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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2005)
Smoke Signals 9 MAY 15, 2005 Award At The 2005 Native Voice Film Festival films for Indian Country. "Trudell" was a biographical documentary about the life of musician and Indian activist John Trudell. "Black Cloud" is a film by actor-turned-director Rick Schroder. The film is Schroder's directorial debut and stars Eddie Spears and Indian activist Russell Means. The Native Voice Film Festival is an independent, non-profit event, and has three main goals: to bring im portant stories of Native life as told through media home to the heart of Indian Country; to empower Native people and encourage them to tell their own stories; and to provide a positive, shared, uniquely Native ex perience for the local and regional In dian and non-Indian communities. Lisa Balk rung, who together with former husband, Frank, produced the film festival, sees modern com munication technology playing a role similar to the one the printing press played centuries ago. "When the printing press was in vented, access went from the power ful, the wealthy and the church to being available to all people," said Lisa King, "and we're in a new print ing press age, so to speak. The internet and digital technology have given the average citizen access to creating media in ways that haven't been available in several generations." She noted that "Dude Vision," the award-winning film, was made with $146 in cash and all the rest was donated. "The knowledge is starting to trickle into Native communities," said King. "That's why our pool of sub missions was so much richer, so much broader than just a few years ago." The festival also raised $1,000 for the Red Lake Chippewa community in Minne sota. "The cohesiveness of culture has always been in the telling of stories," said King. "It's your history. Your language. Your news of the day. Those are all story telling, and now there's this opportunity to add your voice to the sum of all the voices out there. It's really important that our young people hear their voices and see their faces represented out there. "For the last 20-30 years, people have been working very hard at banging down the doors in Hollywood to make sure they get (our stories) right. But what I think is: quit waiting for Hol lywood to tell your story. Quit waiting for CNN to get it right. "There's a huge message here that goes with (the films)." Acceptance Speech TNT executive Michael Wright accepted the Building Bridges Award for the upcoming TNT documentary " Into the West." With Wright is Eddie Spears (at left in red shirt) and actorfilmmaker Jon Proudstar, who won for Best Short Subject with his film "Dude Vision." New Friends Grand Ronde Tribal Council member Valorie Sheker-Robertson and Filmmaker Pamela Mathews quickly became good friends at this year's festival. Mathew's film ,"A Shot in the Dark" was nominated for an award at this year's event. "Dark" is a 30 minute documentary about Chippewa Tribal member Dudley George who was killed by Ontario Provincial Police over a land dispute in September of 1 995.
