15, 2:30. T1

Two Cars, One Night. 2004. Aotearoa/New Zealand. Directed by Taika Waititi (Maori). With Rangi Ngamoki, Te Ahiwaru Ngamoki-Richards, Dion Waikato. In this first Maori-made Oscar-nominated short, two boys and a girl begin a tentative friendship as they wait for their parents in the parking lot of a motel bar. 11 min.
Beneath Clouds. 2001. Australia. Written and directed by Ivan Sen (Gamilaroi). With Danielle Hall, Damian Pitt. Sen blends controlled composition with spontaneity in this road movie about two hitchhiking Aboriginal teens who meet on the long way to Sydney. Sen parallels the clash between Lena and Vaughn's personal ideals and disappointments through the landscape and encounters along the way. 90 min.
Sunday, May 15, 5:00 (introduced by Sally Riley, Director, Indigenous Unit, Australian Film Commission). T1

Día 2 (Day 2). 2004. Mexico. Directed by Dante Cerano Bautista (P'urepecha). An ironic portrait of the second day of a P'urepecha wedding ceremony. In P'urepecha and Spanish, English voice-over. 23 min.
Guia Toó (Powerful Mountain). 1998. Mexico. Directed by Crisanto Manzano Avella (Zapotec). A visual essay about the indigenous people of the Guia Toó cloud forest in Oaxaca and their close relationship to the environment. In Zapotec and Spanish, English subtitles. 53 min.
Monday, May 16, 6:00 (introduced by Manzano). T2

Ritual Clowns. 1988. USA. Directed by Victor Masayesva, Jr. (Hopi). This experimental video considers Hopi sacred clowns from multiple perspectives. 18 min.
Itam Hakim, Hopiit. 1985. USA. Directed by Victor Masayesva, Jr. (Hopi). This groundbreaking film poetically visualizes Hopi philosophy. Elder Ross Macaya interweaves personal and cultural history to recount the Hopi Emergence, the Pueblo Revolt, the conquistador age, and the Bow Clan. In Hopi, English voice-over. 58 min.
Monday, May 16, 8:00 (introduced by Masayesva, Jr.). T1

Los angeles de la tierra (Angels of the Earth). 2001/2003. Bolivia. Directed by Patricio Luna (Aymara). With Alfredo Copa, Reynaldo Yujiro. A cautionary tale about city life is told through an acrimonious encounter between two brothers from a poor mountain village. In Aymara, English subtitles. 40 min.
Llanthupi munakuy (Loving Each Other in the Shadows). 2001. Bolivia. Directed by Marcelina Cárdenas (Quechua). With Aydeé Alvarez, Samuel Vedia Callamullo. In this story based on Quechua oral tradition, a divided village sets the stage for a star-crossed love affair. 47 min.
Monday, May 16, 8:30 (introduced by Luna, Cárdenas). T2

The Minister of State. Sweden/Norway/Finland. 1997. Written and directed by Paul-Anders Simma (Sami). With Erik Kiviniemi, Björn Sundqvist, Sara Margrethe Oskal. A moral tale based on a true story, set in Sagojokk, a remote Sami village in Finland, during World War II. A handsome young man, found unconscious, claims he is a "minister of state" sent to the village to advance agrarian reform—a dream that unravels with the arrival of a second stranger. In Swedish, Norwegian, Sami, Finnish, and German, English subtitles. 83 min.
Wednesday, May 18, 5:30 (introduced by Simma). T1

The Business of Fancydancing. 2002. USA. Written and directed by Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene). With Evan Adams, Michelle St. John, Gene Tagaban. A poetic story of growth, death, and the choices that define us, The Business of Fancydancing reunites Spokane Reservation friends Aristotle Joseph and Seymour Polatkin sixteen years after their high school graduation. 103 min.
Thursday, May 19, 6:00 (introduced by Rebecca Carroll, Editor, The Independent). T1

Once Were Warriors. 1995. Aotearoa/New Zealand. Directed by Lee Tamahori. Screenplay by Riwia Brown. With Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison. Tamahori's debut feature, one of New Zealand's highest-grossing films, tells the affecting story of a contemporary Maori family in urban New Zealand. Based on a novel that looks unflinchingly at the violence undermining a family, the film is a passionate and painful love story. 102 min.
Thursday, May 19, 8:30. T1

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. 2001. Canada. Directed by Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit). Screenplay by Paul Apak Angilirq. With Natar Ungalaaq, Pakkak Inukshuk, Sylvia Ivalu. Canada's first feature-length fiction film written, produced, directed, and acted by Inuit won the Camera d'Or prize at Cannes, and is based on a traditional Inuit story of a community's life-threatening struggle with an evil shaman. Eventually two brothers—Amaqjuaq, the Strong One, and Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner—challenge the shaman's curse. In Inuktitut, English subtitles. 175 min.
Saturday, May 21, 8:00. T2; Monday, May 23, 8:15. T1

Silent Tears. 1997. Canada. Directed by Shirley Cheechoo (Cree). With Elizabeth A. Trudeau, Cheechoo, Jack Burning. In this gripping story, based on the filmmaker's childhood, a family overcomes a life-and-death crisis while hunting on a remote trapline. 28 min.
Honey Moccasin. 1998. Canada. Directed by Shelley Niro (Mohawk). With Tantoo Cardinal, Florence Belmor, Billy Merasty. This antic experimental narrative concerning native identity and gender "on the res" features Honey Moccasin, an unconventional café owner who sleuths a crime. 47 min.
Sunday, May 22, 2:00 (introduced by Cheechoo, Niro). T2

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. 1993. Canada. Directed by Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki). In July 1990, a historic confrontation between the Mohawks, the Quebec police, and the Canadian army in the villages of Kanehsatake and Oka, Quebec, propelled Native land-rights issues into the international spotlight. Shot over seventy-eight days, this epic documentary feature by one of Canada's leading indigenous directors chronicles a fateful armed standoff. 119 min.
Sunday, May 22, 5:00 (introduced by Obomsawin). T1

Bedevil. 1993. Australia. Directed by Tracey Moffatt. With Moffatt, Lax Marinos, Riccardo Natoli, Dina Panozzi, Mawuyal Yanthalawuy. Moffatt's debut feature is the first directed by an Australian Aboriginal woman. Inspired by childhood ghost stories from both her extended Aboriginal and Irish Australian families, the film is a trilogy in which characters are haunted by the past. All are set in Moffatt's highly stylized, hyper-imaginary Australian landscape. 90 min.
Monday, May 23, 5:45. T2

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