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Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
The latest: Women in film on and off the screen, musical landscapes, and Native power murals in Las Vegas
FILM: Festival spotlights Native women
The 15th Native Women in Film Festival happens once again prior to the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. The Matriarchs of Cinema/Women of Influence, which aims to decolonize the entertainment industry, presents a week of films, panels and networking. With 45 plus films directed by women, the event happens March 1-8 at AMC The Grove 14 in Los Angeles.
“NWIFTV Festival has 45 films directed by women this year, marking the largest number of films by Native women directors,” says festival founder director Joanelle Romero. “We’ve surpassed all of them in numbers — Toronto Film Festival, Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca and the Oscars. It’s been quite extraordinary. We are in our 15th year with NWIFTV film festival and the past seven years our numbers are reflecting that we are leading the way for women directors from a Native perspective.”
In the last six years, the film festival has screened 162 films directed by women. Presented annually by the Red Nation Celebration Institute, the Creative Enterprise by Natives, “delivering to all people the stories that shape our world,” is the longest-running Native women-led Indigenous media arts and cultural nonprofit in the entertainment industry.
Films include “American Holocaust,” “The Unknown Country,” “Bones of Crows” and “Bird Woman, Sacajawea.”
The Sacajawea film uses AI to generate and animate historical figures in a magical-realism historical dramatization. Based on the Lewis and Clark Native American guide, Sacajawea, who was essentially forced from her tribe to be a guide while carrying a small child, Bird Woman discovers her supernatural shape-shifting powers where she is part woman and part Eagle to uncover her full powers and her fierce unplanned destiny on a voyage of “discovering America” for the colonizers.
MUSIC: Tunes inspired by paintings
Singer-songwriter Cary Morin, Assiniboine Sioux and African American, had an unusual inspiration for his latest album, “Innocent Allies,” his 10th in 21 years – famed Western artist Charles Marion Russell.
Russell has been a guiding force for all of Morin’s life. The songs on “Innocent Allies” are tied to paintings and directly to Morin’s personal family history. The stories, sky and earthy colors conjure musical landscapes for Morin.
“Growing up, his work was everywhere: in our house, in businesses, on the walls of our families’ homes,” he told No Depression Magazine. He even graduated from Charles M. Russell High School in Great Falls, Montana, Russell’s hometown.
Russell’s paintings grace the cover of the album, a collection of 12 original songs and two covers.
Morin is a roots and “Native Americana” artist, and he has won multiple Indigenous Music Awards and an Independent Music Award. A live performance of his song “Jug in the Water” was named one of NPR Music’s Best Live Sessions of 2020. He uses a unique Piedmont-inspired guitar fingerpicking with a soulful voice.
Morin is from a family of Crow ranchers and military veterans. His parents worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs prior to his father joining the Air Force, eventually settling in Montana. He learned about rock and roots music through his siblings’ record collections and has been playing the guitar since he was 12 years old.
Active in the Colorado music scene, he played in bands like The Atoll and the Pura Fé Trio before writing and recording his solo material, beginning with 2012’s Sing It Louder.
MUSIC: Soundtrack song thunders online
The groundbreaking musical “Distant Thunder,” with music and lyrics by Chris Wiseman and Shaun Taylor-Corbett, has released the first of three singles called “Strong Enough” on February 12 to Spotify and Apple Music.
In the debut song, three kids are running away from the Blackfeet Reservation to find a better life, but the real world teaches them the value of their community and their language.
“While preparing to release the first single, ‘Strong Enough,’ from our musical, ‘Distant Thunder,’ I can’t help but feel an electrifying mix of excitement and anticipation sharing our music,” Shaun Taylor-Corbett said in a statement.
“This song embodies the spirit of so many young people trying to find themselves and chasing dreams of a brighter future. Stay tuned for more big news and the subsequent releases in the coming weeks. Let the power of music and storytelling resonate as we share the profound narrative of ‘Distant Thunder’ with the world.”
“Strong Enough” features Spencer Battiest, Seminole, a Native American Music Awards/MTV and VMA Awards winner, Shayna Jackson, Dakota and Cree, (Shane at Guthrie Theatre), Chelsea Zeno, Taino, (“In the Heights”), Román Zaragoza, Akimel O’otham, Mexican, Japanese, (“Ghosts”), and Shaun Taylor-Corbett (Currently: “Between Two Knees”; “Jersey Boys,” “In the Heights”).
Set on the Blackfeet Reservation, “Distant Thunder” is a contemporary story of attorney Darrell Walters, a young half-Blackfeet, half-white outsider from Chicago, who sets off a firestorm of crisis when he goes home to his tribe to reconcile with his father. While connecting to his community, he embraces the tribe’s language and works to keep it alive.
ART: Sin City goes Native
A new mural by Gregg Deal, Pyramid Lake Paiute, has sprung up on a wall in the arts district in Las Vegas. Sponsored by Content for Change by Paramount, the black and white images reference appropriation, the Indian Child Welfare Act, water is life and proclaiming Nevada as Indigenous land in graphic black and white.
Said Deal on Instagram: “This is my second trip to Las Vegas working on these political murals, representing Native voices alongside @nuwuart and @seewalker_art. It’s been an interesting exercise watching Murphy’s Law in action. Nevertheless, we are there. With the exception of some sunbursts on the State piece, I am done. Love these pieces and am grateful to @el_stoneman for encouraging a revival of these pieces along with new ones. Honored to be on the land of my relative to the south Nuwuvi and Newe. The simple act of being here, taking up space and making our mark is powerful. More to come! arts district!”
Deal came to fame in Utah and Colorado through his work using updated vintage comics to make striking political and social comments. After a rough few years finding his way, he mentored with the great James Luna, and he has now been exhibited in major museums and expanded his work into performance – punk is a big influence – sculpture, film and print.
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