C-Seg; Cherokee Film Festival

Close to 100 native and non-native people gathered at the Cherokee Casino in Katusa on Wednesday night for the opening of the International Cherokee Film Festival. KGOU's Susan Shannon was there and she files this report. It was billed as a gala and it certainly was, with some of the best and brightest native Americans in the film industry in attendance. Festival director Linda Turnbull Lewis says the aim of the festival is to increase native representation in all aspects of film making. The mission that we're out to do is to inspire and motivate, encourage and educate and help provide resources necessary to the success of emerging Native American and multicultural independent filmmakers and student seeking a voice or a career path or goals in filmmaking and multimedia communication industry. And what's wonderful about this mission that we all have our hearts and souls behind is that while it's lovely that others on the outside continually tell the story for Native Americans, it would be much better if Native Americans could tell their own stories and we

certainly have trailblazers among those lines. One of those trailblazers is festival presenter Osage Cherokee lawyer and film historian Renard Strickland. I'm doing one of the keynotes at the film festival called Tonto's Revenge in which I look at how over the last 100 years, motion pictures have distorted the truth and the reality of life in the American Indian community. What do you think is the biggest myth that they tend to put out there? The most important probably is that the Indian is disappearing. That soon there will be no more Indians. And the one that is the most fun is what my friend Margaret Archuleta calls the myth of Tomahawk envy, the Indian man as great sexual symbol, and the Indian woman as promiscuous. How do you find this event? Are you surprised that something is going on in Oklahoma like this?

I'm absolutely amazed that so many significant figures who are building the American Indian film tradition are here, young filmmakers who are revolutionizing the stereotypes who are offering Indians for viewers who are real Indians, Indians with families, Indians with jobs, Indians with senses of humor, Indians who live and act and survive in the 21st century. One fine example of making it in the 21st century is Cherokee actor West Stude, who emceed the opening night. Well I think the film festival can be a very important part of the economy as well as an important part of the creative part of putting films together. It's an entire industry that could easily fit into the framework of industry and or the economic development of the state of Oklahoma as well as if not more within the Cherokee

nation itself. The highlight of the opening night festivities was the showing of the first film produced by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, A Thousand Roads. It's the story of four contemporary native people from the Western Hemisphere. It was directed by Chris Ayer, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes whose previous credits include Smoke Signals. The International Cherokee Film Festival will end tomorrow in Telequa with films and animation workshops during the day and an awards dinner in the evening. For those interested in seeing A Thousand Roads, a special free screening will be held at the Sam Noble Museum in Norman, tomorrow at 2pm. Your Chris Ayer will be on hand with Dr. Andrew Horton of the OU Film and Video Studies Department. For KGOU News, I'm Sison Shannon.