Miami University

News Release

News and Public Information Office
Glos Center
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
(513) 529-7592
(513) 529-1950 fax
newsinfo@muohio.edu

Native American Film Festival Nov. 4-6

10/29/2009

Email this Article

A Native American Film Festival, showcasing contemporary Native American cinema, will be held Nov. 4-6 at Miami University. The festival features award-winning documentaries and numerous short films that highlight the diverse stories, histories and experiences of North American indigenous filmmakers.

Films will be screened at 4 p.m. each day, followed by discussion with filmmakers. This event, in celebration of Miami’s Bicentennial, is organized by the department of anthropology in association with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Film + Media Center.

Screenings are free and open to the public.

The festival includes:

4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, in 322 McGuffey Hall. Screening of three films, including “Little Caughnawaga: To Brooklyn and Back,” by Mohawk filmmaker Reaghan Tarbell, film curator for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Film + Media Center, and co-curator of the festival. The film was awarded Best Feature Documentary at the 2008 Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival. Discussion follows with Tarbell and Roxanne Ornelas, assistant professor of geography and women’s studies.
4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, in 322 McGuffey Hall. Screening of two films, including “The Return of Navajo Boy,” an official 2000 Sundance Film Festival selection and winner of “Best Documentary” at the Aboriginal Voices Film Festival in Toronto. Discussion follows with co-producer and Navajo filmmaker Bennie Klain, director Jeff Spitz, actor Elsie May Begay and Daniel Cobb, assistant professor of history.
4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in 212 MacMillan Hall. “Reel Indians Living the Language,” a cutting-edge short film program and discussion with Klain, Tarbell and George Ironstrack, assistant director of the Myaamia Project.

A full list of films is available online in a PDF format (Film List).

Leighton Peterson, assistant professor of anthropology, is co-curator of the festival. He is the producer of the award-winning PBS documentary “Weaving Worlds” and is currently working on a larger research project with indigenous media makers.
This event is sponsored by the A.T. Hansen Anthropology Lecture Fund. Additional support is provided by the departments of communication, history and geography; the film studies program, journalism program, and women’s studies program; the Center for Latin American Studies and the Center for American and World Cultures; the Myaamia Project; and the office of diversity affairs.

For more information contact Kathy Erbaugh, 529-8399, or Kathy.Erbaugh@muohio.edu.