This weekend, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) presents the New York Native Film Festival in Lower Manhattan. Part of the Native Cinema Showcase, this one-of-a-kind free event will feature works by emerging and established filmmakers and will include a range of shorts, features and talks. In association with New York nativea permanent exhibition of the NMAI, the festival focuses on films exploring the stories and communities that “make New York an Indigenous place.“ All screenings will take place in the NMAI Auditorium, located at 1 Bowling Green.
“We have a very large Indigenous population here in the city, but everyone is so spread out,” said Cynthia Benitez, director of film programming at NMAI. Hyperallergic. “So when you have something like a film festival, we can bring people together.”
For the festival, Benitez explained how she and the NMAI have worked with local Indigenous filmmakers, such as Terry Jones (Seneca), to compile the list of films by established and emerging artists.
“Whether it’s documentary, drama or comedy, there’s something for everyone,” Benitez said. “We’re lucky to have a lot of local filmmakers coming, so people will be able to ask questions and converse with them.”
The Native New York Film Festival begins tomorrow Friday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m. with a screening of Little Caughnawaga: to Brooklyn and back (2008). The 57-minute film follows the Mohawk filmmaker Tarbell Reaghan as she traces her family roots back to the vibrant community of Mohawk ironworkers who once occupied northern Gowanus in an area known as Little Caughnawaga. Audience members who might be interested in learning more about the film can stick around afterwards for a chat with Tarbell. The film will also be preceded by “Rotinonhsión:ni Ironworkers(2020), a six-minute short that explores the social and industrial influence of the Mohawk ironworkers who built New York’s skyline.
The festival continues on Saturday May 6 at 1 p.m. with the Made In New York: Retrospective Short Film Program, a two-hour block featuring a collection of eight classic shorts that celebrate New York City from an Indigenous perspective. Some of the films include “First Voices” (2010), a documentary about a Cheyenne River Lakota broadcaster; “I Lost My Shadow” (2011), a music video from White Mountain Apache artist Laura Ortman’s second solo album; and “Kinnaq Nigaqtuqtuaq (The Snarling Madman)” (2005), a short film that follows an Inuit cannibal through Manhattan as he hunts a young woman who is simultaneously stalking her former lover. The program will conclude with a discussion with Seneca filmmaker Terry Jones.
Later, the public can capture Guardians of the game (2016), a feature film that follows an all-Native girls’ lacrosse team in upstate New York as they set out to become the first Native women’s team to win a championship for their community. The screening will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The last day of the festival, Sunday May 7, brings another short film program with a lineup of contemporary and classic films by filmmakers from various nations. Showing at 1 p.m., the films vary in length, with the shortest, “A Heart Free” (2022), clocking in at two minutes, and the longest, Tsi Tiotonhontsatáhsawe: Tsi Nihotirihò:ten Ne Ratironhia Kehró:non (When Earth Began: The Way of the Skydwellers) (2022), lasting 33 minutes. Audiences can stay after the screening for another discussion with Terry Jones and filmmaker Shinnecock Jeremy Denisan old Hyperallergic fellow.
Finally, the festival closes at 3 p.m. with a screening of Point of Consciousness (2019). Directed by Treva Wurmfeldthis film follows Shinnecock activist Rebecca Hill-Genia as she works with other tribal members and allies to protect their nation from the threat of wealthy Hamptons landowners who threaten to displace them.
