Film: American Indian Film Festival: Season Forty Seven

Program 9 • Music, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.

HIStory

A captivating spoken word-piece poetically displaying the historical traumas of Indigenous Peoples through the lens of a Native American.

R. Carlos Nakai: The Sound of Prayer Within

Native American Flute Master R. Carlos Nakai reflects upon the relationship between prayer and music in his work.

Magic Hits featuring Adrian Sutherland

Magic Hits is the album's title track, and the third video from Sutherland in 2021 – no small feat considering he was isolated in Canada's remote North since March 2020. All of Adrian's videos have been made by the same creative team: director, animator and editor Justin Stephenson (Toronto), and producer and production manager RoseAnna Schick (Winnipeg), with Sutherland (Attawapiskat) as executive producer.

No More Pipeline Blues (On This Land Where We Belong)

Indigenous mothers, grandmothers and others are teaming up in song, spoken word and video to push back against a new toxic, highly polluting tar sands oil pipeline. “Line 3” cuts through the heart of Native land and crosses more than 200 water bodies – including the Mississippi River twice – a drinking water source for millions of people downstream from the river’s headwaters, which begins in northern Minnesota featuring Waubanewquay, Winona LaDuke, Day Sisters, Mumu Fresh, Pura Fe, Soni Moreno, Jennifer Kreisberg, Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt and poet Joy Harjo. Song by folksinger and activist Larry Long.

Right Here featuring Adrian Sutherland

Roots-rock recording artist Adrian Sutherland has been isolated in Attawapiskat First Nation since the start of the pandemic. He needs to make a music video for his new single, but any visuals needed have to be attainable by him alone. So filmmaker and animator Justin Stephenson comes up with the most clever concept... “The video for Right Here draws inspiration from people's travel selfies. I was struck by the idea of an ever-changing world around a steadfast and constant subject,” says Stephenson, who has worked with Sutherland before on two previous music videos.

Elisapie, facing the music

Featuring songs from her latest album, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, and encounters with inspiring people, this film recounts Elisapie’s coming to terms with her identity, all the while exploring her artistic process. More dedicated than ever, Elisapie travels across the country, exploring connections between cultures and how curiosity leads to acceptance.

Program 10 • SciFi Shorts, 1:30–3:15

N'xaxaitkw

After moving to a new town, a teenager must navigate peer pressure when her next-door neighbour convinces her to explore a nearby island in search of a legendary lake monster. However, she quickly learns that her new friends might be harbouring some secrets and ulterior motives of their own.

MisTik

Follows the journey of lone survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. Cree twins NiiPii and SiiPii are in search of hope; they carry the last of the healthy trees on their backs. After a devastating loss, the story jumps time to NiiPii now in his mid-twenties, who is guided to a new beginning by the spirit world.

The Faraway Place  

A horror/fantasy film following film following a young woman and her father, both of whom have horns, as they evade a violent cult hellbent on eradicating their kind. In the early hours of the morning, Mana stalks a deer through the trees, while her father packs up camp and prepares for their endless migration. Their morning is interrupted by a cult hunting party, and Mana and her father must flee their pursuers. Amidst the chaos, her father is wounded and captured, but his sacrifice allows Mana to escape the cult's grasps, if only for a while longer. It is a story of survival and resilience.

The Golden Age

Abenaki mythology is divided into three time periods. The Ancient Age, where humans and animals are equal. The Golden Age, when the animals were still human, but qualitatively different. The last period is the Present Age, where humans have completely separated themselves from animals.

Program 11 • Powerlands, 3:30–5:30 p.m.

Kanatenhs - When The Pine Needles Fall

Kanehsatà:ke, a Mohawk community near Montreal,Qc is raided early in the morning of July 11th, 1990. The Kanehsatake Mohawks have erected a barricade to stop the expansion of a 9 hole golf course on the last vestige of common land on their Homelands. The women's role on that morning was to confront police, and to possibly be arrested but they did not imagine what would happen next. July 11th, 1990 is the first day of the Siege of Kanehsatake, commonly known as the Mohawk Crisis. Quebec Provincial Police, known as the Sureté du Quebec open fire upon the community sparking a 78 day Siege of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawake. Their sister community of Kahnawake near Montreal blocks the Mercier bridge in support of Kanehsatà:ke. After 3 hours of trying to negotiate with police, the SQ open fire on the Mohawks.

Powerlands

A young Navajo woman investigates displacement of Indigenous people in several countries, and devastation of the environment, caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. On this personal and political journey she learns from Indigenous activists across three continents.

From Nov. 5–10, AIFF 47 will offer free film screenings at SFPL’s Main Library, Koret Auditorium.

Since its inception in 1975, the mission of the American Indian Film Festival (AIFF) has steadfastly been the cultural exchange—through the power of film—of Native American and Canada’s First Nations cultures. While the content is by, for and about Indigenous storytellers, AIFF remains a film festival for all audiences—from filmmakers whose intent is to inform, educate, enlighten and entertain all viewers. With the American Indian Film Institute director Mytia Zavala at the helm, and carrying on the work of her late father, founder Michael Smith, AIFF welcomes film fans back to the Bay. After two years of virtual film festivals, the American Indian Film Institute is excited to bring AIFF 47 in-person to film fans in San Francisco, featuring live events, panel discussions, food demos and an award show to showcase and celebrate the best of Native film.  

The AIFF47 film schedule and information is available at aifisf.com.

Connect

American Indian Film Institute - Website | American Indian Film Institute - Vimeo | American Indian Film Institute - Facebook | American Indian Film Institute - Instagram