1 pm: Navajo Film Themselves
Total running time: 118 min.
Project Directors/Producers: Sol Worth and John Adair Directors: Al Clah, Johnny Nelson, Susie Benally, Mike Anderson, Alta Kahn, Johnny Nelson, Maxine Tsosie, and Mary Jane Tsosie
Sol Worth, John Adair, and Richard Chalfen traveled to Pine Springs, Arizona, in the summer of 1966, where they taught a group of Navajo students to use cameras in the production of documentary films. Among them, you’ll see:
A Navajo Weaver (USA, 1966, 20 min.)
Director: Susie Benally (Navajo)
A demonstration of Navajo rug weaving by Alta Kahn, from the raising of the sheep for wool, through the gathering of other materials, to the completion of the woven artwork. Susie Benally was born and raised in Pine Springs, where she attended the same elementary school that Sol Worth and John Adair used for their filmmaking classes. Of all the students, Benally was perhaps the most connected with Navajo traditions. She was a skilled weaver and began to help her mother, the weaver Alta Kahn, at the age of eight. During the summer of 1966, Benally was living with one or more of her children at her mother’s house while her husband served in the military. Worth and Adair emphasized that while Benally was one of their shyest students, she was also, by their standards, one of the most talented filmmakers in the group.
Untitled (Second Weaver) (USA, 1966, 9 min.)
Director: Alta Kahn (Navajo)
Young weaver Susie Benally demonstrates how a belt is woven on a belt loom. Alta Kahn was a renowned weaver and raised eight children, including Susie Benally. Her youngest son, Alfred Kahn Sr., appeared in Benally’s film. Kahn spoke only Navajo and lived with her husband, Jack, in a traditional hogan with no electricity or running water.
Old Antelope Lake (USA, 1966, 13 min.)
Director: Mike Anderson (Navajo)
This film tells the story of Antelope Lake, its source, place, use, and surroundings. Anderson was born in Pine Springs, and was educated in Gallup and Phoenix. He also spent three years working in San Francisco. At 24, Anderson joined the Navajo project, most likely as a way to earn money in order to attend barber’s school.
Intrepid Shadows (USA, 1966, 15 min.)
Director: Al Clah (Navajo)
Alfred Clah was an artist from a community outside of Pine Springs. As Sol Worth and John Adair never did a formal life history interview with Clah, we don’t know as much about his early life as we know about the other students. Similarly, there are no images of or by Clah included in the Worth Papers. We do know that at the time of the project, he was a 19-year-old student at the Institute of American Indian Art at Santa Fe. He studied painting and sculpting and watched close to a hundred documentary films. Out of all the students, Al Clah was one of the most explicit about the symbolic meaning of his film.
The Navajo Silversmith (USA, 1966, 21 min.)
Director: Johnny Nelson (Navajo)
A silversmith demonstrates the making of a little Yeibechai figure from the mining of the silver, through the smelting process, design, and finishing.
The Shallow Well (USA, 1966, 20 min.)
Director: Johnny Nelson (Navajo)
A family constructs a traditional shallow well. Nelson was born in Indian Wells, a community 70 miles from Pine Springs. At the time of the project, he was 33 years old and married to Ruby Burnsides. Vice-chairman of the local chapter, Nelson was heavily involved with community politics. When Sol Worth met him, he was working for the Pine Springs trading post, owned by Russell Griswold. He was also the only student to make two films, The Navajo Silversmith and The Shallow Well.
The Spirit of the Navajo (USA, 1966, 20 min.)
Directors: Mary Jane Tsosie (Navajo) and Maxine Tsosie (Navajo)
Mary Jane and Maxine were sisters born in Pine Springs, but they spent little time there. They were the daughters of Juan Tsosie, the chapter chairman, and the granddaughters of Sam Yazzie, a celebrated medicine man. They wanted to make a film about traditional Navajo culture in the hopes of learning more about it themselves. Mary Jane was 21 at the time of the project and Maxine was 17.
Preceded by: Doing the Sheep Good (USA, 2013, 25 min.)
Director: Teresa Montoya (Navajo)
Teresa Montoya is a PhD student in the New York University Department of Anthropology where she is also earning a certificate in Culture and Media. This, her first film, traces the return of iconic Navajo-made films from 1966 to their community of origin, highlighting the fluid continuities between past and present, researcher and community. Her dissertation research focuses on issues of community engagement, sovereignty, cultural heritage, and repatriation in the community of Pine Springs on the Navajo Nation. She is born to Ta’néeszahnii and born for Naakaii Dine’é.
7 pm: Craters of the Moon
(USA, 2013, 77 min. FOR MATURE AUDIENCES)
Director: Jesse Millward
Molly (Breeda Wool) and her troubled husband Roger (Cody Lightning [Cree]) are on a cross-country road trip when they get into a scrape at a highway rest stop – and decide to run. Disoriented by a blizzard in the back roads of the Idaho lava rock desert, the couple becomes snowbound. Their relationship strains under the pressures of starvation, hypothermia, and wild dogs. It’s a slow-burning psychological thriller that builds to a horrifying climax in a small car at Craters of the Moon National Park.
Preceded by: Amautalik (Canada, 2014, 7 min.)
Director/Writer: Neil Christophe; Producer: Louise Flaherty (Inuk)
Two young friends are spending the day away from their camp. Unfortunately for them, an ancient land spirit – an amautalik – is also in the area. Luckily, one of the youngsters uses lessons learned from his difficult life to think quickly and navigate a tricky situation.
Also preceded by: The Orphan and the Polar Bear (Canada, 2013, 9 min.)
Director/Writer: Neil Christopher; Producer: Louise Flaherty (Inuk)
According to Inuit oral history, animals long ago had the power of speech, could shift their appearances, and could even assume human form. In The Orphan and the Polar Bear, a neglected orphan is adopted by a polar bear elder. Under the bear’s guidance, the little orphan learns the skills he will need to survive and provide for himself.
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