1 pm: Spirit in Glass
(USA, 2014, 57 min.)
Director: Penny Phillips
A celebration of Native American Plateau art and culture, this film explores the themes of origin and adaptability of the pictorial beadwork tradition during the Reservation Period. Through the beadwork one can glimpse the heart of a People, their history, their creativity, and their unconquerable spirit. Penny
Phillips serves as the director and editor for the film Spirit in Glass. She and her husband, David Schneiderman, founded a production company, Mimbres Fever, and have produced numerous documentaries on Native American art and culture, including Faithful to Continuance, Keeping the Spirit Alive, Baskets of the Northwest People, A Treasury of California Baskets, and Northwest Basketweavers.
Preceded by: Three Poems by Heid E. Erdrich Total Running Time: 13 min.
Pre-Occupied (USA, 2013, 7 min.)
Directors: Heid E. Erdrich (Ojibwe) and R. Vincent Moniz, Jr. (NuEta) Writer/Producer: Heid E. Erdrich (Ojibwe) Art Director: R. Vincent Moniz, Jr. (NuEta)
Indigenous Elvis Works the Medicine Line (USA, 2013, 3 min.)
Director: Elizabeth Day (Ojibwe) Writer/Producer: Heid E. Erdrich (Ojibwe) Actor/Singer/Dancer: R. Vincent Moniz, Jr. (NuEta)
Lexiconography 1 (USA, 2013, 3 min.)
Directors: R. Vincent Moniz, Jr. (NuEta) and Jonathan Thunder (Red Lake Band of Ojibwe) Writers: Heid E. Erdrich (Ojibwe) and Margaret Noodin (Ojibwe) Producer: Heid E. Erdrich (Ojibwe)
5 pm: Future Voices of New Mexico
Program running time: 90 min.
Introduced by Marcella Ernest (Bad River Band of Ojibwe), Project Director, the fourth annual Future Voices of New Mexico Native Youth Film Festival showcases outstanding film and video by young and emerging filmmakers. The festival is produced by Future Voices of New Mexico, an organization working with high schools and underrepresented communities to encourage students to tell stories through film and photography. For more information visit www.futurevoicesofnewmexico.org.
8 pm: Rhymes for Young Ghouls
(CANADA, 2013, 88 min. FOR MATURE AUDIENCES)
Director/Writer: Jeff Barnaby (Mi’gMaq)
In English and Mi’gMaq with English subtitles.
Set on the Red Crow Mi’gMaq reservation in 1976, the film explores a government decree stating that every Indian child under the age of 18 must attend residential school, meaning imprisonment at St. Dymphna’s (St. Ds), and being at the mercy of “Popper,’’ the sadistic Indian agent who runs the school. At 15, Aila (Kawennahere Devery Jacobs [Mohawk]) is the weed princess of Red Crow and begins hustling with her Uncle Burner (Brandon Oakes [Mohawk]) to pay Popper her “truancy tax,” to keep her out of St. Ds. But when Aila’s drug money is stolen and her father Joseph (Glen Gould [Mi’gMaq]) returns from prison, the precarious balance of Aila’s world is destroyed. Her only options are to run or fight … and Mi’gMaq don’t run.
Jeff Barnaby was born on a Mi’gMaq reserve in Listijug, Quebec. He has worked as an artist, poet, author, and filmmaker. He has produced many short films, including File Under Miscellaneous (NCS 2010), The Colony (NCS 2008, NCS 2013) and From Cherry English (NCS 2005). Rhymes for Young Ghouls is his debut feature film.
Preceded by: #nightslikethese (USA, 2014, 14 min.)
Director/Writer: Hannah Macpherson; Co-Directors: Amber Midthunder (Assiniboine-Sioux) and Shay Eyre (Lakota/Cheyenne/Arapaho)
Rowan (Amber Midthunder) and Cali (Shay Eyre) are two 15-year old girls obsessed with their phones. They experience life through social media with a series of hashtags, selfies, and texts from boyfriends and bullies. When the night’s escapade takes a disturbing turn for the worst, we learn how disconnected and desensitized social media has made these troubled teens.
Hannah Macpherson is a writer and director with a filmmaking degree from Loyola Marymount University. Her background includes producing reality television in Los Angeles and New York and she is currently an editor at ReelzChannel.
Amber Midthunder is an actress in both film and television, most recently on notable TV series Banshee (Cinemax) and Longmire (A&E).
Shay Eyre, daughter of celebrated film director Chris Eyre, is best known for her role in Empire of Dirt. #nightslikethese is her first venture into directing.
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