Native Nonfiction
10 Episodes
Since the birth of cinema, Indigenous people have been staple subjects of documentary—until a new generation of Native American filmmakers emerged in the 1980s who insisted on becoming its authors too. Forged in the social upheavals of the midtwentieth century and abetted by the emergence of accessible video technologies, these artists began to make films about and for their own communities, initiating a new kind of nonfiction that would be taken up by subsequent generations as one of the cornerstones of Native American cinema. From foundational works by filmmakers like Victor Masayesva Jr. (ITAM HAKIM, HOPIIT) and Arlene Bowman (NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE) who used the camera to preserve endangered cultural traditions and histories to younger artists like Sky Hopinka (MAŁNI – TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE) and Fox Maxy (F1GHTING LOOKS DIFFERENT 2 ME NOW) who combine documentary and experimental practices to create boldly personal explorations of Indigenous identity, these films find Native directors employing innovative cinematic language to speak directly to the concerns of their communities.
Programmed by Adam Piron
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17:04Episode 2F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now
Episode 2
Directed by Fox Maxy • 2022 • United States
In this exuberant, densely layered pop-culture collage, artist Fox Maxy reflects on her relationship to home, the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians reservation in Southern California.
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40:28Episode 3Navajo Talking Picture
Episode 3
Directed by Arlene Bowman • 1985 • United States
In NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE, Diné film student Arlene Bowman travels to a Reservation to document the traditional ways of her grandmother. In spite of her grandmother’s forceful objections to this invasion of her privacy, the filmmaker persists. Ult...
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25:30Episode 4White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men
Episode 4
Directed by Terry Macy and Daniel Hart • 1996 • United States
This award-winning documentary deals with the popularization and commercialization of Native American spiritual traditions by non-Indigenous people. Important questions are asked of those seeking to commercially exploit rituals and sa...
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59:59Episode 5Miss Navajo
Episode 5
Directed by Billy Luther • 2007 • United States
For more than fifty years, Navajo people have gathered in the capital of the Navajo Nation to witness the Miss Navajo Nation beauty pageant. This illuminating documentary traces twenty-one-year-old Crystal Frazier’s quest to win the Miss Navajo cro...
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maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore
Episode 6
Directed by Sky Hopinka • 2020 • United States
A poetic experimental documentary circling the origin of the death myth of the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, MAŁNI—TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE follows two individuals as they wander through nature, the spirit world, and somethi...
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Faces, Displays, and Other Imaginary Things
Episode 7
Directed by Woodrow Hunt • 2020 • United States
A familiar route is remapped to contemplate and remember the complicated past of Indigenous labor in the Pacific Northwest.
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22:14Episode 8Long Line of Ladies
Episode 8
Directed by Rayka Zehtabchi and Shaandiin Tome • 2022 • United States
LONG LINE OF LADIES tells the story of a girl and her community as they prepare for her Ihuk, the revived coming-of-age ceremony of the Karuk tribe of Northern California.
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59:00Episode 9Itam Hakim, Hopiit
Episode 9
Directed by Victor Masayesva Jr. • 1984 • United States
Made to commemorate the Hopi tricentennial, this groundbreaking work of Native American documentary cinema is a lyrical evocation of Hopi philosophy and mythology told through the storytelling of elder Hopi historian Ross Macaya. Setting hi...
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Tiger
Episode 10
Directed by Loren Waters • 2025 • United States
Starring Dana TigerTIGER tells a remarkable story of tragedy, remembrance, and resilience through a portrait of internationally acclaimed artist and Indigenous elder Dana Tiger, her family, and the resurgence of the Tiger t-shirt company.
