Featuring films from Sundance Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Program

Sikumi (On the Ice)
An Iñuit hunter takes his dog team out on the frozen Arctic Ocean in search of seals and inadvertently becomes a witness to a murder. Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Inupiaq) (15 mins.)

Nikamowin (Song)
Deconstructing and reconstructing Cree narrative, this film experiments with language to create a linguistic soundscape. Director: Kevin Lee Burton (Swampy Cree) (12 mins.)

Shimásání
When Mary Jane finds a world geography book that shows her an entirely new world, she must decide whether to maintain her traditional Navajo reservation lifestyle with her grandmother or go out into the larger world. Director and screenwriter: Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo) (15 mins.)

Gesture Down
I Don’t Sing – A graceful and personal adaptation of the poem “Gesture Down to Guatemala” by the late Native American writer James Welch. Director: Ceder Sherbert (Kumeyaay) (8 mins.)

Two Cars One Night /New Zealand
Sometimes first love is found in the most unlikely of places, like in the carpark outside the Te Kaha pub. Director and screenwriter: Taika Waititi (Te Whanau Apanui) (10 mins.)

About Sundance Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Program

Celebrating its 20th anniversary and rooted in the recognition of rich tradition of storytelling and artistic expression by Native American and Indigenous peoples, Sundance Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Program operates the Native Forum at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the NativeLab Film Fellowship and Native Producers Fellowship to aid emerging Native American/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian filmmakers. The program has also established filmmaker labs in New Zealand and Australia. The program has supported such projects as Bran Nue Dae, Here I Am, Four Sheets to the Wind, Barking Water, Eagle vs Shark, Boy, Miss Navajo, Grab, Sikumi, On the Ice, and Mosquita y Mari.