Native American Film + Video Festival

Native American Film + Video Festival
Name	Native American Film + Video Festival
Location	New York City, Washington, D.C., Santa Fe
Founded	1979
Founders	Irene Bedard, Robert Allen Warrior, Milton Cohen
Language	English, Native languages

Contents

Native American Film + Video Festival is a biennial showcase dedicated to Indigenous cinema, video art, and media created by American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian filmmakers. Founded in 1979, the festival emerged amidst activism connected to American Indian Movement, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, and regional curatorial practices at institutions like Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center, Museum of Modern Art, and New York Public Library. Across its run, the festival toured venues such as Lincoln Center, Film at Lincoln Center, Anthology Film Archives, National Gallery of Art, and Institute of Contemporary Art, fostering networks among communities linked to Ojibwe, Navajo Nation, Lakota Sioux, Cherokee Nation, and Hawaiian sovereignty movements.

History

The festival traces roots to collaborations between Indigenous artists and activists associated with Red Power movement, National Congress of American Indians, Native American Rights Fund, and academics from University of New Mexico, University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, University of Washington. Early organizers engaged curators from American Indian Film Institute, First Americans in the Arts, National Museum of the American Indian, and independent producers connected to filmmakers like Victor Masayesva Jr., Alanis Obomsawin, Chris Eyre, Sterlin Harjo, Ralph T. S., and Rainin Lee. Programming reflected responses to events including Wounded Knee incident, Alcatraz occupation (1969–1971), Indian Child Welfare Act, and legal contests before the Supreme Court of the United States involving tribal sovereignty and treaty rights such as cases tied to Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868). Touring editions brought curators from Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, Seattle Art Museum, and festivals such as Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival into dialogue with Indigenous artists.

Festival programs combined short films, documentaries, experimental video, and media art addressing identity, land, language, and cultural survival with screenings foregrounding creators affiliated with Hopi, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Chippewa, Pueblo peoples, Blackfeet Nation, Cree, and Métis communities. Curatorial themes echoed scholarship by figures associated with American Indian Studies Program (UC Berkeley), Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Institute of American Indian Arts, and writers such as Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, N. Scott Momaday, Vine Deloria Jr., and Gerald Vizenor. Cross-disciplinary programs intersected film with exhibitions at Guggenheim Museum, performances connected to Native American Church, and panels including representatives from National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation.

The festival premiered works by directors such as Alan Parker-adjacent collaborators, as well as canonical Indigenous filmmakers like Cecile C. Bird, Joyce Chopra, Victor Masayesva Jr., Alanis Obomsawin, Chris Eyre, Sterlin Harjo, Zoe N. Bell, and Tamara H. Flowers. Noteworthy screenings included early presentations of films in conversation with works by Robert Flaherty, John Ford, Kevin Costner-era Westerns, and contemporary responses to documentaries like Nanook of the North and features such as Dances with Wolves. The festival also showcased video essays and installations that dialogued with exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, retrospectives of John Akomfrah and Trinh T. Minh-ha, and premieres later programmed at Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and Venice Film Festival.

While primarily a curated showcase rather than a competitive market festival, editions conferred honors, audience prizes, and career recognitions paralleling awards from institutions like Sundance Film Festival, Independent Spirit Awards, Academy Awards, Peabody Awards, Emmy Awards, and fellowships from Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Fellows Program, United States Artists, and Fulbright Program. Filmmakers who screened progressed to receive grants from National Endowment for the Humanities, NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, and distribution deals with First Run Features, Icarus Films, Oscilloscope Laboratories, and public broadcasters such as PBS.

The festival catalyzed careers of Indigenous filmmakers and media artists, fostering networks between institutions including Institute of American Indian Arts, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and academic programs at University of New Mexico, Stanford University, University of California, Los Angeles, Yale University, and Harvard University. Its legacy persists in contemporary festivals and initiatives like ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, Native Cinema Showcase, First Nations Film and Video Festival, Sundance Institute Native Forum, and residency programs funded by MacArthur Foundation and Ford Foundation. The festival contributed to broader recognition of Indigenous storytelling across platforms from television to streaming services and academia, influencing curricula and collections at the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and regional museums.