Film Fest Report Contributor Sara Aloe was delighted to attended the first ever Indigenous Online Film Festival organized by Vision Maker Media. Read on to find out her takeaways.
The Vision Maker Online Film Festival has just wrapped up its first edition of this event, which was held in Lincoln, Nebraska by Vision Maker Media, the best source of media by and about Native Americans. The main idea of Vision Maker Media (VMM) is to empower and engage Native Peoples to share stories and it was the very same with their Film Festival.
For me as an non-indigenous ally, this festival was a great opportunity to watch amazing films touching most important Indigenous related topics and cases as well as listen to valuable panels discussing those topics.
Week one was about women empowerment, it showed me so much about Indigenous Women’s #girlpower and strength of pushing forward and fighting through various difficult situations such as assault, violence, kidnapping, social position or educating younger generations.
Week two gave the insight on the influence of history and environment on the current situations Indigenous Peoples have to handle. Clearcuts, floods, global warming: all have changed many lives. Some were forced to leave their lands, to struggle with their mental health for decades but still strong enough to fight their demons and come back to that homeland location and try to face it and move forward.
Others trying their best to preserve their heritage so it survives for the future generations. To be specific, pictograms are paintings on rocks by the coasts in Alaska, but as the water levels increase, it washes them away, so the Native Peoples of that region are doing their very best to document all of them to keep them for next generations.
Week three focused on activism, many of the filmmakers highlighted the case of racism and violence. The filmmakers want to use filmmaking as a tool for education with hope for a positive change and the decrease of these cases.
Week four was devoted to LGBTQA+, and attending this week’s panel was a very interesting experience as it gave opportunity to listen to filmmakers about their inspirations, their connections with others and that how they want to highlight their problems and give their stories a voice. The Two Spirits were always the top class of society, their leaders, medicine men, those who understood both sides. But when colonialism came, they were the first to be murdered. Showing what colonialism did to them and trying to go two steps back and reflect on their teachings form way back and thing to themselves, “don’t do it to your youth, give them more support”. They need representation in their communities.
Week five was all about youth, the films were mostly animations, and during the panel it was pointed out that they started what they’re doing because they saw the lack of indigenous titles in this space. They wanted to produce material for kids that would encourage them to learn about their heritage and catch their attention and interest by showing stories about being a warrior, about being indigenous. For example, showcasing the story of Minnie Hollow Wood, a Lakota woman and first woman to receive a headdress for her achievements and valor in combat against the U.S. Cavalry at the battle of Little Big Horn. A story that can be very empowering for young girls. There are around 550 tribes full of stories to tell and animation is a good way to expose them.
The festival just ended couple of days ago and I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition. This was the first edition and I can say it really was a big success for VMM! It highlighted all pain-point topics Native Americans must to go through daily and showcasing these matters is a valuable source of reliable information for non-indigenous people that care about Indigenous Peoples and their situation and for Indigenous Peoples themselves, this is powerful storytelling encouraging to fight for better days to come. At this point I would just like to point out to all filmmakers out there: you’re working on a very powerful source, use it wisely as every film; actually every piece of art has the beautiful possibility to be a piece of activism for important matters, giving a voice to voices not being heard. And I think that’s a beautiful opportunity.
If I caught your interest in this sphere of the film industry, you can check their website here: https://visionmakermedia.org/.
