With five world premieres, two U.S. debuts and 78 juried films, the first ever Talking Stick Film Festival aims to become an annual point of focus for those dedicated to indigenous storytelling.
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Gerald Nailor (Picuris/Navajo)
Among the five world premieres scheduled for this year's inaugural Talking Stick Film Festival (June 21st-26th) in Santa Fe, New Mexico are several films that underscore its political nature. The documentary Our Spirits Don't Speak English for example is about a one-time U.S. government policy that forcefully relocated reservation children to English language boarding schools, while Spirit Warriors: The Legacy of the Navajo Veteran reminds viewers that many Native Americans were not recognized as American citizens until they volunteered for the army.
'This is the year of emergence for the Talking Stick Film Festival,' the event's program notes. 'We have come a long way together and the journey to the screen has not been easy.'
'Our land, once open and unfenced, became bordered,' the introduction continues. 'Fences were erected holding us in place. Our minds have struggled to remain free, tell our stories, and yes, that road has not always been clear.'
The organization behind the film festival is the SEED Graduate Institute, a New Age think tank that offers degrees in five categories: "Earth" (Global Ecology), "Air" (Perennial Wisdom), "Fire" (Science and Cosmology), "Water" (Integral Healing) and "Spirit" (Expressive Arts and Indigenous Studies). And as a sign of just how conjoined the worlds of old knowledge and new technology have become, there will be several workshops at this year's Talking Stick Festival designed to teach attendees all the latest tricks when it comes to using Apple's Final Cut editing software.
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