Over the last couple of years we, as a community, have had to adapt the way that we have produced, consumed, and celebrated films. However, even as our methods have shifted, our passion and commitment to groundbreaking art endures - especially the Sundance Institute's essential support of Indigenous artists, storytellers, and filmmakers.At the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, we are honored to have 15 projects by Indigenous artists screening. From immersive experiences to short films, the stories that will be presented in January continue to highlight Indigeniety in unique and powerful ways.
On top of the projects premiering at the Fest, the Indigenous Program is proud to be hosting and highlighting its Fellows attending the festival and whose film projects are being supported in their development. The program will announce the 2022 Merata Mita Fellow at this year's Festival as well.
Packages are on sale for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival now and single film tickets will be available starting in early January. Check out the full list of films by Indigenous artists below and make sure to favorite the films that speak to you to make sure you don't miss them.
THIS IS NOT A CEREMONY Lead Artist: Ahnahktsipiitaa (Colin Van Loon) (Niitsitapi) Section: New Frontier The buffalo spirit Inii and two trickster poets serve as the guides in this immersive experience that transports you to a place transcending time, where an elder beams down from the stars to invite you to become a part of the human ledger. The elder makes space for us to collectively bear witness to tragic events in the lives of two Indigenous men - Adam North Peigan and Brian Sinclair - and entrusts us to share what we've seen and heard. Part performance, part participatory media, This Is Not a Ceremony asks us to consider our role in engaging with documentaries about social injustice and to confront modern notions of empathy and personal responsibility. Darkly humorous and occasionally caustic, This Is Not a Ceremony offers contemporary insights into the lived experience of Indigenous men, and extends a chance to embrace responsibility and the meaningfulness of redemption.
EVERY DAY IN KAIMUK Director: Alika Tengan (K naka Maoli) Section: NEXT Naz, a cynical and charismatic 20-something, has spent his entire life in tranquil O'ahu, Hawai i, skateboarding with his friends and hosting a nightly radio show where he spotlights emerging musicians. When his girlfriend, Sloane, nabs the chance to move to bustling New York, Naz begins preparing for their big move, planning every detail down to his cat's absurd flight plan. Even when dreaming about what life outside the island might look like, however, Naz wonders whether uprooting his world is the right decision, and if anywhere will ever really feel like home when he's always been an eternal outsider.
(UDEYONV) (WHAT THEY'VE BEEN TAUGHT) Director: Brit Hensel (Cherokee Nation) Section: Shorts This film explores expressions of reciprocity in the Cherokee world, brought to life through a story told by an elder and first language speaker.
THE HEADHUNTER'S DAUGHTER Director/Screenwriter: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan ( fug o, Visayan) Section: Short Film Program 4 Leaving her family behind, Lynn traverses the harrowing roads of the Cordilleran highlands to try her luck in the city as a country singer.
ON THE MORNING YOU WAKE (TO THE END OF THE WORLD) Lead Artist: Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio (K naka Maoli), Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Arnaud Colinart, Pierre Zandrowicz Section: New Frontier This powerful virtual reality documentary series allows audiences to experience the alarming events of January 13, 2018, in Hawai'i. This first chapter opens on an ordinary Saturday morning, when the entire population of Hawai'i received a startling text message from the state Emergency Management Agency: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAI'I. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. As cellular communication networks collapsed and panic took hold of the population, 1.4 million people - as well as their friends and relatives across the globe - came to understand the real, growing, and urgent nature of today's nuclear threat.
LONGLINE OF LADIES Directors: Shaandiin Tome (Din ), Rayka Zehtabchi Section: Short Film Program 1 A girl and her community prepare for her Ihuk, the once dormant coming-of-age ceremony of the Karuk tribe of northern California.
KICKING THE CLOUDS Director: Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luise o Indians) Section: Documentary Shorts Film Program 1 An experimental documentary, Kicking the Clouds is centered on a 50-year-old cassette tape of a Pechanga language lesson between the director's grandmother and great-grandmother, and contextualized by an interview with his mother in his Pacific Northwest hometown.
ATUA Lead Artist: Tanu Gago (Samoan), Jermaine Dean (M ori) Section: New Frontier If your gods could whisper in your ear, what would they say?
ATUA reimagines the realm of Pacific gods in this sculptural AR experience that claims space for gender-diverse identities impacted by colonial first contact, and creates an intimate portal for users to see themselves reflected as vital to their cultural heritage and an intrinsic part of the cosmos.Enabled through handheld devices, the ATUA experience begins with Te Kore, the void - a space of abundance and limitless potential. Activated through the power of augmented reality, witness as Te Kore is manifested into the physical realm as a cosmic being, forged of ancestral memory and adorned in cultural navigation. Become immersed in an expansive tale of time and space, in this intimate user experience that reframes Pacific cosmology through a queer Indigenous lens.
MAIDENHOOD Director/Screenwriter: X chitl Enr quez Mendoza (Zapoteca) Section
