TagNative American

Posted May 21, 2025 BIPOC

Remaining Native

“I want to hurt for him and all my other ancestors. I want to remember where I come from and to not forget the community that raised me.” — Ku Stevens

Trauma carries on through generations with the ripple effects lasting long after the ancestor’s pain is forgotten. One young man is keeping the memory of his great-grandfather alive. It’s not something he has to do but rather something he feels compelled to do.

Directed by Paige Bethmann (Haudenosaunee), Remaining Native is a documentary that follows the story of Ku Stevens, an Indigenous teen and track star who dreams of becoming a college-level athlete. He runs on the open dirt roads of his native rural Nevada. It’s the same path that his great-grandfather ran when he escaped the Stewart School, a reformatory boarding school that forced Native American children to assimilate into white culture.

As Ku, whose full name Kutoven means “the eagle who brings light from the darkness”, trains towards a sub 9 minute 2-mile run, he contemplates the times his great-grandfather had to run and the suffering he must have endured to escape a cruel system that tried to strip him of his Native identity. Ku is wise beyond his years. To honor his ancestor and to help his community honor theirs, he helps lead a Remembrance Run; a 2-day, 50 mile race that follows the path that his great-grandfather would have taken to escape the Stewart School and return to his homeland.

Remaining Native beautifully balances the duality of the story in which Ku’s journey to become a college athlete mirrors his great-grandfather’s pursuit of freedom. It also works as a sports documentary with much time spent on Ku’s athletic journey. Ku is a fascinating subject and it’s clear he’ll go on to do great things. I do wish there was a bit more information about the history behind the Stewart School and how it affected Ku’s community. But overall this is Ku’s story and it’s an honor to witness it.

Remaining Native is part of 2025 SIFF’s cINeDIGENOUS festival program.

Posted May 16, 2025 BIPOC

Drowned Land

“If you go back to any industry or anybody coming to this valley, the only thing they’ve been after is natural resources. It was never to build something here. It was always to take something…”

“If you go back to any industry or anybody coming to this valley, the only thing they’ve been after is natural resources. It was never to build something here. It was always to take something…”

When President Andrew Jackson and Congress enacted the Indian Removal Bill, the Choctaw people were the first to be removed from their ancestral land. They were relocated by force to the Kiamichi River valley in Oklahoma. Jackson promised that Native Americans would possess their land “as long as the grass grows and the river runs.” Now in present day, the Choctaw Nation, the energy industry is threatening to stop that flow of water by creating a dam on the Kiamichi River. This puts the rural community and the delicate ecosystem of the valley at great risk. Water is life and changing the flow risks relocating the Choctaw people just like their ancestors had been years before.

Directed by Colleen Thurston, Drowned Land handles a serious subject with delicacy. The breathtaking beauty of the Kiamichi River valley is put on display with some amazing drone footage. Wisdom of the Choctaw members and the concerned locals shines through. The film serves as both a nature documentary and one about Native American history. Drowned Land is a true gem of a film.

Drowned Land is part of 2025 SIFF’s cINeDIGENOUS festival program.

Posted September 29, 2022 BIPOC

Nashville Film Festival: Alta Valley

Lupe (Briza Covarrubias) is a hard-working Mexican-Navajo Diné woman just trying to make ends meet and support her family. When her mother Adamina (Paula Miranda) is hospitalized, Lupe will go to any length to acquire the funds needed for a possible life-saving procedure. Her quest to meet her father Carl (Micah Fitzgerald) and ask for his help leads her on a treacherous journey. Along the way she meets Maddy (Allee Sutton Hethcoat), a gun-toting cowgirl who is on the run from a dangerous cartel. The two form an unlikely bond as they join forces on a roadtrip through the Alta Valley.

Written and directed by Jesse Edwards, Alta Valley offers viewers a classic western style thriller as a platform to share the important story of the Diné people (given name: the Navajo). In his director’s statement, Edwards writes “this project is an honest and heartfelt attempt to make an action film, that starts an essential conversation around colonization, land ownership, and reparations toward Native American people.”

Alta Valley can at times be melodramatic and overwrought. However, its bolstered by interesting characters and its effectiveness as a message film. It explores themes of family, greed, language and land ownership with great respect for the Diné people. It flips the script on westerns of the past while also offering fans of the genre plenty of shoot outs and beautiful cinematography of the vast Utah landscape.