Native American & Indigenous Film
These are some of my favorite/important films featuring American Indian/Indigenous people/characters. I have an M.A. in Media Studies and did my thesis on American Indian women directors, so this subject is very interesting to me.
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- DirectorNiki CaroStarsKeisha Castle-HughesRawiri ParateneVicky HaughtonA contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.Love this film! So rare to feature an Indigenous girl's story at the forefront!
- DirectorChris EyreStarsEric SchweigGraham GreeneGary FarmerAn inspirational tale about the relationship between two Sioux brothers living on the Pine Ridge reservation.Love this film by Chris Eyre, especially the last scene.
- DirectorAlanis ObomsawinStarsJack BurningHerbie BarnesAlanis ObomsawinA film account about the military 1990 siege of a Native American reserve near Oka, Quebec, Canada and its causes.Love Alanis Obomsawin! You can find her full-length documentary films here: http://www.nfb.ca/explore-all-directors/alanis-obomsawin/
- DirectorHeather RaeStarsRobert RedfordKris KristoffersonSam ShepardA chronicle of legendary Native American poet/activist John Trudell's travels, spoken word performances and politics.Amazing and beautiful film by Heather Rae!
- DirectorChris EyreStarsAdam BeachEvan AdamsIrene BedardArnold rescued Thomas from a fire when he was a child. Thomas thinks of Arnold as a hero, while Arnold's son Victor resents his father's alcoholism, violence and abandonment of his family.The most well-know Indian directed film (Chris Eyre). Great indie gem!
- DirectorZacharias KunukStarsNatar UngalaaqSylvia IvaluPeter-Henry ArnatsiaqThe telling of an Inuit legend of an evil spirit causing strife in the community and one warrior's endurance and battle of its menace.It was the first feature film ever to be written, directed and acted entirely in Inuktitut, and has been highly praised.
- DirectorSterlin HarjoStarsWes AllenJeri ArredondoLaura BaileyAfter his father's untimely suicide, Cufe leaves his home in a Native American reservation in search of a more fulfilling life.Directed by one of my fav Indian directors Sterlin Harjo, featuring great performances by Cody Lightning and Tamara Podemski. A lovely low-budget film!
- DirectorSterlin HarjoStarsBebe HarjoGabriel PelayoFrederick SchroederFrankie is dying. Irene hasn't forgiven him. And they are racing against time to find their way home. Frankie needs help and Irene is the one he turns to. He must go home one last time. And, like so many times before, Irene is extending herself beyond her common sense. The two set out on a journey that becomes more than getting home; confronting the past, love, understanding, and self discovery. Barking Water is a tale of great love that looks at what brings us all together. It's a tale of home...and what it takes to get there.Another lovely film by Sterlin Harjo! Side Note: This is writer Sherman Alexie's fav Native American film.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsVal KilmerSam ShepardGraham GreeneA young mixed-blood FBI agent is assigned to work with a cynical veteran investigator on a murder on a poverty-stricken Sioux reservation.While it has a white male lead, it features great performances from Graham Greene & Sheila Tousey and touches on some real issues (Sheila's character is based on the amazing Anna Mae Pictou Aquash).
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsRobert RedfordNorman ZigrossiRobert SikmaThis film describes the events surrounding a 1975 shootout at the Pine Ridge reservation in S. Dakota where two FBI agents were killed.Side note: Leonard Peltier is still in prison, even though the F.B.I. evidence that put him there is sketchy. This film & Thunderheart would be good screened together.
- DirectorPhillip NoyceStarsEverlyn SampiTianna SansburyKenneth BranaghIn 1931, three half-white, half-Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their houses to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a journey across the Outback.Great film that focuses on the history of aboriginal children in New Zealand (happened in the U.S. and Canada too) being forced into Boarding schools.
- DirectorRolf de HeerPeter DjigirrStarsCrusoe KurddalJamie GulpililRichard BirrinbirrinIn Australia's Northern Territory, a man tells us a story of his people and his land. It's about an older man, Minygululu, who has three wives and realizes that his younger brother Dayindi may try to steal away the youngest wife.Love Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil (Crocodile Dundee, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Tracker).
- DirectorCourtney HuntStarsMelissa LeoMisty UphamCharlie McDermottA mom looks for another source of income, when her husband leaves with the money meant for the new mobile home. A nearby Indian territory stretches across the border to Canada with a drivable frozen river between. Smuggling?Great performances. Native actress Misty Upham has a great supporting role in this.
- DirectorBilly LutherStarsRadmilla CodyMarilyn Help HoodIda Gail OrganickThe role of women and tradition in Dine (Navajo) culture is explored through a young woman's quest for the Miss Navajo Nation crown.Great Documentary! Check it out on Netflix!
- DirectorRyszard BugajskiStarsRon LeaGraham GreeneMichael HoganA white lawyer finds his values shaken when he is paired with an angry Indigenous activist who insists on kidnapping the head of a logging company to teach him the price of his destruction.I haven't seen this one yet, but I'm sure Graham Greene is amazing.
- DirectorChip RichieDan AgentGayle RossStarsGayle RossAugust SchellenbergFrom Rich-Heape Films, the award winning producers of Trail of Tears Cherokee Legacy and Black Indians An American Story and told from the Native American perspective, this documentary uncovers the dark history of the US government policy and will give a voice to the countless Indian children forced through the system.Harrowing story of how the U.S. government forced Native children into boarding schools.
- DirectorSande ZeigAPACHE 8 tells the story of an all-women wildland firefighter crew from the White Mountain Apache Tribe, who have been fighting fires in Arizona and throughout the U.S., for over 30 years. The film delves into the challenging lives of these Native firefighters. Four extraordinary women from different generations of the Apache 8 crew share their personal narratives with humor and tenderness. They speak of hardship and loss, family and community, and pride in being a firefighter from Fort Apache. APACHE 8 weaves together a compelling tale of these remarkable firefighters, revealed for the first time.Love this documentary directed by Sande Zeig and produced by Heather Rae.
- DirectorWalter HillStarsJason PatricGene HackmanRobert DuvallThe story of the Apache chief and his armed resistance to the U.S. Government's subjugation of his people.While I love Wes Studi in anything, the movie lacks mention of the female warrior Lozen whose skill helped them tremendously! Definitely look her up, she was pretty awesome.
- DirectorKevin WillmottStarsWes StudiJ. Kenneth CampbellWinter Fox FrankSet in Kansas during the early 1900s, a teen-aged Native American boy (newcomer Winter Fox Frank) is taken from his family and forced to attend a distant Indian "training" school to assimilate into White society. When he escapes to return to his family, Sam Franklin (Wes Studi), a bounty hunter of Cherokee descent, is hired to find and return him to the institution. Franklin, a former Indian scout for the U.S. Army, has renounced his Native heritage and has adopted the White Man's way of life, believing it's the only way for Indians to survive. Along the way, a tragic incident spurs Franklin's longtime nemesis, the famous "Indian Fighter" Sheriff Henry McCoy (J. Kenneth Campbell), to pursue both Franklin and the boy.Another great performance from Wes Studi, and a depiction of Indian boarding schools.
- DirectorGeorgina LightningStarsAdam BeachTantoo CardinalBradley CooperA Native American woman is haunted by visions that compel her to seek the truth about a residential school.Georgina Lightning directs this haunting film.
- DirectorSherman AlexieStarsEvan AdamsMichelle St. JohnGene TagabanSeymour Polatkin is a successful, gay Native American poet from Spokane who confronts his past when he returns to his childhood home on the reservation to attend the funeral of a dear friend.One of the few fiction films exploring Two-Spirit identity.
- DirectorLydia NibleyFilmmaker Lydia Nibley explores the cultural context behind a tragic and senseless murder. Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16 by a man who bragged to his friends that he 'bug-smashed a fag'. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition - the 'nadleeh', or 'two-spirit', who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits. Through telling Fred's story, Nibley reminds us of the values that America's indigenous peoples have long embraced.Also known as Two Spirits: Sexuality, Gender, and the Murder of Fred Martinez
- DirectorJennifer Wynne FarmerValerie Red-HorseStarsValerie Red-HorseYvonne RussoIrene BedardThree Native American sisters (Red-Horse, Bedard, Guerrero) decide to try to sell a line of cosmetics they call Naturally Native, based on old tribal remedies, only to have to fight an uphill battle with racist business people. The film is actually Red-Horse's comment on her fight with the movie industry to get her films made and this film is the first to be totally financed by an Indian tribe, Connecticut's Mashantucket tribe.One of the few fiction films featuring female Native American leads.
- DirectorChris EyreStarsJames McDanielIrene BedardDelanna StudiBased on a true story, a black educator takes a job teaching high-school English at the Three Nations Reservation, and is coaxed into coaching the girls basketball team.Another great one by Chris Eyre.
- DirectorRandy RedroadStarsKevin AndersonRobert A. GuthrieNathaniel ArcandA Cherokee boy is a haemophiliac in a culture obsessed with blood identity.Intriguing film by Randy Redroad.
- DirectorNorman CohnZacharias KunukStarsPakak InnuksukLeah AngutimarikNeeve IrngautA portrayal of the lives of the last great Inuit shaman, Avva, and his beautiful and headstrong daughter, Apak. Based on the journals of 1920s Danish ethnographer Knud Rasmussen.Also by the crew that did Atanarjuat:The Fast Runner
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsRichard ChamberlainOlivia HamnettDavid GulpililA Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualized taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsNicolas CageAdam BeachPeter StormareTwo U.S. Marines in World War II are assigned to protect Navajo Marines, who use their native language as an unbreakable radio cypher.A lot of people attribute the U.S.'s success in WWI & WWII to Choctaw and Navajo code talkers.
- DirectorValerie Red-HorseStarsIsrael Richard AdamsMary Ashby AndersonCalvin BillyIn 1918, not yet citizens of the U.S., Choctaw members of the American Expeditionary Forces were asked to use their Native language as a powerful tool against the German Forces in World War I, setting a precedent for code talking as an effective military weapon and establishing them as America's original Code Talkers.Great film by Native director Valerie Red-Horse.
- DirectorMichael J.F. ScottStarsHerbie BarnesGordon TootoosisMichelle St. JohnAfter a life of being shuttled from one foster home to another, 16-year-old Jesse Three Bears is reacquainted with his grandfather where unresolved historical tensions resurface forcing the two of them to reconcile with their past.
- DirectorSteve BarronStarsAugust SchellenbergEddie SpearsGary FarmerThe legends of the Native American nations come to life in this epic new miniseries, as two generations--a century-old storyteller and his grandson, a troubled 17-year-old boy--embark on a cross-country journey toward self-discovery.I have yet to see this, but I've heard lots of raves about it.
- CreatorRon E. ScottStarsCarmen MooreEric SchweigMichelle ThrushBlackstone is an authentic drama that explores the dynamics of family, power and politics on a First Nation reserve.Canadian show with great performances by a ton of Native actresses/actors.
- DirectorKate MontgomeryStarsTimothy VahleSam VlahosMariana ToscaDuring the holidays at a ski resort in Utah run by a Native American tribe, the overworked manager and a widowed woman from the big city overcome mistaken identities and intrusive guests in their pursuit of romance.
- DirectorFrank PiersonStarsCharles AbourezkDave Bald EagleLawrence BayneMary Crow Dog, daughter of a desperately poor Indian family in South Dakota, is swept up in the protests of the 1960s and becomes sensitized to the injustices that society inflicts on her people. She aids the Lakota in their struggle for their rights: a struggle that culminates in an armed standoff with US government forces at the site of an 1890 massacre.Hard to find film, featuring an excellent performance by Irene Bedard (voice of Disney's Pocahontas).
- DirectorTravis Holt HamiltonStarsDeshava ApacheeDonavon G. BarneyEthel BegayRaised in the suburbs of Phoenix, a Navajo college student must choose between a vacation in Rome or moving to the reservation to care for her ailing grandmother.
- DirectorSteven Lewis SimpsonStarsAmara ZaragozaTrent FordChris RobinsonSet on and around the poorest place in the USA, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Rez Bomb is a love story/thriller about a Lakota girl and a white guy who are very much in love but get themselves into trouble with a brutal money lender and its against the clock for them to bail themselves out.
- DirectorJan EglesonStarsAdam BeachCandice CostelloJimmy HermanTwo tribal cops uncover a plot involving a lost fortune, an historical artifact and a mythical Coyote on a Navajo reservation.Park of PBS pictures detective series featuring Native-themed stories starring Wes Studi & Adam Beach
- DirectorJonathan WacksStarsGary FarmerA MartinezJoanelle RomeroTwo Northern Cheyenne men take a road trip from Montana to New Mexico to bail out the sister of one of them who has been framed and arrested in Santa Fe. On the way, they begin to reconnect to their spiritual heritage.Gary Farmer is always entertaining.