“Red Fever,” a new documentary, attempts to answer a seemingly unanswerable question. What’s up with the world’s endless fascination with stereotypical imagery of Indigenous culture, despite ongoing attempts to destroy and dehumanize Native peoples?
It’s thought-provoking films such as “Red Fever” that are the meat and potatoes of the 8th annual Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival taking place at the VMFA and Virginia Museum of History and Culture this month. As it has for the past seven years, the festival follows the evolution in the growing genre of Native filmmaking and its theme remains the same year to year: “Native people telling our story.”
Sometimes that story is about sports. Another documentary being screened this year, “The Electric Indian,” follows Ojibwe hockey legend Henry Boucha from the 1969 Minnesota High School hockey tournament to the 1973 Olympics to the NHL. An on-ice assault and injury ended his athletic career but unexpectedly led him on a journey of healing and cultural reclamation.
This year’s Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival holds particular significance because 2024 is the 100-year anniversary of two historic events in American history, the Indian Citizenship Act and Racial Integrity Act. The first imposed U.S. citizenship on Indigenous people and the latter ushered in a long period of discriminatory racial designation administered by the government.
Pamunkey member Brad Brown, who is the festival’s executive director, says the legacy of racial discrimination resulting from the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 still impacts tribal communities today. “Many find it difficult to document their ancestral lineage due to the ‘paper genocide’ that identified Native people as colored,” he explains. “During this year’s festival, we’ll be screening a short documentary produced by the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium and the [Virginia] Museum of History and Culture that addresses this episode in Virginia history.”
As part of the film festival, there will be a Native Music Fest on Friday afternoon. The concert will feature Native American musicians Koli Kohler, Darren Thompson and Suni Sonqo and Vizcarra Wood, with each playing three or four songs in turn in a round-robin format. The focus is on the songs rather than the performance and each musician will share a brief story behind their song. “Our plan is to expand the Music Fest next year to include up to ten Native musicians for a full day experience,” Brown says.
As with many film festivals, Pocahontas Reframed includes blocks of short films on topics as disparate as environmental activism and health issues common to Indigenous peoples. “Who Can Identify as Native Americans?” looks at the wave of “Pretendians,” as experts dissect what it really means to be Native, whether through blood, initiation or just claiming it’s so.
One of the lighter offerings during Saturday’s animated shorts program is “How to Cope with Your Team Changing its Native American Mascot,” a film produced in partnership with Comedy Central. Using an all-Native voice cast, the short offers cheeky solutions to fans who miss doing the tomahawk chop or going to games in redface. “Everyone loves the shorts section of the festival,” Brown says. “So many deep and important topics can be covered in less than two hours. It becomes a roller coaster emotional experience.”
This year’s festival has not only more full-length narrative films than in the previous seven years, but more diversity in terms of characters and situations depicted. Native filmmakers including Darlene Naponse with her film “Stellar,” Elle-Maija Tailfeathers with her films “The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open” and “Little Bird” and Gail Maurice with her film “Rosie” are expanding their storytelling to include more diversity. “The hardest part of selecting films for the festival is having to reject a film, because I know how much work and time goes into making a film,” says Brown. “Putting the lineup together is my honor.”
Screening on Friday, “Bring Them Home” looks at the deeply meaningful role that buffalo played in Blackfeet life prior to the arrival of settlers who all but eradicated wild buffalo in an effort to eradicate the Blackfeet people. Buffalo are seen not only as fundamental to a healthy ecosystem by the Blackfeet, but as spiritual relatives, making for a sincerely moving film.
The annual Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival was originally created because storytelling and filmmaking have long suffered from a dearth of representation of significant groups who influenced American democracy, notably Native Americans.
Every year since its inception, the festival has grown.
“I hope the citizens of Richmond and all of Virginia appreciate the festival, which is the largest and best Native film festival on the East Coast of the United States,” Brown says. “I think we’re just lucky to be able to highlight these films.”
The 8th Annual Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival runs Nov. 22-24 at VMFA and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. Tickets at pocahontasreframed.com
