Dislocation Blues

Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools in 1950, was still to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were beaten, humiliated or abused if they spoke their language or expressed their culture or native identity in any way. The trauma led many to alcoholism and violence in adulthood. At age 58, Walter began writing his memoirs as a way to explain his own abusive behaviors to his estranged children, but he could not complete the project without confronting the “thick dark fog” of his past so he could heal.

19 year old Bert sits in the shade of a tree in Yo Park. Cassandra Warrior feeds her daughter Diamond Rose. Daniel Runs Close sweats under the sun at Wounded Knee Memorial site. Kassel Sky Little puts his boots on at the Waters Rodeo. Vanessa Piper is alone in the middle of Badlands. Lance Red Cloud hangs out behind the gas station at night. It is summer and they all live here, at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, USA.

The story of the Yuma Crossing, the place where centuries of travelers crossed the Colorado River as told in a series of reenacted vignettes by colorful characters from the Quechan tribe, the conquistadores, Father Kino, Olive Oatman and others up until the first bridge was built in the 1920's.

A film made by Victress Hitchcock and Ava Hamilton in 1989 on the Wind River Reservation for Wyoming Public Television.

A variety of locals react to a napalm plant and an ensuing protest in Redwood City CA during the Vietnam War.

The fourth film in Alanis Obomsawin's landmark series on the Oka crisis uses a single, shameful incident as a lens through which to examine the region's long history of prejudice and injustice against the Mohawk population.

Behind the gas masks of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, the often very young activists are just as diverse as the youths of the rest of the world. But they share a demand for democracy and freedom. They have the will and the courage to fight – and they can see that things are going in the wrong direction in the small island city, which officially has autonomy under China but is now tightening its grip and demanding that ‘troublemakers’ be put away or silenced. Amid the violent protests, we meet a 21-year-old student, a teenage couple and a new father.

Through the figure of Lakota activist and community organizer Madonna Thunder Hawk, this inspiring film traces the untold story of countless Native American women struggling for their people's civil rights. Spanning several decades, Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle's documentary charts Thunder Hawk's lifelong commitment, from her early involvement in the American Indian Movement (AIM), to her pivotal role in the founding of Women of All Red Nations, to her heartening presence at Standing Rock alongside thousands protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. She passed her dedication and hunger for change to her daughter Marcy, even if that often meant feeling like comrades-in-arms more than mother and child. Through rare archival material—including amazing footage of AIM's occupation of Wounded Knee—and an Indigenous style of circular storytelling, Warrior Women rekindles the memories and legacy of the Red Power movement's matriarchs.

At the farthest edge of the Navajo Nation, the purpose and future of the most remote high school in the continental United States is in question while three Indigenous youth grapple with ambitious dreams, family responsibilities, and the isolated nature of their community.

Hundreds of thousands of Indian men and women – indigenous inhabitants and landless farmers – demand their right to existence by making a 400 kilometre protest march from Gwalior to Delhi. How can one fight for one’s rights without using violence? With such an important contemporary question, the film spreads far beyond the borders of India. It shows the multiple facets of this imposing protest march and focuses as well on the daily realities of these proud people.

The story behind Johnny Cash's lost Native American-themed concept album and his unique collaboration with folk artist Peter Lafarge. The film also chronicles the reimagining of Cash's highly controversial 1964 record on its 50th anniversary, as recorded at Nashville's historic Sound Emporium Studios. Based on Antonino D'Ambrosio's book "A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears."

American Indians dancing.

In North Dakota an Indian nation finds itself at a critical moment in its long history. The Three Affiliated Tribes face catastrophic damage to their land and culture as a result of the recent oil boom on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

Summer 2017, a string of brutal police killings of young African American men has sent shockwaves throughout the country. A Black community in the American South tries to cope with the lingering effects of the past and navigate their place in a country that is not on their side. Meanwhile, the Black Panthers prepare a large-scale protest against police brutality.

A series of racist acts prompts three Mizzou students to pick up cameras and take us inside the student movement that brought down their college president. From the hunger strike, to victory, to the fear of violent reprisals, we live with the students who started a campus revolt.

Documentation of the encroachment of European settlers upon Native American lands and the violent reaction of the Indians in their struggle to survive.

A meeting of the Far West Council elders inspires a discussion of Northwest Native American history and traditions, and the struggle to remember and honor their ancestry

A dizzying view of Manhattan in the 1960s, the tallest town in the world, and the men who work cloud-high to keep it growing. They are the Mohawk Indians from Kahnawake, near Montréal, famed for their skill in erecting the steel frames of skyscrapers. The film shows their nimble work, high above the pavement, but there are also glimpses of the quieter community life of the old Kahnawake Reserve.

On June 26, 1975, during a period of high tensions on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, two FBI agents were killed in a shootout with a group of Indians. Although several men were charged with killing the agents, only one, Leonard Peltier, was found guilty. This film describes the events surrounding the shootout and suggests that Peltier was unjustly convicted.

Award-winning documentary, Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart, makes extensive use of Sitting Bull’s own words, giving the viewer an intimate portrait of one of America’s legendary figures in all his complexities as a leader of the great Sioux Nation: warrior, spiritual leader and skilled diplomat. Sitting Bull’s words, as portrayed by Adam Fortunate Eagle, dominate this story. Augmented by a narrator’s historical perspective, over six-hundred historical photographs and images, and a compelling original music score, the film brings to life the little-known human side of Sitting Bull as well as the story of a great man’s struggle to maintain his people’s way of life against an ever-expanding westward movement of white settlers. It is a powerful cinematic journey into the life and spirit of a legendary figure of whom people have often heard but don’t really know.