Kalle Benallie
ICT
The idea for Whit Maloney’s short film came from listening to music and feeling like someone was saying hello through earbuds.
“It’s basically a film about overcoming those inner — the self-doubt, the inner critic and stepping into the unknown with your creativity,” she said.
She directed and wrote the script for “The Unknown Welcomes Me,” making it her third short film. Creating the project took about a year and continuously evolved until the end.
“The Unknown Welcomes Me” takes place in a dystopian future with a young woman trying to write her book when she hears a voice from the future, claiming to be her.
Maloney, Diné, is one of two recent graduates from the Institute of American Indian Arts who were chosen to be part of the school’s film showcase during the Santa Fe Indian Market. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture hosted the event that featured five student films with a special presentation of “Courage,” directed by Eric Hernandez, Lumbee.
Her film was also screened at the movie theatre Sky Cinemas in Santa Fe for IAIA’s student showcase in May.
Maloney said it was nerve-wracking to have other people besides her classmates see it for the first time on a big screen.
“I feel exposed in a way, and that’s something I’m getting used to. But it feels good,” she said. “It feels good to show people the hard work that me and my classmates put in my film and just the collaboration and showing that to other people.”
She was involved in the editing, special effects with another student, working with the composer and a colorist while having other classes.
Maloney said her grandma inspires her the most. The main character of the film wore her red dress.
She’s also inspired by other films.
“As far as movies it’s either early 2000 Chick flicks or Sophia Coppola or David Fincher,” Maloney said.
Maloney advises other young Indigenous filmmakers to believe and use what’s available to them to create.
“I’m excited to see a lot of young Indigenous people out there creating and their stories and that they’re all valid and they deserve to be heard and just keep pushing no matter what other people say,” she said.
She added that filmmakers should be open to other people’s criticism but still be faithful to your vision.
Her biggest challenge during this film was staying levelheaded amidst the process.
“During spring break, I was editing a lot, and I was very secluded from a lot of people. Sometimes that was the challenge for me is the balance [between] working on my film and having this regular life,” she said.
The experience for Maloney was bittersweet when everything came together at the end.
“Once I realized that I was done, I just felt a little bit because I was working with all these different people plus it was my senior year, so I felt very sentimental ending the project,” she said.
Maloney hopes to do a feature horror film and make a short film with puppets from an apprenticeship she did in Vermont with the Pride and Puppet Theatre.
Laura Ten Fingers, Oglala Sioux, graduated in May 2025, was one of five students who showcased their short films. The entire crew are from IAIA and the cast members are people she had met while working on other senior projects.
“Wokiksuye” is about a young woman who works through her grief and healing after the tragic loss of one of her loved ones. It deals with strength, finding that balance inside of yourself and learning how to accept and move along.
“I was told that it seemed like whenever I created this film and I showed it to others, it felt like it gave them that time to sit with themselves and their emotions and kind of process their own relation to the [missing and murdered Indigenous women] topic,” she said. “It almost seemed medicinal, as it was described, because it allowed space for those emotions to flow and things to kind of settle with their spirit.”
She had filmed “Wokiksuye” before under a different name with a different theme around it, but it was too hard to work with. It was then changed a bit.
“Wokiksuye” is a Lakota word that is used to describe remembering something. In this film it relates to remembering the people who were lost to the MMIW crisis.
Ten Fingers said she used to write a lot of stories as a kid and was influenced by family to go into the medical field. But she realized her passion for the arts was stronger and attended IAIA to find that like-minded artistic community. She plans to go back to IAIA and receive her bachelor’s degree in creative writing.
Ten Fingers’ short film was also shown at Sky Cinemas and she said she was extremely nervous.
“It was, finally opening yourself, like bare heart and bare soul and bare spirit, and then finally having other people witness that in like your creative side for the first time. It was a vulnerable moment, but it was very honored to be in that space,” she said.
Ten Fingers said that most of her inspiration comes from other Indigenous creatives like the other students’ films at the showcase as well as “in-between moments.”
“You can be sitting with an elder outside, and all of a sudden it comes a story about, something like an origin story, a funny story from their past, or just any story at all,” she said. “Or not to be somehow eavesdropping like listening to other people tell stories, too. It’s just so inspirational, and there’s a lot of creativity that just exists out there.”
Filming “Wokiksuye” was unique in that it featured a buffalo, Clyde. Ten Fingers interacted with him two or three times before at a ranch in Santa Fe but his day on set was surprising.
Behind the scenes he was on a harness with his owner Clint nearby. On the second day they were filming, Clyde had a lot of energy and decided to walk fast toward the crew.
“I put my hand out and I was able to put my hand on his forehead and he just stopped just right then and there. And to me, that was like, whoa, that was a really serene moment,” Ten Fingers said. “I felt really connected to not only my crew, but also to the animal actor that we had on set.”
She said she would work with another animal actor and already has another screenplay with a buffalo in it.
Ten Fingers advice to other aspiring Indigenous filmmakers is that there are multiple opportunities to express your ideas. Filmmaking is a medium of trial and error.
“So my advice would be to just stay disciplined and to stay focused and also remember that the people you have on your crew are there to support you through no matter what the people that you have in your cast are depending on you and also trust you with the creative direction that you are going to guide them in,” she said.
Ten Fingers added that sometimes audiences have different interpretations than what you intended but that doesn’t affect your message.
“It just means that there’s a story that’s larger and it can reach larger audiences, but the theme is the driving central focus. And as long as you have a strong theme, then you can do anything,” she said.
Ten Fingers hopes that the film community will one day be transformed bigger at the Santa Fe Indian Market.
“I would love to see it flourish and become quite larger than it is,” she said.