Documentary Educational Resources - Indigenous Studies / Cultural Rights & Revitalization / All Films

Waaki (Sanctuary)

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 16:38:58 GMT

Renowned Hopi filmmaker Victor Masayesva, Jr. explores the centrality of corn for the Hopi, Nahua, and Maya, tracing the role of corn from creation stories to today's struggles against climate change. The film presents complex interrelationships between humans, plants, food systems, animals, birds, ceremonies and the cycles of the earth, sun and moon within the universe from a Hopi, Maya, and Nahua perspective. By tracing the lineage and mysterious origins of corn, we gain a deeper understanding of the ancestry of communities that transcend borders.

Masayesva writes, "The idea of sanctuary in our time is colored by the politics of human immigration. As contemporary media consumers, we are saturated with threats and security measures originating from alerts about immigration into our neighborhood. Today state borders have restricted and closed the numerous routes blazed by migrants and only wild birds and animals move freely without visas but nonetheless restricted to wildlife refuges.

Humankind has been in constant movement since the emergence, intent on leaving an oppressive order, seeking a better life, seeking sanctuary. For our age, sanctuary cannot be only within familiar beliefs and borders but beyond in the hope we carry in our soul. Sanctuary is the best we can be at the moment, and in the future."

"Waaki presents Hopi knowledge with a self-assured visual sovereignty."
– Dorothy Christian, Simon Fraser University

"The film is a fascinating blend of genres - part ethnographic, part documentary and part animation."
– Vicky Westover, Hanson FilmTV Institute Director, U of Arizona

Selected Screenings

Native Crossroads Film Festival, 2020

ImagiNative, 2019

Cornell University

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SanDance!

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 10:15:02 GMT

SanDance!
Buy Now: $320.00

Set in the transcendent dance culture of Africa’s San First Peoples, SanDance! celebrates humanity’s original essence of dance.

This enchanting film follows San dancers from rehearsals in remote villages in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana to their electrifying performances at the Kuru San Dance Festival in Botswana. Held on full moon, the festival draws San dancers and musicians from across southern Africa to the largest annual gathering of San peoples. The film expresses the hopes and dreams of San dancers as they strive to revitalize their beautiful dance traditions, which are threatened by ongoing marginalization of the San’s fragile hunter-gatherer culture.

Radiating from the Kuru San Dance Festival into the visionary world of the trance-healing dance, SanDance! illuminates the spiritual traditions that underpin ancestral San culture across southern Africa.

Proceeds from SanDance! directly benefit the KDT, and the dance groups featured in this film.

“The film’s immersion into Southern Africa’s indigenous cultures touches on a wide berth of subjects including ancient history, recent history, colonialism, genocide, dance, language, subsistence, ecology, and philosophy. Because of its shorter runtime and mass of content, SanDance! will easily fit into many curricula.” – Frank Gunderson, Yearbook of Traditional Music

“SanDance! is billed as a journey to the heart of Africa’s original dance culture, but it’s much more than that. It opens a door into a segment of African culture that is in danger of dying out... Richard Wicksteed has spent decades filming and working with the San, making at least 10 films of varying length. The level of acceptance and their trust in him is clear from this sensitive and well-paced portrayal of an important culture under threat... I watched [the film] more than once, and still want to watch it again. For the dance. For the music. For the story. For the pleasure.” – Michael Britton, Music in Africa

Selected Screenings & Awards

Best Documentary, Garden Route Int'l Film Festival, South Africa, 2021

Award of Excellence, Documentary Feature, Impact Docs Award, 2021

Globe Award, ARFF, Barcelona, Spain 2021

Best Cinematography, International Feature, Thin Line Festival, USA 2021

International Council for Traditional Music, Ghana, 2023

Award of Excellence - Original Score, Docs Without Borders, USA, 2021

Award of Excellence, IndieFEST Film Awards, USA 2021

Best Cinematography, ABQ Indie Film Fest, USA, 2021

Best Feature - Documentary, Bucharest Film Awards, Romania, 2021

Buenos Aires Film Festival, Brazil, 2021

Osaka International Film Festival, Japan, 2021

Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival, USA, 2021

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Following the Thread

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 15:16:10 GMT

Following the Thread
Buy Now: $295.00

Following the Thread provides a critical view of the delicate balance Indigenous communities of fabric makers face as they struggle to maintain age-old artisanal practices in a globalized market economy.

In the Peruvian Andes, textiles are omnipresent in the lives of indigenous people; they are both eminently practical and stunningly beautiful as generations of weavers have applied their creativity to invent techniques and designs found nowhere else in the world. Textiles still form a powerful part of identity. But this identity is at risk. Indigenous people still face racism on a daily basis. And a globalized market economy that produces cheap, machine-made products destroys respect and interest in the hand-made. Infringement on the intellectual rights of native peoples only makes this worse.

The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC) was established by Andean weavers and their supporters to aid in the survival of Cusqueñan textile traditions and to provide support to the indigenous people who create them. This short film presents some of the communities affiliated with the Center and includes special celebrations and ceremonies, rituals with the animals (llamas and sheep), natural dying processes, weaving and knitting demonstrations, and much more.

Selected Screenings & Awards

Best Documentary Short, Berlin International Art Film Festival, 2022

Best Documentary Short, Roma Shorts Film Festival, 2022

Best Documentary Short, Miami Indie Film Awards, 2022

Best Documentary Short, San Diego Art Film Festival, 2022

Best Documentary Short, Santa Barbara Film Awards, 2022

Honorable Mention, Toronto International Women Film Festival, 2021

Semi-finalist, Berlin Shorts Award, Berlin Shorts Festival, 2022

Semi-finalist, Best Documentary Short, Dublin World Film Festival, 2022

International Manhattan Film Awards, 2022

Toronto Indie Shorts, 2022

8 & HalFilm Awards, 2022

Amsterdam Short Film Festival, 2021

Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, 2021

North Dakota Human Rights Film Festival and Summit, 2021

Tokyo Liftoff Festival, 2021

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From the Inside Out

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 09:18:00 GMT

From the Inside Out
Buy Now: $295.00

In the Navajo language there is neither a word for religion nor art. The only word that could be used to describe both is "hozho" – beauty, balance, order and harmony.

Navajo history is turbulent, and in order to survive the Navajo had to adapt. Baskets are a part of this history, changing throughout time and adapting with the people. They contribute to the balance, harmony, and beauty of Navajo life. Inititally purely functional pieces, baskets gradually became integrated into various ceremonies, elevating them to sacred and symbolic levels.

Oppression, trade, and technology eventually led to dwindling numbers of basket weavers, but beginning in the 1970s Navajo basketry experienced a renaissance led by a group of families in the Douglas Mesa region of the Utah reservation.Secularized basketry is now a thriving part of Navajo trade and traditional baskets continue to be an important part of Navajo ceremonial life.

In intimate detail, From the Inside Out depicts both the new and old roles baskets play in the lives of contemporary basket-weavers.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Durango Film Festival, Colorado, 2005

First Place - Educational Films, Broadcast Education Association Faculty Contest, 2005

Contemporary Native America Screening, Lesley University, MA, 2005

Northeastern Anthropological Association Ethnographic Film & Video Festival, NY, 2005

Heard Museum Film Festival, Arizona, 2005

19th Pärnu International Film Festival, Estonia, 2005

SVA/AAA Conference, Washington DC, 2005

Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, TX, 2006

Disclaimer on Naming:
Please be aware that this documentary may include outdated or potentially offensive language. Such terms are not endorsed by DER but are presented in their original context to promote awareness, education, and discussion. Learn more about DER’s efforts to use reparative language and honor the preferred names of Indigenous communities by clicking here.

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Caribou Kayak

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Caribou Kayak
Buy Now: $320.00

Otto Apsaktaun and Gino Akka are the last Inuit elders who know the secrets of making a unique Canadian boat built for the Arctic – the Netsilingmeot caribou-hunting kayak. With features like a wide cockpit and long, narrow shape, the kayaks were designed to enhance the speed and ease of hunting caribou, since hunters have little time once caribou are spotted in the water. In the summer of 2002, the elders invited the youth of their hamlet of Kugaaruk and a couple of southerners to join them at a remote tundra camp on Barrow Lake. Using a combination of traditional and modern techniques and materials, the group work ten twelve-hour days on the kayak construction. They also hunt, cook, play music, and teach the children Inuit traditions like the art of throat singing. While completing a pair of highly-crafted, beautiful kayaks, the elders also transmit and preserve their vanishing Inuit culture.

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The Drums of Winter

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

The Drums of Winter
Buy Now: $340.00

Digitally Remastered DVD Edition

This feature-length documentary explores the traditional dance, music and spiritual world of the Yup'ik people of Emmonak, a remote village at the mouth of the Yukon River on the Bering Sea coast. The Drums of Winter (Uksuum Cauyai) gives an intimate look at a way of life of which most of us have seen only glimpses. Dance was once at the heart of the community's spiritual and social life. It was the bridge between the ancient and the new, the living and the dead and a person's own power and the greater powers of the unseen world.

In The Drums of Winter, the people of Emmonak tell us through actualities and interviews how their history, social values and spiritual beliefs are woven around the songs and dances that have been handed down to them through the generations. We also learn that it is not just old songs that are important; new songs and dance movements are created to reflect modern life with all its complexities. Each time a person gets up to dance, he is strengthening the continuity of the ages, and insuring the survival of his culture.

The film follows the elders of Emmonak as they prepare for the coming ceremonial gathering (potlatch) with a neighboring village. In the Kashim (qasgiq or men's house), they practice their songs and painstakingly work out the motions of the dances. Each movement has meaning and plays a part in telling a story. In the days before television, radio, bingo and weekly basketball games, dance was the sole means of entertainment. Throughout the film, archival photographs and film footage accompany the words of early missionaries who brought Christianity to the area. These sequences provide a historical context for the film and give us a strong sense of the resilience of Yup'ik culture, having survived despite a century of missionary suppression.

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:

At the Time of Whaling

The Drums of Winter (Uksuum Cauyai)

From the First People

Note on Term "Eskimo":

The films in this series make use of the name "Eskimo." While once broadly applied, it is a perjorative term and considered offensive. While the inception of the word is a matter of debate, it is no longer used or applied in our film catalog. The context in which the term appears in this series is an acknowledged relic of a colonial past, presented in its original version. DER apologizes for any offense caused.

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Fishing at the Stone Weir

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Fishing at the Stone Weir
Buy Now: $320.00

Fishing at the Stone Weir

Part 1 (30 min)

Full summer, and the tundra is bare; skin tents are up and it is time to attend to the fishing as the fish move upstream. The men are in the river, lifting stones and placing them to form enclosures to trap the fish. A woman skins a duck and then braids her hair in the old way, stiffly around sticks. From a bladder she makes a balloon for the child. The men are fishing with the three-pronged leisters, spearing the fish and stringing them on a thong, until it is as much as a man can do to drag his catch from the water. The woman works quickly, cleaning the fish, and then all enjoy bits of the fresh raw fish.

Part 2 (27 min)

There are many men fishing now and even the children on shore imitate the motions of the men. Rain sweeps over the tundra but the work goes on, the men splashing through the weir, furs hitched high, seemingly little affected by the cold water. The haul is large. A man makes fire with a bowdrill and soon there is a blaze under the stone cooking pot. Fish are stewed and eaten, the men staying in their own group. There is a little play at cat's cradle while stories are told, and then the women return to cleaning fish and the men to building stone caches to store and protect the plentiful harvest for the leaner days to come.

Films in the Netsilik series

At The Autumn River Camp
At The Caribou Crossing Place
At The Spring Sea Ice Camp
At The Winter Sea Ice Camp

Building a Kayak

Fishing at the Stone Weir

Group Hunting on the Spring Ice

Jigging for Lake Trout

Stalking Seal on the Spring Ice

About the Netsilik series

These films reveal the live reality of traditional Inuit lifebefore the European acculturation. The Netsilik of the Pelly Bay regionin the Canadian Arctic had long lived apart from other people and haddepended entirely on the land and their own ingenuity to sustain lifethrough the rigors of the Arctic year.

The filming was done during the summers of 1963 and 1964 and in the late winter of 1965 under the ethnographic direction of Dr. AsenBalikci of the University of Montréal, assisted by Guy Mary-Rousseliere, O.M.I., both anthropologists of wide Arctic experience. Quentin Brownwas Producer-Director, and Kevin Smith the Executive Producer for theseries. A minimum of cultural reconstruction was required during thefilming; the Netsilik families readily agreed to live in the old wayonce more and showed considerable aptitude in recalling and representing the earlier ways of life.

Note on Term "Eskimo":

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Her Name Came on Arrows

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Her Name Came on Arrows
Buy Now: $295.00

In the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, French anthropologist Maurice Godelier invites five of his Baruya friends and informants to his house to discuss Baruya kinship and rules of marriage. As Godelier poses questions, the kinship rules that provide the cohesive fabric of Baruya culture are brought to life. Abstract terms are given practical meanings as Godelier investigates Baruya customs of stealing wives, exchanging sisters for wives, stealing names and exchanging 'food for blood.'

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Horses of Life and Death

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Horses of Life and Death
Buy Now: $295.00

The Pasola, a traditional jousting battle with hundreds of horses and riders, is the Sumbanese New Year celebration, and also a ritual that anticipates the rice harvest. It is staged to welcome the annual swarming of sea worms on the western beaches, since the worms are seen as representing the spirit of the rice crop. The spirit of the fertility of the seas and the land comes from the body of a sacrificed girl, and her return each year is celebrated with a dramatic display of masculine virility, courage, and horsemanship.

The first part of the story is narrated by a boastful young rider, describing preparations for the event, and ways in which a rider's identity and name are tied to his favorite horse. After reciting ritual taunts to his opponents, the rider crosses the Pasola field with a bamboo lance and tries to knock others off their horses, as the sea worm priest watches to make sure that no rules are broken. The fierceness and violence of these hyper-masculine confrontations underscore the contrast with traditions that fertility and life ultimately come from female spirits.

The second part of the story is narrated by the widow of a man who died shortly after these festivities, and whose funeral involves his horse as the leader of the procession to the stone tomb. The widow explains that only women can mourn the dead, since only they can remove the pollution of death from the house and restore the balance between life and death. For four days, her husband's spirit is fed at every meal, and he does not realize that he is dead until a final ritual to determine the cause of his death and send his spirit away. The contrast in narrators shows a gendered perspective on calendar rituals in Sumba, and also the close emotional ties between members of a family and the horses that they raise, which share the same destiny as their riders.

A more complete analysis of the ritual jousting and funeral depicted in this film can be found in Chapters 5 and 9 of The Play of Time: Kodi Perspectives on Calendars, History and Exchange (University of California Press, 1994) and in the American Ethnologist article "Predatory Voyeurs: Tourists and 'Tribal Violence' in Remote Indonesia" 2002 29(4) pp. 603-630.

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The Girl's Celebration

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

The Girl's Celebration
Buy Now: $295.00

The Nambiquara of Mato Grosso are trying to re-establish their traditional practices. In The Girl's Celebration a girl undergoes puberty rites after her first menstruation, entering seclusion for several months; a neighboring village is then invited to fetch her out of isolation and to take part in a feast and celebration.

Ceremonies like this double as political events, strengthening ties between Nambiquara and other Indian groups, and watching video footage of the ceremony allows the people of the village to assess themselves and their visitors. Video also allows the Nambiquara to proudly record the revival of their most distinctive practice: the lip and nose-piercing of boys.

Films in the Video in the Villages series

Daritidzé, Trainee Healer
The Girl's Celebration
Jungle Secrets
Pemp
The Spirit of TV
Video Cannibalism
Video in the Villages Presents Itself
Video in the Villages

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