- [Announcer] This series was created in partnership with the Sundance Institute.

More information at sundance.org Funding for "Native Shorts" was made possible by a generous grant from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, and from viewers like you.

(bold drumming music) ♪ (singing in indigenous language) ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Bird] "Native Shorts", presented by Sundance Institute's Indigenous Program.

- [Ariel] Hello, folks!

Welcome to "Native Shorts."

I'm Ariel Tweto.

- [Bird] And, I'm Bird Runningwater.

- On today's episode, we have two films, "Raven", and "Sunflower Siege Engine."

Bird, will you tell us a little bit about the first?

- I sure can!

(laughing) Our first film is "Raven" by Razelle Benally and she belongs to the Oglala, Lakota, and Diné peoples.

This film was made while she was a student at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Let's go ahead and watch this film.

- Enjoy "Raven"!

(film machine whirring/clattering) (motorcycle engine revving) (engine humming) (engine humming) (no audio) (soft wind blowing) (soft breeze blowing) (footsteps crunch gravel) (light tense music) ♪ (atmospheric music) (birds chirping) ♪ ♪ ♪ (birds chirping) (atmospheric music) ♪ ♪ ♪ (bird cawing) (music stops) (soft breeze blowing) (pack plopping) (thumping sound) (zipper ripping) (soft breeze blowing) (birds faintly chirping) (soft breeze blowing) (trowel thuds) (ground breaking/scraping) (scraping sounds) (soft breeze blowing) (soft breeze blowing) (bird chirping faintly) (bird chirping faintly) (grass rustling) (bird chirping) (soft breeze blowing) (bird chirping) (bird chirping) (rustling sounds) (bird chirping) (soft breeze blowing) (light tense music) ♪ (voice whispering in indigenous language) (voice whispering in indigenous language) (voice whispering in indigenous language) (voice whispering in indigenous language) (tense music) ♪ (tense music intensifies) ♪ (deeply inhales/exhales) (dark tense music) ♪ ♪ (sighs) (exhales) (dark ominous music) ♪ (deeply breathing) ♪ (no audio) ♪ (eerie keyboard music) ♪ - Hey.

♪ Hey, are you okay?

♪ Where's your mommy and daddy?

(echoes) ♪ Are you hurt?

♪ What's your name?

(echoes) - Raven.

Where are your parents, Raven?

(branch cracks) (tense music) (Raven shouts playfully/laughs) ♪ Raven, baby.

Where did you get those?

♪ I need you to give them back to me, okay?

♪ (heart beating) (tense music) ♪ Raven!

(heart beating) (no audio) (voice speaking in indigenous language) (man clicking tongue) - [Man] Buddy?

(man whistles) (voice speaking in indigenous language) Hey, you seen my dog?

(voice speaking in indigenous language) Ma'am?

Ma'am!

(bird chirping) (paper rustling) (crumpling sounds) (lighter flicks) (light ambient music) ♪ (gravel grating) ♪ (light electronic music) ♪ ♪ (gravel grating) (electronic music with beats) ♪ (motorcycle starts/revs) ♪ (electronic music with beats) ♪ - [Ariel] Oh, it's heartbreaking because whoever created this that they had to have had that experience or have been around someone that has had this experience.

Just really sad to know that people are going through this.

- [Bird] It's a really powerful story that's told mostly without dialogue.

- Yeah.

- It's all visual storytelling, you know?

So, you kind of get, you kind of eventually learn through, you know, the actress' performance and what she's doing on screen, kind of, I guess maybe what she's going through.

You know, it is a bit heartbreaking, but I mean, in the end, kind of hopeful and, you know, it's about suicide.

- Yeah.

- But, in the end she doesn't.

- And, suicide is so prevalent in a lot of indigenous communities.

It happened so much in the communities where I grew up.

So, yeah.

Just...ugh!

Like, tugs at your heartstrings for sure.

But, yeah.

But like you said, hopeful.

So-- - There's also kind of like this little intervention of the little girl.

- Yeah.

- You know?

Who knows who she is or where she's coming from, but she actually distracts our female character.

(metal rings clacking) - Yeah.

- And, prevents her from going through with it.

- Yeah, very powerful.

- Yes.

- So, this next film that we're gonna watch is called "Sunflower Siege Engine".

Would you like to describe this one a little bit, or are we-?

- Sure!

And, this comes from Sky Hopinka.

He comes from the Ho-Chunk and Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.

And, he is currently a MacArthur Fellow, which is a really prestigious award.

- Let's watch "Sunflower Siege Engine".

Please enjoy.

(film machine whirring/clattering) ♪ (loud atmospheric music) ♪ ♪ (softer keyboard music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (soft atmospheric music) ♪ (chair creaking) (video: boat motor humming) (creaking footsteps) - [Narrator] I once saw a kindness in the heart of my palm and it was ragged and tired like me on Saturday afternoons, before everyone comes back and after everyone's long left.

My face and my body and my shame and my humiliation are all tied together, all tangled together in the eyes of the movers.

And, in the voices of the locators all lined up saying, where I should go, where we should go.

We're not trash and we're not nothin' but Indins trying to have a nice time.

No eye contact, no quick movements.

You've got to be ashamed and you've got to watch out.

It's time for another one on the avenue on the stage where I heard you sing.

Not to me, not to them, not to anyone else other than a memory of lights lit nicely and courage and fear all rolled into one, all rolled into a cigarette burning lopsided under each drag, still pulling the wrong way.

- Stop.

(video: boat motor whirring) (plane engine whirring) (plane engine whirring) (smacking sound) (engine whirring sounds) (engine whirring sounds) (chair creaking sounds) (film crackling/popping) (ambient keyboard music) ♪ ♪ (vocalizing/humming) ♪ (atmospheric keyboard music) ♪ ♪ ♪ Get them out ♪ ♪ ♪ Get them out ♪ (ambient keyboard music) ♪ Get them out ♪ ♪ - [Narrator] I cough when I smoke these days.

I don't remember when I stopped being young but the pain in my body and weariness in my hands make it clear it was a long time ago last night when I was loosing voice at the lamps following me down the street, saying, "Don't look at me anymore.

"Don't let them see me.

I'm tired of my face and my voice and my hands."

There's a failure in our walk, I think to myself as I think about body and face and form and place and the way my hands look when they type these words, when the they clap real loud, when they squeeze yours real tight, when they hold these books, when they clutch that beer, when they shake late at night after tossin' and turnin' for hours on end, trying to dream those dreams I had when I was small.

When you were old and I saw them in your words and heard your voice.

♪ ♪ Get them out ♪ ♪ ♪ Get them out ♪ ♪ ♪ Get them out ♪ ♪ ♪ Get them out ♪ ♪ ♪ Get them out ♪ ♪ - The so-called- - Just a minute.

Channel 4 missed it.

- OK.

(ahem!)

- [Reporter] Yeah.

Roll, John.

- We feel that this so-called Alcatraz Island is more than suitable for an Indian reservation as determined by the white man's own standards.

By this we mean that this place resembles most Indian reservations in that, one, it is isolated from modern facilities and without adequate means of transportation.

Two, it has no fresh running water.

Three, it has inadequate sanitation facilities.

Four, there are no oil or mineral rights.

Five, there is no industry and so unemployment is very great.

Six, there are no healthcare facilities.

Seven, the soil is rocky and non-productive and the land does not support game.

Eight, there are no educational facilities.

Nine, the population has always exceeded the land base.

Ten, the population has always been held as prisoners and kept dependent upon others.

Further... (audience clapping) - [Man] Cut it, Norm.

(singing indigenous language) (drum beating) ♪ - [Man] That's right, I just want to dance.

(upbeat keyboard music) ♪ (bouncy synthesizer music and beats) ♪ ♪ ♪ A quiet love is a lazy love ♪ ♪ in Mexico City ♪ ♪ Small blooms of terror from those pictures of you ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Swallowed whole by you like a tidal wave, swimmin' ♪ ♪ While you went from town to town ♪ ♪ Again, I'm swimmin' ♪ ♪ (light bouncy keyboard music) ♪ ♪ I told ya to wait for me ♪ ♪ ♪ I told ya to wait for me ♪ ♪ ♪ Go on, keep calling all night ♪ ♪ ♪ Go on, keep calling ♪ ♪ all night long ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm not hiding ♪ ♪ Again, I'm swimmin' ♪ ♪ On this little sleep ♪ ♪ Again, I'm swimmin' ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I told ya to wait for me ♪ ♪ ♪ I told ya to wait for me ♪ ♪ ♪ I told ya to wait for me ♪ ♪ ♪ I told ya to wait for me ♪ ♪ ♪ (music fades) (gentle organ music) ♪ - [Narrator] Modene was the roller derby queen and I never liked 49's the way that I should.

There's no right way to be Indin, just a whole lot of wrong ways.

♪ It's a quiet stage where you stand now, still dark and still quiet and still, and still.

♪ Still.

♪ Still.

Your distant voice eases the tension in my back, and my slouch and my jaw and my teeth.

From the sides of my cheeks that I bite when I'm afraid I'm alone, another skin in the city hanging loosely off arms and legs as I'm thinking about you and a walk on a Saturday afternoon with a big smiling face and a slow and easy step.

♪ There's no time for death songs.

We don't remember them anymore anyhow.

(gentle organ music) ♪ (swelling thoughtful keyboard music) ♪ ♪ - [Ariel] Yep.

So, I definitely recognize his style and for me, like, I feel like everyone that watches this will come away with a different interpretation.

It's almost hypnotizing.

- [Bird] Yes.

I would say it has a meditation to it, you know?

And, I think he is, a lot of times, one, he's always speaking to the Native viewer and really focusing in and honing in on the Native viewer and letting everybody else take what they want from what he's projecting onto the screen.

- I think that you could watch it 20 times too, and every time you watch, you'll grab something different.

- And, he also challenges his viewer, like the way that-- Because he puts these texts on over this documentary footage or these other kinds of, you know, impressionistic images, and really kind of like challenges the viewer and kind of like what they should be focusing on.

And, like you're saying, you could rewatch it a hundred times and get something different every time.

- I love that he challenges the viewer.

He believes in the viewer.

We're smart people.

We could do hard things!

- Exactly!

- I know.

- Right?

- Well?

That was a fun episode, Bird.

- It sure was.

- I'm gonna miss you, but we have to go.

- Aloha.

- Oh, bye.

Oh, adios.

Goodbye.

Until next time, peace.

♪ On this episode, my top is from Choke Cherry Creek by Angela Howe; scarf from Honovi Design by Jessica Wiarda; horse medallion earrings by Aston Poorbear.

- [Bird] And, I'm wearing a top by Indigenous Couture; silver jewelry by Cody Sanderson.

And, a necklace by Tina Osceola.

♪ - [Announcer] This series was created in partnership with the Sundance Institute.

More information at sundance.org Funding for "Native Shorts" was made possible by a generous grant from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, and from viewers like you.