Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT

The upcoming Native Women in Film Festival will feature more than 30 films from Indigenous women directors – the largest number of films by Native women among film festivals this year.

The festival, which runs March 5-10 in the week leading up to the Academy Awards, puts a spotlight on 32 Native women directors, including Darlene Naponse, Anishnaabe; Jules Arita Koostachin, Attawapiskat First Nation; and Payton Counts, Ojibwe.

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The films include feature films, documentaries and shorts addressing issues ranging from domestic violence and missing and murdered women to boarding school trauma and pipeline protests.

“We have the largest number of films by Native women directors this year,“ founder/director Joanelle Romero told ICT. “ We’ve surpassed all of them in numbers — Toronto Film Festival, Cannes, Sundance, and the Oscars. It’s been quite extraordinary.”

The films will be screened in venues across Los Angeles and online, starting Sunday, March 5, and continuing through Friday, March 10. The Oscars air on Sunday, March 12.

The festival will also include a conversation series with high-profile women in the industry, concluding March 10 with a special event, “Matriarchs of Cinema/Women of Influence Decolonizing the Entertainment Industry.”

“It’s the first of its kind,” Romero said. “It’s our inaugural event for that. It’ll be an annual event … We’re bringing together women, executives, actresses, filmmakers from our industry to have a conversation.”

Founded in 1995 as a Native Women in Music Festival in Santa Fe by actress/producer Romero, the festival went on to having its own program of screenings at the Red Nation International Film Festival annually in November.

In 2003, the Native Women in Film & Television became a stand-alone film festival that runs in the week leading up to the Academy Awards. This year marks the 14th year for the Native Women in Film Festival.

Native perspectives

The festival will premiere features and other acclaimed films.

 Highlights include:

Credit: The short film, ”‘Walking Two Worlds,” directed by Maia Wikler, follows Indigenous model Quannah Chasinghorse and her mother, Jody Potts-Joseph, who take a stand to defend their sacred homelands. It will be screened in March 2023 as part of the Native Women in Film Festival. (Photo courtesy Native Women in Film &Television)

—”Sacred Ground,” inspired by real events, which follows a veteran war journalist who suffers from PTSD on a spiritual journey that takes him to Standing Rock protests over an oil pipeline. The film is directed by Rebecca Tickell and Josh Tickell, and stars William Mapother, Amy Smart, Mariel Hemingway, David Arquette, Irene Bedard, Kerry Knuppe, and David Midthunder.

—”Stellar”’ explores human connections to each other and Mother Earth through the story of a couple who find each other in a bar in northern Ontario after a meteorite drastically changes the planet outside. Written and directed by Darlene Naponse, Anishnaabe, the film stars Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Braeden Clarke and Rossif Sutherland.

—”‘Walking Two Worlds,” a short film directed by Maia Wikler that follows breakthrough Indigenous model Quannah Chasinghorse and her mother, Jody Potts-Joseph, who take a stand to defend their sacred homelands.

—”In My Shoes,” a feature film about high school students learning to support a friend who is struggling. Directed by Payton K. Counts and Sir Curtis Kirby III, and starring Jennifer E. Cortes-Sanchez, Nalia Segura Anderson and Simar Means.

There will also be a “Why We Wear Red” conversation series, a Native Women Write series, a Directors/Producers series, and red-carpet events prior to the screenings.

“There are some films that are in person and some streaming on our television network Red Nation TV,” Romero said. “We just completed a total facelift of our television network. It is so amazing because we have new investors, and we were online streaming Native film before anybody else.”

Credit: The 14th annual Native Women in Film Festival will be held March 5-10, 2023, in Los Angeles, featuring 32 films directed by Native women. (Photo courtesy Native Women in Film &Television)

Following the success of its series, “Dark Winds,” AMC Networks has committed to indigenous stories with a partnership with the festival. As part of the partnership, AMC and Red Nation International Film Festival will promote Native stories and storytellers throughout the year with new mentoring and professional development initiatives for writers and filmmakers, with an emphasis on Native women creators.

AMC Networks will also partner with the festival on the “Native Women Write” and “Native Indigenous Student Academy for Cinematic Arts” programs, that focus on developing skills and career growth.

Looking ahead

As excited as Romero is for the Native Women in Film Festival, she is also looking forward to the big festival in November, the Red Nation Film Festival.

The Red Nation festival, which bills itself as the “authentic voice of American Indian and Indigenous cinema,” will run Nov. 1-30.

“It’s going to be amazing,” Romero said. “It’ll be our 28th year with our student film festivals happening in April and we have a partnership now with AMC Networks, and that’s going really great for our Native women and our youth, and our student academy.”

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Sandra Hale Schulman, of Cherokee Nation descent, has been writing about Native issues since 1994 and writes a biweekly Indigenous A&E column for ICT. The recipient of a Woody Guthrie Fellowship, she...