Indigenous focus: Smithsonian highlights Native American life through film

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian returns to Santa Fe for its Native Cinema Showcase.

The museum’s 24th annual celebration showcases the best of Indigenous film from Thursday, Aug. 15, through Sunday, Aug. 18, at the New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Ave. in Santa Fe. Screenings are free and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Indigenous focus: Smithsonian highlights Native American life through film

The schedule includes “Native Cinema Trailblazers” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15; “I’m Just Here for the Riot” at 1 p.m., “Uproar” at 3 p.m. and “Goosebumps Shorts Program” at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 16; “Future-Focused Shorts Program” at 11 a.m., “The Electric Indian” at 1 p.m., “Belonging Shorts Program” at 3 p.m. and a special performance by DJ Shub at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17; and “Rise Above Shorts Program” at 11 a.m. and “Singing Back the Buffalo” at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 18.

The showcase is free to the public and funded in part by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and received support from the Smithsonian initiative, “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past.”

The films explore the challenges that Indigenous people continue to face on various fronts that include sports, missing and murdered Indigenous women, intergenerational trauma and the rematriation of the land with buffalo.

“We’re delighted that we’ll be screening 38 films from 34 Native nations, so it’s quite diverse as it usually is,” said Cindy Benitez, film program manager, for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. “We’re celebrating our 24th anniversary and we’re very excited about that. Can’t believe it’s 24 years. Our theme this year is ‘Looking Back and Moving Forward,’ which is to celebrate our (Washington,) D.C. museum’s anniversary, which is celebrating (its) 20th this year.”

There is an intricate process in selecting what films will appear during the Native Cinema Showcase.

“We do three things, we go to film festivals to meet the filmmakers, to watch these films that we might be interested in,” Benitez said. “We also do some diligent research and we also have filmmakers that we do know and they send us their films or even sometimes on a rolling submission basis where a filmmaker that we’ve never heard about will just submit.”

The preference is to screen films that are either directed or produced by Native filmmakers, since there are an abundance.

“Native people that are telling their stories in their own voices,” Benitez said. “We don’t really have a specific criteria. You can submit your film. There’s the music video, short, drama, anything, and we’ll take a look. And this year, we had about 200 films that our programming team had to look through. So you can imagine the diligent process of trying to narrow it down.”

Benitez said a variety of thought-provoking themes turn up each year when it comes to film submissions.

“Sometimes, a film will pop out, and then you’ll see variations of the same kind of theme,” she said. “That’s what happened this year. A lot of the films this year were taking a look at either missing and murdered Indigenous women, or in sports, celebrating what was the past and what is the present. We have a wonderful (documentary) that celebrates rematriation of the buffalo on the land. So it was all these variations that we got to look at it and say, ‘Okay, well, this looks like a very strong theme this year.’ So, that’s how we present what we do every year.”

Benitez said the Smithsonian likes to branch out when it comes to the Native Cinema Showcase.

“We’re located on the East Coast and our mission is always to go out and bring films, bring programs to other indigenous communities outside of our museum location,” she explained. “Santa Fe has always been central to Native art, Native artists. And you know, film is another form of art, a contemporary one. And we thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful to present films during Indian Market. And here we are, 24 years later.”

Benitez said there have been variations of the showcase over the years.

“We’ve grown,” she said. “It’s gone bigger and now we’re here central to the Indian Market at the New Mexico History Museum. For the past 24 years, our programs are also free, so people can come in and not have to pay and can sit down and watch these incredible films.”

Indian Market takes place Saturday, Aug. 17, and Sunday, Aug. 18, in Santa Fe. The event, which showcases a wide range of traditional and contemporary Native American art, draws thousands each year to Santa Fe.

“That’s like the perfect audience for people who normally wouldn’t watch Native film or even really know about it to come and have this opportunity,” Benitez said. “We always get very excited to see these different audiences come. Sometimes they’re regulars that come every year for (Indian) Market and they come every year to our showcase. It varies. It’s just exciting, especially to see the youth and these emerging filmmakers come out and go, ‘Hey, you know what? I didn’t know about this showcase, but I’m so excited. I have a film. I’m gonna send it to you.’ So we also have that. It runs the gamut.”

Benitez said she expects an exciting showcase this year.

“We’re doing an opening night panel with some top-notch, veteran Native actors,” she said. “That really just kicks it off. We have, Tantoo Cardinal (Cree/Métis/Nakota), Graham Greene (Oneida), Wes Studi (Cherokee), Gary Farmer (Cayuga). So we’re very excited to get all four of them in one area, one venue, for one program. And just to kind of hear them talk about their career journey, their experiences, and what they think about Indigenous representation now and in the future, I’m delighted that we’re able to bring those four people and to have our moderator be Sierra Teller Ornelas (Navajo), who is one of the showrunners for (Peacock TV series) ‘Rutherford Falls,’ it’s going to be a really great intro to what the rest of the showcase will be about.”