The 2021 Sundance Institute Indigenous Short Film Tour is a free 85-minute virtual program of seven short films directed by Indigenous filmmakers selected from recent editions of the Sundance Film Festival. The program includes This is the Way We Rise, an exploration into the creative process, following native Hawaiian slam poet Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio as her art is reinvigorated by her calling to protect sacred sites atop Mauna Kea, Hawai’i.

Presented in partnership with our friends at museums, Native cultural centers, and arthouse cinemas, this exciting new offering curated by the Institute’s Indigenous Program will feature fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental works from around the world, giving new audiences a taste of what Indigenous filmmakers have to offer.

Featuring

This is the Way We Rise, Ciara Lacy, 2021
An exploration into the creative process, following native Hawaiian slam poet Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio as her art is reinvigorated by her calling to protect sacred sites atop Mauna Kea, Hawai’i.

The Fourfold, Alisi Telengut, 2021
An exploration of indigenous worldview and wisdom from Mongolia and Siberia. With hand-crafted imagery, it is a testament of reclaiming animism for planetary health and non-human materialities.

Fainting Spells, Sky Hopinka, 2018
Told through recollections of youth, learning, lore, and departure, this is an imagined myth for the Xąwįska, or the Indian Pipe Plant – used by the Ho-Chunk to revive those who have fainted.

Little Chief, Erica Tremblay, 2021
It’s just another typical day at a rural elementary school on a reservation in Oklahoma. Little Chief, the school’s mascot, appears faded on the walls as a proud symbol of a rich and complicated history. It’s a world that is stacked against them, but Sharon shows up each day to guide her 5th grade students through it. Bear is having a particularly hard time, enduring challenges both at home and in the classroom. He is desperate to escape it all, and Sharon is left chasing a little boy who is running to nowhere.

Lichen, Lisa Jackson, 2020
This stunning otherworldly short film takes a deep dive into lichen, a species that confounds scientists to this day. Shot in macro 3D, ​Lichen offers us a look at this remarkable life form and asks what we might learn from it. Ancient and diverse, both an individual and a community, lichens can live in the most extreme environments, including outer space. This meditative film bridges science and philosophy, and the words of lichenologist Trevor Goward illuminate the terrain in poetic and thought-provoking ways.

Now is the Time, Christopher Auchter, 2020
When internationally renowned Haida carver Robert Davidson was only 22 years old, he carved the first new totem pole on British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii in almost a century. On the 50th anniversary of the pole’s raising, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter steps easily through history to revisit that day in August 1969, when the entire village of Old Massett gathered to celebrate the event that would signal the rebirth of the Haida spirit.

Fast Horse, Alexandra Lazarowich, 2018
The Blackfoot bareback horse-racing tradition returns in the astonishingly dangerous Indian Relay. Siksika horseman Allison Red Crow struggles with secondhand horses and a new jockey on his way to challenging the best riders in the Blackfoot Confederacy.

The Festival’s Short Film Program has long been established as a place to discover talented Indigenous directors, such as past alumni Taika Waititi, Blackhorse Lowe, Sterlin Harjo, Sky Hopinka, Caroline Monnet, and Shaandiin Tome.

For more information, visit Waiwai Collective by clicking here.