Native American Film Series
Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center are proud to present a series of free screenings featuring short Native American films and tv programs from the VMM public broadcasting archives, spanning nearly 50 years of programming.
Unless otherwise noted, screenings in this series will take place on the second Monday of each month and are admission free and open to the public. Tickets available at the Ross box office (online ticketing not available for free screenings).
ABOUT VISION MAKER MEDIA
What began as a film archive to conserve and document Native American stories, transformed into the nation’s leader in content by and about Indigenous people for public broadcasting. Vision Maker Media works with Native producers to develop, produce, and distribute programs to educate audiences. More info…
CRYING EARTH RISE UP (2014)
MONDAY, APRIL 14 – TIME TBA
Followed by a talk with Daniel Snow & Dr. Arindam Malakar, moderated by Vision Maker Media’s Alana Stone.
“Water is our first home. Water is our first medicine. Without water, there is no life.” -Debra White Plume (Oglala Lakota), Activist | A Lakota mother studying geology seeks the source of the water contamination that may have caused her daughter’s critical health problems. Meanwhile, a Lakota grandmother fights the regional expansion of uranium mining. Crying Earth Rise Up exposes the cost of uranium mining and its impact on Great Plains drinking water. (57 minutes)
Daniel Snow has been an integral part of the University of Nebraska Water Sciences Laboratory (WSL) when he was hired as Laboratory Manager in 1990. Serving as WSL director since 2003, he oversees WSL staff and operations, using analytical chemistry to help understand how water becomes contaminated and what we can do to prevent it. A good part of his work at the WSL involves creating analytical methods for new or “emerging” environmental contaminants including compounds such as new classes of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, algal toxins, steroid hormones and even explosives in environmental samples. Dr. Snow leads in the development of new methods to measure and use stable and radioactive isotopes as tracers to study environmental problems and processes.
Dr. Arindam Malakar received his Ph.D. in 2017. In his Ph.D., he worked across three continents, which include the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Sciences, Kolkata, the University of Calcutta, India, one of the top-ranking research facilities in India, the University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the European Union supported his graduate research in Europe. Malakar is a recipient of the prestigious “Water Advanced Research and Innovation (WARI)” Internship Program, supported by the Department of Science and Technology, India, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the Daugherty Water for Food Institute (DWFI), and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF). He has received the Young Scientist award from the Materials Research Society of India for his excellent research in improving water quality. He works with the local stakeholders and leads research efforts to understand the impact of land surface processes influenced by agricultural activities on the state groundwater quality and validate and verify next-generation cropping system models. His research focuses on understanding nitrogen, carbon, and metal dynamics in the agroecosystem and critical zone.
BRING HER HOME
MONDAY, MAY 12 – TIME TBA
Bring Her Home follows three Indigenous women — an artist, an activist and a politician — as they work to vindicate and honor their relatives who are victims in the growing epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. As they face the lasting effects of historical trauma, each woman searches for healing while navigating the oppressive systems that brought about this very crisis. (Run Time TBA).
STANDING BEAR’S FOOTSTEPS
MONDAY, JUNE 9 – TIME TBA
In 1877, the Ponca people were exiled from their Nebraska homeland to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. To honor his dying son’s last wish to be buried in his homeland, Chief Standing Bear set off on a grueling, six-hundred-mile journey home. Captured en-route, Standing Bear sued a famous U.S. army general for his freedom–choosing to fight injustice not with weapons, but with words. The Chief stood before the court to prove that an Indian was a person under the law. The story quickly made newspaper headlines–attracting powerful allies, as well as enemies.
OHIYESA: THE SOUL OF AN INDIAN
MONDAY, July 14 – TIME TBA
This documentary follows Kate Beane, a young Dakota woman, as she examines the extraordinary life of her celebrated relative, Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa). Biography and journey come together as Kate traces Eastman’s path—from traditional Dakota boyhood, through education at Dartmouth College, and in later roles as physician, author, lecturer, and Native American advocate. (57 minutes)
NAVAJO MATH CIRCLES (2016)
MONDAY, August 11 – TIME TBA
Navajo Math Circles follows Navajo students in a lively collaboration with mathematicians. Using a model called math circles, the students stay late after school and assemble over the summer at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, to study mathematics. The math circles approach emphasizes student-centered learning by putting children in charge of exploring mathematics to their own joy and satisfaction. (57 minutes)
ACROSS THE CREEK (2014) & FINDING REFUGE (2015)
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 – TIME TBA
ACROSS THE CREEK: Broken by the legacy of colonialism, Lakota Tribes struggle for restoration, healing and rebuilding. This film is a conversation between the elder and younger generations about reclaiming their stories and culture. By looking at traditional family structure, spirituality, language and values, they hope to build a vision for the future. (27 minutes)
FINDING REFUGE: A dying woman’s effort to preserve her Native culture doesn’t end when she passes, but prompts a renewal in finding pride in that culture. She confronts the violent event over two centuries ago that began the destruction of her people and the shame that colonialism created. (26 minutes)
WORDS FROM A BEAR (2019)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 13 – TIME TBA
WORDS FROM A BEAR examines the enigmatic life and mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Navarro Scott Momaday, one of Native America’s most celebrated authors of poetry and prose. The film visually captures the essence of Momaday’s writings, relating each written line to his unique American experience representing ancestry, place, and oral history. Cinematically this story takes audiences on a spiritual journey through the expansive landscapes of the West, when Momaday’s Kiowa ancestors roamed the Great Plains with herds of buffalo, to the sand-painted valleys of Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, where his imagination ripened and he showed superior writing skills as a young mission student. (1 hour, 25 minutes)
GROWING NATIVE ALASKA: PEOPLE OF THE NORTH (2018)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 – TIME TBA
All across Alaska, Native cultures have depended on the abundant natural resources found there to support their families, cultures and way of life. Now these resources are growing scarce, and the people who have relied on them for centuries have to find new ways to adapt. GROWING NATIVE is a four-part series focusing on reclaiming traditional indigenous knowledge and food ways to address critical issues of health and wellness, the environment and human rights. (57 minutes)
GAMES OF THE NORTH
MONDAY, DECEMBER 8 – TIME TBA
For thousands of years, traditional Inuit sports have been vital for survival within the unforgiving Arctic. Acrobatic and explosive, these ancestral games evolved to strengthen mind, body and spirit within the community. Following four modern Inuit athletes reveals their unique relationship to the games as they compete across the North. As unprecedented change sweeps across their traditional lands, their stories illuminate the importance of the games today. (27 minutes)
Programs in this series have been collected from public broadcasts spanning from the 1970s to today and may contain a low-resolution picture and occasional image anomalies from their transfer to digital media.