Richmonders will be able to experience the powerful stories and direct accounts of American Indian filmmakers November 17-19 at the inaugural American Indian Film Festival of Virginia. At a preview of the festival on Sunday at The Byrd Theatre, actor George Aguilar (of Bagdad Café, The Scarlet Letter and the Syfy mini-series Neverland) will give a talk at 1:15 p.m. titled “Master Class: Acting Experiences From Both Sides of the Atlantic, A Native American Perspective.” Aguilar is a Native American currently living in France.
At 2 p.m., director and producer Chris Eyre will be on hand for a screening of his 1998 film, “Smoke Signals.” The film follows the stories of two friends (Adam Beach and Evan Adams) who set out on a journey to retrieve the ashes of someone close to them, exploring their identities along the way. Mixing serious cultural themes with humor, this award-winning film was the first to be directed, written and produced by American Indians.
And at 4 p.m., director and writer Georgina Lightning will present her 2008 film, “Older Than America."
The film features Lightning, Beach and Tantoo Cardinal (who also appeared in “Smoke Signals”) along with Bradley Cooper. The film highlights the horrific misdoings at Native American boarding schools, where children were stripped of their identity and culture.
Aguilar, Eyre and Lightning will return to Richmond in November for the full festival.
Bradby Brown, assistant chief of Virginia's Pamunkey tribe, is overseeing the Richmond-area organization of the event. “There aren’t American Indian Film Festivals; there really hasn’t been anything of significance on the East Coast,” says Brown.
The festival's primary sponsor is the 2019 Commemoration, which, over the next three years, will commemorate events occurring in Virginia in 1619 that shaped the formation of America.
The festival has its roots in Richmond's French Film Festival. Aguilar was a guest speaker at the event last year, and afterward met with Virginia tribal leaders and representatives from the French Film Festival to discuss the representation of American Indians in cinema. The French film event's co-founders, Peter and Francoise Kirkpatrick, are assisting with the American Indian Film Festival.
Additional sponsors include eight of the state-recognized American Indian tribes, along with director Francis Ford Coppola, best known for “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” who recently opened the Werowocomoco restaurant (named after the historical Virginia town that served as headquarters for the Powhatan tribe) at the Virginia Dare Winery in California.
American Indian tribal leaders from state-recognized tribes, with creative support from Aguilar, Eyre and Lightning, are overseeing the film festival.
“It’s going to be a way for Virginia tribes to tell their story, and it’s going to be a way for Native American filmmakers to show their films, because these are not commercial films that people would have seen in the theater,” Brown says.
The November festival will also feature musical and dance performances from Virginia Indian tribes.
For more information on Sunday’s sneak peek and the November festival, visit facebook.com/aiffva.
