Spilyay tymoo., May 19, 1978, Page 6, Image 6

PAGE 6 MAY 19. 1978
MAY 19, 1978 PAGE 1
At T he ’7 8 A m erica n In d ian F ilm F e stiv a l
Indian Rights-Indian Law
(H e st D o c u m e n ta r y )
The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco was the setting for the third annual American Indian
Film Festival May ll through 13. The festival is becoming more successful each year, drawing more!
attention and interest from within the film community and from both the Indian and non-Indian press.
Sandy Rangila Photo
Dapper gents at the film festival May 13 included Charles White
Eagle (Best Supporting Actor) and a lanky Will Sampson (Best
Actor).
Sandy Rangila Photo
By Sandy Rangila
“T h re e W a rrio rs" s w e e p s fe s tiv a l
Backstage, happily preparing to accept their awards for their respective roles in “Three Warriors”
are (left to right), Kiko Red Wing, Lois Red Elk, Charles White Eagle, and Director Kieth Merrill.
Sandy Rangila Photo
There was an air of general porting Actress, and Charles he was here in 1976. The striking
young star now has girls clamor­
excitem ent in the lobby of the White Eagle- (the grandfather)
ing for his autograph, but some­
won
recognition,
as
Best
Sup­
Palace of Fine Arts Theater
how he has m anaged to main­
Saturday, May 13, following the porting Actor.
In addition, Fantasy Films tain the warmth and quiet man­
San Francisco p re m ie r of
“Three Warriors” on the final won the Producers Award for ner which endeared him to so
many here. He seems even
eve of the American Indian Film honest portrayal of American
nicer, now.
Indians
in
their
films.
Festival.
The cast members of “Three
Present for Saturday night’s
“ I t’s the best movie about
W
arriors”
and people from
screening
and
awards
ceremony
Indians I ’ve ever seen,” com­
mented one young woman. “ I were some now familiar faces to Fantasy Films must have been
wish all of our young people had folks here. Charles White Eagle gratified with the audience re­
the opportunity to experience is zippiing about much more sponse in the full-house. It is not
that kind of learning from an spryly now following hip sur­ unlike the reaction it received in
gery, and Director Kieth Merrill Bend. Applause broke out when
older person.”
The showing of “Three War-, was happy that Spilyay noticed Michael plucked the eagle fea­
ther, and cheers and laughter
rio rs” and the aw ards presen­ his more trim physique.
punctuated much of the movie.
Lois Red Elk said to say
tation capped the three-day 1978
In respect to this year’s film
American Indian Film Festival, hello to everyone and remarked
festival,
Director Michael Smith
that
she
would
be
up
this
way
to
now in its third year.
“Three Warriors” ran away visit because she likes the beau­ remarked that he had gotten a
with the honors, receiving the ty of the Warm Springs Reser­ lot of positive feedback. He felt
that the event was more suc­
award for Best Film. Also, Mc­ vation and the people.
cessful than it was last year, and
For most, it would take
Kee “ Kiko” Red Wing who
that it is gaining more interest
played Michael won Most Pro­ several glances to recognize
mising Actor. Lois Red Elk (the Kiko who is about a foot-and- from within the film community
mother) was awarded Best Sup­ a-half taller than he was when and from both the Indian and
non-Indian press.
Indian Rights — Indian Law
is a thoughtfully done, well
photographed and current docu­
mentary that isw ell deserving
of this award. It may not have
been n arrated by Robert Red­
ford, but the fact that the Indian
attorneys themselves did the
speaking leant authenticity and
power to the film.
Indian Rights, Indian Law
provides a ra re glimpse of the
litigation process and insight
into why the land, resources,
and tribal sovereignty are so
important in preserving Indian
identity.
From Maine to the State of
Washington, American Indians
are reasserting their rights in
the courts, basing their claims
on “Indian law” — what Justice
Felix Frankfurter called “the
vast hodgepodge of treaties,
statutes, judicial and admini­
strative ridings, and unrecorded
practices in which the intrica­
cies and perplexities, confusions
and injustices of the law govern­
ing Indians lay concealed.”
The Native American Rights
Fund (NARF) is the only nat­
ional nonprofit Indian law firm
devoted to the protection of
Indian rights. Since it was
founded in 1971, NARF’s major
.emphasis has been upon the
preservation of tribal existence
and resources and the fulfill­
ment of the nation’s long-stand­
ing obligations to Indian people.
The documentary, Indian
Rights, Indian Law, focuses on
the work of NARF’s lawyers,
most of whom are Indians. Some
of the cases in which they have
been involved include the fight
between fourteen tribes and
Washington State officials over
treaty fishing rights along the
Puyallup River, the struggle of
the Paiute Tribe against the di­
version of water from Pyramid
Lake in Nevada, the religious
rights of Indian prisoners, more
equitable treatment for Indian
school children, and the land-
claims suits of the Passam a-
quoddy and Penobscot Tribes in
Maine. NARF also played a
major role in helping to restore
the Menominee Tribe in Wis­
consin to federal trust status.
Art Award?
One suggestion for next year
might be the inclusion of an
award for artistic merit, or an
art film award. There were two
films in particular that merited
attention in this respect.
Dawn Riders explores the
fascinating world of Indian
painting today, showing how it is
rooted in the oldest cultural
tradition on the continent, and is
possessed with great vitality as
an ongoing creative stream.
Amiotte is about a Sioux
artist on the Pine Ridge Reser­
vation in South Dakota. The
need to seek out the traditional
values, to find his “center”, is
the driving force behind all that
Arthur Amiotte does. It perme­
ates his art, and is clarified,
mixed and distilled in the reser­
vation classrooms where he
teaches the children.
“Mother of Many Children’’ is a documentary about the importance of women in Indian society
and was filmed on the Créé Réservation. The woman here is gathering wild rice. She knocks it into the
boat but doesn’t harvest it all. Some of the seeds fly back into the water ensuring future crops.
Photo courtesy San Francisco
American Indian Center
m o th e r o f m a n y C h ildren
(B e s t S e m i-D o c u m e n ta r y )
A sensitive semi-documen­
tary, Mother of Many Children
portrays the importance of
women in Indian society in both
the traditional and contempo­
rary sense:
The film captured the mood
of Cree women in Canada and
their varied tribal roles which
ranged from political to cultural­
ly traditional.
Interviews centered around
an elderly Cree woman and the
women in her extended family.
Interwoven throughout the
production was the theme of
women as the replentishers and
guardians of the earth, cultural­
ly, physically, and symbolically.
Not lost on the audience was
the significance of the symbo­
lism in the scene with the wild
rice gatherer. The woman
knocked the rice into the boat,
but she did not harvest all of it.
Some of the seeds flew back into
the water to be reseeded again,
thus ensuring a continued supply
for the future.
“It wasn’t so easy to make,”
Alanis Obomsawin said of the
film when she accepted the
award. She wrote, produced,
directed, and narrated Mother
of Maliy Children. It was her
third film. It was co-produced by
The National Film Board of
Canada, 1977.
“N an ook T axi" s ta y s in y o u r m in d
“ Painting Ceremony” , by Woodrow Crumbo.
Traditional style, gouache (opaque watercolor).
Already drawing the interest and admiration of the girls is McKee “Kiko" Red Wing who received
the award for Most Promising Actor for his role in “Three Warriors’*. Kiko, who is growing up quickly,
will be studying acting at the same school Robert Redford attended, according to his father.
?
Sandy Rangila Photo
Not technically perfect but
utterly delightful was Nanook
Taxi. It did not win an award,
but received a fair amount of
praise from the audience. I t’s
one of those movies that tends to
stick in your mind, causing
smiles from remembered scenes
later on.
With the opening scene, how­
ever, the initial reaction might
be, “ Oh no, a home movie.” It
was a bit slow getting off the
ground and even the actors
seemed somewhat self-conscious
in the beginning. But the audi­
ence quickly warmed to the
characters and became part of
the situations portrayed on the
screen.
Nanook Taxi was shot en­
tirely on location in Canada’s
Northwest Territories with a
cast of Eskimos (Inuit) who live
in Cape D orset and Frobisher
Bay.
The film is more than a
drama about a man who goes off*
to taste the attractions of the
“city” . It is also an intimate and
revealing look at a people whose
way of life is in the midst of
upheavel and profound change.
The movie starts out .with
Ningiuksiak on an unsuccessful
seal hunt. Upon returning to his
camp, he discovers that his wife,
Mukittug, has shot a seal — her
first — thus ensuring that the
family will have fresh meat.
But as they return to their
home in the tiny village of Cape
Dorset, their snowmobile breaks
down. Since he does not have the
money to fix it — and since he is
tempted anyway to try life in the
“ city” — against his wife’s
wishes he flies to Frobisher Bay
to make some money.
His cousin in Frobisher Bay,
who is a somewhat ubanized
Inuit, helps Ningiuksiak find a
job driving a taxi. But he has
difficulties adapting to the
strange ways of the “city” , and
one evening with his cousin,
causes raised eyebrows when he
orders and eats a raw, frozen
fish at a fancy restaurant. (A
neatly done scene).
He becomes friendly with a
modern Inuit woman - modern
in contrast to his wife - who
works as a disc jockey at the
local radio station. At first she is
intrigued with his old-world ha­
bits and ways of thinking, but
after he arrives at her ap a rt­
ment in a drunken stupor, she
pushes him out of her life.
Increasingly unhappy and
bewildered, Ningiuksiak takes to
spending his money on liquor
and his time in seedy nightclubs.
In the final bar scene, Marvin
Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The
Grapevine” (the perfect song
for the occasion) comes on the
juke box and his wife strolls in.
She had come to take him home
to Gape Dorset, and Once there,
he seemed vastly relieved.
Edward Folger, who wrote,
directed and edited the film,
traveled to Frobisher Bay to
research his subject first hand.
“Prince Charles was touring the
Arctic with his entourage when I
arrived so there were no rooms
in the hotel where I could stay,”
he said. “I wound up being taken
in by people I met, on the street
or wherever, who brought me
into their homes.”
“ I stayed in Frobisher for
three months, living just as the
Inuit did, eating their food —
and learning about their lives. I
count myself very lucky that the
hotel was full and that I was
taken in by the Inuit.”
When Folger went back
later to the Northwest Territor­
ies,- he found that his Inuit
friends were helpful in rounding
up a cast.
An Eskimo hunter, Ningiuksiak leaves his village to make money
in Frobisher Bay in Edward Folger’s filmed drama, “Nanook Taxi”.
Photo courtesy San Francisco
American Indian Center