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.