When Robert Redford founded Sundance Institute, he ensured that support for Indigenous voices would be a pillar of the organization. From iconic Indigenous artists like Sydney Freeland, Sterlin Harjo, and Taika Waititi to rising stars Erica Tremblay, Miciana Hutcherson, Taietsarón:sere ‘Tai’ Leclaire, and Fox Maxy, the Indigenous films showcased at the previous Sundance Film Festivals have left a rich tapestry of storytelling that encompasses the rich and diverse facets of Indigeneity.
At this year’s Festival, we are honored to showcase eight projects by Indigenous artists. Spanning from animation, documentaries, and narrative pieces, the works presented in January highlight Indigeniety in its many creative forms.
In addition to the projects premiering at the Festival, the Indigenous Program is proud to host and highlight its fellows attending the Festival and whose films and episodic works are being supported throughout their development. Stay tuned throughout the Fest for the announcement of the 2025 Merata Mita Fellow and the 2025 Graton Fellows.
In-person and online packages are on sale for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival now and Single Film Tickets will be available soon. Check out the full list of films by Indigenous artists below and make sure to favorite the films that speak to you to make sure you don’t miss them.
Features
Co-Director: Jesse Short Bull (Oglala Lakota)
Producers: Jhane Myers (Comanche and Blackfeet), Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache)
Section: Premieres
Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction. A new generation of Native activists is committed to winning his freedom before he dies.
Co-Director and Co-Writer: Peter Scriver (Shamattawa First Nations)
Producer: Jason Ryle (Anishinaabe)
Section: World Cinema Documentary Competition
Exploring the complex bond between two half brothers — one Indigenous, one white — traveling from the present in isolated Shamattawa to bustling 1980s Toronto.
Shorts
Director: Roberto Fatal (Mestize, Rarámuri, Genízaro)
Section: Short Film Program 2
In a dystopian future, a mother struggles to finish making her daughter’s quinceañera dress.
Director: Quinne Larsen (Chinook)
Section: Animated Short Film Program
A meandering joke about three dreams.
Director: Loren Waters (Cherokee/Kiowa)
Section: Documentary Short Film Program
A portrait of award-winning, internationally acclaimed Indigenous artist and elder Dana Tiger, her family, and the resurgence of the iconic Tiger T-shirt company.
Director: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Ífugão, Visayan)
Section: Short Film Program 3
An eccentric biologist interrogates a wild man who was found in the forest after an earthquake hit a small mountain town.
Director: Annelise Hickey (Tongan)
Section: Short Film Program 4
When Adam, a self-absorbed and lonely millennial, wakes one morning to find his estranged half brother on his doorstep, he must face the family he’s been running away from.
Inkwo for When the Starving Return
Director: Amanda Strong (Métis, Cree, Chippewa, and Assiniboine)
Section: Animated Short Film Program
Dove, a gender-shifting warrior, uses their Indigenous medicine, Inkwo, to protect their community from an unearthed swarm of terrifying creatures.
Meet the Fellows
Meet the 2024 Indigenous Program Fellows whose films and episodic works are being supported in their development.
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Ífugão, Visayan)
Hum
Haunted by the six-year absence of her missing husband, Esther, a single mother who works as a tour guide for mountaineers, embarks on her own treacherous journey of searching for him in the jungle where he had retreated to live with the beasts.
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan is a filmmaker from the Philippines. Eblahan’s works explore themes of trauma, spirituality, and nature, told through the cosmic lens of post-colonial spaces and Indigenous identities. His film The Headhunter’s Daughter was awarded the Short Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Ryland Walker Knight (Cherokee)
The Lip of the World
When Cassandra discovers a young Indigenous woman washed ashore with no memory, the pair journey into the violent underworld of the Northern California psychedelic culture to uncover her true identity.
Ryland Walker Knight is a Cherokee writer and a filmmaker, and once upon a time he was called a film critic. An avid basketball and audiobook enthusiast, Knight lives and works in Oakland and Los Angeles, California.
Charine Pilar Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo Tewa)
NDN Time
A Tewa college student must master her new dimension-bending abilities to expose the nuclear secrets threatening her Pueblo.
Charine Pilar Gonzales wrote and directed the short films River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh) and Our Quiyo: Maria Martinez. She co-produced the 2024 Sundance Film Festival short doc Winding Path. A Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico, she aims to intertwine memories, dreams, and truths through story.
Lindsay McIntyre (Inuit/settler)
The Words We Can’t Speak
A terrible Arctic accident leaves an Inuk interpreter unwelcome in her community. She is forced to weather impossible conditions and hateful prejudices, yet still care for her daughter, when she embarks on a dangerous 1,000-mile journey by dog sled with an inexperienced RCMP constable who fancies her for his wife.
Lindsay McIntyre (Inuit/settler) is a filmmaker whose works explores themes of portraiture, place, and personal histories. After 40+ experimental/documentary films and many festival awards, her recent leap into narrative with NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (2023) garnered her Best Short at imagineNATIVE and a chance at the Oscars. She teaches film at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
