Friday, September 10, and Saturday, September 11, 2010

Box Office opens at 7:00 p.m. / Screenings start at 7:30 p.m.

Free Admission

 

The Autry National Center Partners With the American Indian Film Institute to Showcase Films
Created by Indian Youths on Tribal Reservations



Los Angeles, CA (August 31, 2010) – Join us for a celebration of the latest in Native American film as Michael Smith (Sioux), Founder and President of the San Francisco–based American Indian Film Institute (AIFI), hosts an exciting two-night festival of U.S.- and world-premiere shorts and feature films from Native America.

“AIFI wishes to acknowledge the Autry National Center for this opportunity to bring films from our festival to the people of Los Angeles. We would like to commend the Autry National Center for their support and outreach of Native American art, culture, and media,” said Michael Smith, AIFI President.

AIFI’s Tribal Touring Program (TTP), co-presented by Tribal Host Partners, brings to reservations and other rural communities a weeklong digital training workshop for Indian youths (ages 14–22). This year, TTP traveled to the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in California, and the Nisqually Indian Tribe in Washington State.

Friday – Premiere Night features the first screening of five short films from AIFI’s 2010 Summer Tribal Touring Program* and the feature-length film, Of Mice and Men, a Native adaptation of the classic John Steinbeck novel.

Saturday – Award Winners features two outstanding short films and Barking Water, the popular “Best Film” winner at the 2009 American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco.


Friday, September 10, 2010, 7:30 p.m. – Premiere Night

Short Films – Premiere screenings of AIFI’s Tribal Touring Program

Admirational – Yakima Nation, 10 Minutes

Emily – Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, 9 Minutes

Selai Saltu – Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, 6 Minutes

Spirit Tree – Nisqually Indian Tribe, 7 Minutes

Return of Nisqually Delta – Nisqually Indian Tribe, 5 Minutes



Feature Film

Of Mice and Men

Director: Kyle Hudlin-Whelan

74 Minutes • Canada • Feature

In this adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, the main action of the story takes place today in a rooming house in Winnipeg, instead of on a farm in California. George and Lennie are not migrant farm workers; rather, they are displaced Aboriginal teenagers who have left the desolation of their remote Northern community to drift across Southern Manitoba, looking for work. As their destiny unfolds tragically, they keep dreaming, not of their own farm, but of their own place North in the bush, where they can live off the land by trapping, hunting, and fishing.



Saturday, September 11, 2010 – Award Winners

Short Films



American Indian Film Institute

History

The American Indian Film Institute (AIFI) is a nonprofit media arts center founded in 1979 to foster understanding of the culture, traditions, and issues of contemporary Native Americans. American Indians have had an uneasy relationship with the media industry since the origins of film over 100 years ago. The quintessential 20th-century art form has created and perpetuated enduring stereotypes that are at best tedious, and at worst profoundly erosive to the self-image of generations of Native Americans. Yet the ability of this art form to weaken and erode is matched by its power to heal and strengthen. In film we find a tool to preserve and record our heritage, and a vehicle for Indians and non-Indians alike to “unlearn” damaging stereotypes and replace them with multidimensional images that reflect the complexity of Native peoples.



Our organization’s roots stretch back to 1975 when the first American Indian Film Festival was presented in Seattle. In 1977, the festival was relocated to San Francisco, where it found its permanent home. The American Indian Film Institute was incorporated in 1979, with the late actor Will Sampson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) among its founding members. Today, AIFI is the major Native American media and cultural arts presenter in California, and its festival is the world’s oldest and most recognized international film exposition dedicated to Native American cinematic accomplishment.



Goals

The goals of AIFI are inherently educational: to encourage Native/non-Native filmmakers to bring to the broader media culture the Native voices, viewpoints, and stories that have been historically excluded from mainstream media; to develop Indian and non-Indian audiences for this work; and to advocate tirelessly for authentic representations of Indians in the media.



About the Autry National Center

The Autry National Center is an intercultural history center dedicated to exploring and sharing the stories, experiences, and perceptions of the diverse peoples of the American West. Located in Griffith Park, the Autry includes the collections of the Museum of the American West, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, and the Autry Institute’s two research libraries: the Braun Research Library and the Autry Library. Exhibitions, public programs, K–12 educational services, and publications are designed to examine critical issues of society, offering insights into solutions and the contemporary human condition through the Western historical experience.

Weekday hours of operation for the Autry National Center’s museum at its Griffith Park location are Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Autry Store’s weekday hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the Golden Spur Cafe is open Tuesday through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday hours for the museum and the Autry Store are 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The museum, the Autry Store, and the cafe are closed on Mondays. The libraries are open to researchers by appointment.

Museum admission is $9 for adults, $5 for students and seniors 60+, $3 for children 3–12, and free for Autry members, veterans, and children 2 and under. Admission is free on the second Tuesday of every month.