February 16, 2011: First Circle (Heather Rae, 2010)
Hosted by Randy Redroad (Producer, Cinematographer, and Editor)
7:00-10:00 p.m
Sateren Auditorium, Music Hall
715 22nd Ave South
Film events are free
For any parent, the thought of having a child taken away is a horrific notion. Yet all across America, children whose families can no longer provide proper support are being put into foster care. Heather Rae brings to the screen her own story of a family affected by foster care due to drug and alcohol addiction in the deeply touching and extremely personal Family: The First Circle. With her nephew having spent time in the foster care system, her brother in prison, and her sister-in-law recovering from drug rehabilitation, Rae looks not just at her own family, but at others whose children are similarly affected. She follows the police, who see firsthand the terrible conditions in which some children live, and those who volunteer to foster the children in hopes of providing a better life for them. Incredibly poignant and touching, Family: The First Circle, shows a small slice of the life that affects nearly 300,000 children a year, making this a film that demands to be seen. (Jacob Brades)
Randy Redroad, producer, cinematographer and editor of First Circle, wrote and directed “The Doe Boy,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the NHK Award. Redroad also directed “Haircuts Hurt,” “High Horse” and “133 Skyway.”
March 2, 2011: Club Native (Tracey Deer, 2008)
Hosted by Tracey Deer and Jennifer Machiorlatti
6:30-7:00 p.m. Reception sponsored by Women’s Studies
7:00-10:00 p.m. Film Screening
Sateren Auditorium, Music Hall
715 22nd Ave South
Film events are free
Club Native is a candid and deeply moving look at the pain, confusion and frustration suffered by many First Nations people as they struggle for the most important right of all: the right to belong.
On the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, located just outside the city of Montreal, Canada, there are two firm but unspoken rules drummed into every member of the community: do not marry a white person, and do not have a child with a white person. The potential consequences of ignoring these rules—loss of membership on the reserve for yourself and your child—are clear, and for those who incur them, devastating. Break the rules, and you also risk being perceived as having betrayed the Mohawk Nation by diluting the “purity” of the bloodline.
In Club Native, filmmaker Tracey Deer uses Kahnawake, her hometown, as a lens to probe deeply into the history and contemporary reality of Aboriginal identity. Following the stories of four women, she reveals the exclusionary attitudes that divide the community and many others like it across Canada. Deer traces the roots of the problem, from the advent of the highly discriminatory Indian Act through the controversy of Bill C31, up to the present day, where membership on the reserve is determined by a council of Mohawk elders, whose rulings often appear inconsistent. And with her own home as a poignant case study, she raises a difficult question faced by people of many ethnicities across the world: What roles do bloodline and culture play in determining identity?
Tracey Deer, Director
Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of Canada’s finest chroniclers of modern Aboriginal life. She co-directed the feature-length documentary One More River(Rezolution Pictures) about the 2003 agreement between the Cree and Quebec. In 2004, she madeMohawk Girls (Rezolution Pictures/The National Film Board of Canada), a moving portrait of three teenage girls coming of age on her home reserve of Kahnawake, just outside of Montreal.
Tracey graduated in film studies at Dartmouth College in 2000 where she shot, directed and edited three short films before receiving the 25th Anniversary Film and Television Award for overall achievement in film studies. Her films have been broadcast and screened across Canada.
April 13: The Augsburg Native American Film Series and the American Culture & Difference Program at the University of St. Thomas Present:
NDN Shorts: Native American Film Series hosted by Elizabeth Day
This evening of films follows a nouveau comedy theme and will highlight the short films:
“Smoke Break” – Director Sally Kewayosh
“Cousins” – Director Sally Kewayosh
“Other Halves” – Director Migizi Pensoneau
“Scared Talk” – Director Migizi Pensoneau and Dallas Goldtooth
Screening Place: John Roach Center Auditorium (JRC 126)
University of St. Thomas
2115 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Free admission
6:30-8 p.m.
For more information contact Lois Dament at ACD@stthomas.edu or 651-962-5649
Sponsored by the American Culture & Difference Program, College of Arts and Sciences