INSIDE NMAI


........................ NATIVE CINEMA SHOWCASE BY JOSHUA S TEVENS NATIVE CINEMA


SHOWCASE 2015 Aug. 17–23, 2015, at the New Mexico


History Museum


The National Museum of the American Indian’s Native Cinema Showcase will be celebrating its 15th anniversary in Sante Fe, New Mexico, Aug. 17–23, 2015. The showcase will feature award-winning films from throughout the hemisphere and will encompass a retrospective of the best of Native cinema.


TURNING FIFTEEN IN ’15


Sikumi/On the Ice, shown in 2008. B


y 2001, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Indian Market had existed in various forms for nearly 80 years. Since the 1970s the market had become the premier destination for authentic Native artwork, showcasing many of the best artists from Indian Coun-


try. But one art form was noticeably absent – film. The latter quarter of the 20th


century brought a burgeoning


of talented Native filmmakers to the table. In the late 1980s into the ’90s, films such as Powwow Highway (1989) and Smoke Signals (1998) delighted Native audiences, but also crossed over to the mainstream, portraying their Native characters with depth and on realistic terms. Hundreds of short works and feature-length films were made during this period. Both in and out of Indian Country, Native filmmakers were developing their craft and expanding the definitions of Indian artistry.


48 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER 2015


The Film + Video Center (FVC) of the National Museum of the


American Indian took notice. Already aware of the momentum of Native cinema, members of the FVC wanted to create a space for film within the nation’s foremost Indian art market. Through partner- ships with other Native cultural institutions, the idea of the Native Cinema Showcase was born and first executed in 2001. “What [the Showcase] has always really been about, the spirit of it,


is independent film,” says Cynthia Benitez, the FVC program special- ist at the Museum’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York. “It built an opportunity and forum for Native filmmakers to come together, view each other’s work and bridge connections that outside of the showcase might have been difficult.” One of the first showings was the 1984 classic Harold of Orange by


Gerald Vizenor (Anishinaabe). A viewer with knowledge of Native is- sues would read the film’s satirical edginess most easily. This selection


PHOTO COURTESY OF KIUGUYA PRODUCTIONS


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