PARK CITY, UTAH, June 3, 2024 — The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 2024 Sundance Institute Indigenous Film Tour, a 83-minute short film program featuring selections from past editions of the Sundance Film Festival and alumni of Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program. The Indigenous Film Tour curates vibrant works by Native filmmakers, providing audiences with a glimpse into the present and future of Indigenous cinema. This year’s program will include eight short films from Indigenous filmmakers: four from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival program, three from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and one short film from the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
The tour kicks off June 8 and runs throughout the month at venues in California, Michigan, New Mexico, and Oklahoma before expanding to museums, festivals, and theaters throughout the summer and fall.
The Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute Indigenous Program have a long history of supporting and launching talented Indigenous directors including Erica Tremblay, Blackhorse Lowe, Sterlin Harjo, Sky Hopinka, Taika Waititi, Caroline Monnet, Fox Maxy and Shaandiin Tome. Support for screenings is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Adam Piron, Director of the Sundance Institute Indigenous Program, said, “These eight shorts include narrative and documentary projects, some from Native storytellers outside the U.S., and they’ve all resonated with Sundance Film Festival audiences in the past–it’s our pleasure to take such a diverse cross-section of Indigenous cinema on tour.”
For more information and to purchase tickets to the Sundance Institute Indigenous Short Film Tour, please visit https://www.sundance.org/programs/indigenous-program/
Program (in order of screening)
Bay of Herons / U.S.A. (Director: Jared James Lank) — Calling on the strength of his ancestors, a young Mi’kmaq man reflects on the pain of bearing witness to the destruction of his homelands. Fiction.
Winding Path / U.S.A. (Directors: Alexandra Lazarowich, Ross Kauffman, Producer: Robin Honan) — Eastern Shoshone MD-PhD student Jenna Murray spent summers on the Wind River Indian Reservation helping her grandfather anyway she could. When he suddenly dies, she must find a way to heal before realizing her dream of a life in medicine. Nonfiction.
Headdress / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Taietsarón:sere ‘Tai’ Leclaire, Producer: David Spadora) — When an act of casual racism confronts a Queer Native man, he retreats into his mind to find the perfect clap back from various versions of his own identity.
Ekbeh / U.S.A. (Director: Mariah Eli Hernandez-Fitch) — While learning to make gumbo, the creator shares personal stories about their grandparents as a way to honor and preserve their Indigenous history and life. Nonfiction.
Baigal Nuur – Lake Baikal / Canada, Germany (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Alisi Telengut) — The formation of Lake Baikal in Siberia is reimagined, featuring the voice of a Buryat woman who can still recall some words in her endangered Buryat language (a Mongolian dialect). Animation.
Hawaiki / New Zealand (Director and Screenwriter: Nova Paul, Producer: Tara Riddell) — At the edge of the playground close to the forest, the children of Okiwi School made a refuge they call Hawaiki. Hawaiki has spiritual and metaphysical connections for Māori as the children create a space for their self-determination. Fiction.
Sunflower Siege Engine / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Sky Hopinka) — Movements of resistance are collapsed and woven together, from reflections of one’s own body in the world today, to documentation of Alcatraz, the reclamation of Cahokia, and the repatriation of the ancestors. Fiction.
Goodnight Irene / U.S.A. (Director: Sterlin Harjo) — Three Seminole patients share some laughs and poignant truths as they wait for treatment at the local Indian hospital. Fiction.
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Editor’s note: Film stills and director’s headshots can be found online for press usage at this link.
Media contact:
Sylvy Fernandez, sylvy_fernandez@sundance.org
