Film Preservation Festival to focus on American Indian movies
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s 2008 Film Preservation Festival is focusing on movies depicting American Indians today-Sunday.
In recognition of National American Indian Heritage Month, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, in collaboration with the University of Central Oklahoma Film Studies Collection, the American Indian Cultural Center & Museum and the Film + Video Center of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian, are presenting recently restored films that depict diverse images of American Indians in the film medium.
The series will begin with a live film accompaniment and conclude with a panel discussion providing a critical context for these cinematic representations.
Here is the lineup for the festival:
- 7:30 p.m. today: “Redskin.”
One of Paramount’s last silent films, this spectacularly photographed tale of a Navajo caught between two cultures was shot in two-strip Technicolor. Richard Dix plays the Navajo abducted to a government boarding school as a child, but his partial assimilation into white society leaves him neither Indian nor white, just “Redskin.” The film was far ahead of its time in presenting a sympathetic and authentic portrayal of Native Americans and the prejudices they faced, despite all of the leading roles being acted by non-Indians. Director: Victor Schertzinger 1929 USA 82min. NR 35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The musical score will be performed live by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
Special price $10 per person. No discounts apply.
- 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday: “House Made of Dawn”
This film adaptation of Oklahoma author N. Scott Momaday’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a story of loss and redemption. A young man, played by actor/poet Larry Littlebird, must cope with his life in two distinct but conflicting worlds of the 1970’s-the reservation in the Southwest and the gritty urban environment. Richardson Morse’s quiet, insightful film ultimately celebrates the natural and the enduring. With support from the American Film Institute, the National Museum of the American Indian created this new 35mm print of House Made of Dawn, as part of its efforts to preserve films that embody important moments in the history of the Native American image on film so they may continue to inspire and educate audiences for years to come. Director: Richardson Morse 1987 USA 90min. NR 35mm print courtesy of Film + Video Center of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian
- 5:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday: “The Exiles”
The Exiles chronicles one night in the lives of young Native American men and women living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles. Based entirely on interviews with the participants and their friends, the film follows a group of exiles – transplants from Southwest reservations – as they flirt, drink, party, fight, and dance. Filmmaker Kent MacKenzie spent long hours making friends and earning the confidence of these Indians who finally agreed to re-enact scenes from their lives for this picture. All of the actors, some of whom were recruited on the spur of the moment during the shooting, play themselves in the film. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive. Director: Kent MacKenzie 1961 USA 72min. NR 35mm
- 2 p.m. Sunday: “In the Land of the War Canoes”
Best known as one of the premiere photographers of the 20th century, Edward S. Curtis devoted his life to documenting the disappearing world of the American Indian. In this film Curtis retold a tribal story of love and revenge among the Kwakiutl Indians of Vancouver Island. Curtis spent three years with the Kwakiutl to meticulously recreate their way of life before the white man came. In addition to the magnificent painted war canoes of the title, the film features wonderful native costumes, dancing and rituals – including a powerful scene of a vision quest. Restored from the only surviving print in 1972 with a new score of original music and chants by the Kwakiutls themselves, the film presents a magnificent image of a lost world. Director: Edward S. Curtis 1914 USA 47min. NR
Followed by:
“Native American Images in Film: A Panel Discussion”
Moderated by:
Rennard Strickland, an expert in Native American art, culture, and mythology as well as the history and production of law-related film.
Panelists:
Timothy Petete, Professor of English, University of Central Oklahoma, with research interests in American Indian drama, film, and literature.
Michelle Lee Svenson, Festival Producer, Film + Video Center, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian.
Leslie Gee, Screenwriter and published writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and manager of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Tribal Heritage Project.
Sunrise Tippeconnie, Writer/director developing feature films and a television pilot who also freelances on independent features and short film.
-BAM
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