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Indigenous & Native Studies

The # 7 Train: An Immigrant Journey
Hye Jung Park & JT Takagi
Producer: Third World Newsreel
1999, 29 min., Color, US
Every day 500,000 people from 117 different countries ride a subway that runs from Flushing to Times Square, going through Queens, the most culturally diverse region in the United States. This documen...

A 1994 Video Book
Beverly Singer
1994, 6 min., Color, US
In this video diary, Beverly Singer, a documentarian and member of the Santa Clara Tewa Pueblo, has created an introspective examination of her life and memories. She muses aloud about history, person...

The Absent Stone
Sandra Rozental & Jesse Lerner
2013, 82 min., Color, Mexico
In 1964, a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith was taken from the town of San Miguel Coatlinchan in the state of Mexico and brought to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Since then, the ab...

Americano
Carlos Ferrand
Producer: Sylvain L'Esperance
2007, 110 min., Color, Canada
"I’m on my way to reconnect with long lost friends, 'mi familia Americana'. I need them to help me take the pulse of the Americas." Carlos Ferrand AMERICANO is a personal journey through the back a...

The Amerindians
Tracy Assing
Producer: Tracy Assing
2010, 40 min., Color, US
In this revealing documentary, Tracy Assing explores Trinidad’s indigenous history and the inner workings of the organization which represents these indigenous descendants, the Santa Rosa Carib Commun...

Angels of the Earth, The
Patricio Luna
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
2001, 40 min., Color, Bolivia
In his first trip to the city, Sinchi faces deceit, violence and rejection from strangers and from his long lost brother, Antonio. This short drama is a cautionary tale about the dangers of city life ...

Arctic Hip Hop
Randy Kelly
Producer: Jacques Ménard & Micheline Shoebridge
2007, 44 min., Color, Canada
In Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, an isolated community of 1500 mainly Inuit residents, Hip-Hop has been popular for many years. But it’s the glamourized gangsta lifestyle on display in music videos that man...

El Charango
Jim Virga & Tula Goenka
2006, 22 min., Color, Bolivia
This short documentary is about a little instrument, a large silver mine and the highest city in the world. Cerro Rico in Potosi, Bolivia, was discovered by Spanish conquistadors in 1545, who enslaved...

Conquering Fear a.k.a. Overcoming Fear
María Morales
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
2004, 55 min., Color, Bolivia
When an impoverished Aymara family migrates from the highlands to seek a better life elsewhere, the husband abandons his wife, Manuela, and their children. Manuela moves on with her life, becoming the...

The Couple in the Cage
Coco Fusco & Paula Heredia
1993, 30 min., Color, US
Over the last five hundred years, non-western human beings have been exhibited in the taverns, theaters, gardens, museums, zoos, circuses and world's fairs of Europe, and the circuses and freak shows ...

Cow Tipping: the Militant Indian Waiter
Randy Redroad
Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop
1992, 10 min., Color, US
In this original short drama, a Cherokee café waiter faces customers who insist on sharing their ignorance about American Indians--or are they Native Americans? His efforts to educate others often end...

Cry of the Forest, The
Alejandro Noza, Nicolás Ipamo, Iván Sanjinés
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
2008, 94 min., Color, Bolivia
Bolivia’s first indigenous feature film, THE CRY OF THE FOREST is based on true events that led to the indigenous demonstrations of 1990 and 1996, two events that changed the political history of Boli...

Detour: Or How I Spent My Weekend
Deron Twohatchet
1995, 28 min., Color, US
Two mismatched drifters, Jim and James, are on a voyage discovering the contours of homo/hetero, red/white, personal/political, textual/metatextual in an experimental narrative feast. In a critique of...

Diabetes: Notes from Indian Country
Beverly Singer
Producer: Beverly Singer
2000, 30 min., Color, US
In 1993, the U.S. Public Health/Indian Health Service reported that 40% of all persons, 40 years and older, residing on American Indian reservations are diabetic. This video visits the Winnebago Indi...

Don't Get Sick After June: American Indian Healthcare
Chip Richie
Producer: Steven R. Heape
2010, 60 min., Color, US
Declared wards of the state, Native Americans were promised housing, education and healthcare in numerous treaties with the US Government. Like so many other federal promises, these too have not been ...

Dusting Off Our History
Alfredo Copa
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
1999, 27 min., Color, Bolivia
Leaders of three different Ayllus, or indigenous communities, meet to celebrate their common traditions, their love for music and sports, and to reflect on the rapid changes in agriculture, education,...

Finding D-QU: The Lonely Struggle of California's only Tribal College
Chris Newman
Producer: Chris Newman
2010, 26 min., Color, US
In 2005, D-Q University, California’s only tribal college, was shut down after a 35-year struggle. Since then, the school’s board of trustees, past students, and community members have tried to reopen...

For a Better Life
CEFREC/CAIB
Producer: CEFREC CAIB
2008, 55 min., Color, Bolivia
With exclusive footage, this film documents the drafting of the 2009 Bolivian constitution, and the long history of indigenous activism that led to this revolutionary movement for ethnic and linguisti...

Foster Care Film Series: Volume 1
Yasmin Mistry
Producer: Yasmin Mistry
2017, 39 min., Color, US
In this award-winning collection, Charell, Ashley, and Camilla share their deeply personal stories about their experiences in the U.S. foster care system. Foster Care Film Series: Volume 1 celebrates ...

The Grand Circle
Richard Ray Whitman & Pierre Lobstein
1995, 12 min., Color
Two brothers and a friend take a cross-country journey through Indian Territory in Oklahoma. They use image projection and text to convey a highly abstracted and experimental vision on their journey: ...

Haircuts Hurt
Randy Redroad
1992, 10 min., Color, US
A Native American woman and her young son encounter everyday racism when they visit a local barbershop. The situation leads her to reflect on her own childhood and reconsider her son's first haircut. ...

He Wo Un Poh: Recovery in Native America
Beverly Singer
1994, 54 min., Color, US
A critical look at the effects of alcoholism on Native American communities. Singer, a member of the Santa Clara Tewa Pueblo, introduces us to the experiences of seven Native Americans on the road to...

Heaven, Earth and Hell
Thomas Allen Harris
1994, 26 min., Color, US
Reflecting on the "trickster" figure in African and Native American cultures, while recounting the story of his first love, this beautiful work incorporates the critical texts of Frantz Fanon, bell ho...

If You Could Walk In My Shoes
Ricardo E Causo
2016, 27 min., Color, US
Ecuadorian immigrant Roberto Marquez has been living in New York City for more than a decade, yet he has been unable to adjust his immigration status because there has been no path to citizenship for ...

In the Name of our Coca Leaves a.k.a. In the Name of our Coca
Humberto Claros & Albino Pinto
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
2004, 45 min., Color, Bolivia
In the midst of the historical conflict between indigenous coca growers in Chapare and the Bolivian military, Joselo Coca must chose between his military career and his family’s survival. TWN is p...

Indian Having Coffee With Kerouac, Ginsberg and Hemingway
James Luna
1994, 23 min., Color, US
Visual and performance artist James Luna takes these famous American writers and parallels their spiritual, political and emotional state to the American Indian community. The icons are played by Indi...

Indigenous Peoples: This Is How We Think
CEFREC/CAIB
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
2012, 12 min., Color, Bolivia
An excellent introduction to the work of the CEFREC/CAIB collective, this short documentary includes interviews with members of the film collective and clips of their fiction films and television show...

Iracema (de Questembert)
Maria Thereza Alves
Producer: Alves-Durham GbR
2009, 27 min., Color, Brazil/France
In the fictional docudrama IRACEMA (DE QUESTEMBERT), specially made for the Lyon Biennale, Maria Thereza Alves recounts the story of Iracema, a young indigenous woman from Corubime, an isolated Brazil...

Judith: Portrait of a Street Vendor
Zahida Pirani
2014, 17 min., Color, US
JUDITH: PORTRAIT OF A STREET VENDOR is a documentary short that takes the audience on an intimate journey into the daily life of Judith, a street vendor from Guatemala who lives and works in New York ...

Ki-Hi-Ka Ste': Life of Chief George Tall Chief
Amy Tall Chief
2010, 63 min., Color, US
Ki-Hi-Ka Ste' is a heartfelt story of one man's journey through life, the many lives he impacted and the legacy that he will leave behind. At age 93, George Eves Tall Chief is currently the oldest me...

La Cocina de las Patronas
Javier García
Producer: Iliana Martinez, Ana Paula Uruñuela & SacBé Producciones
2016, 66 min., Color, Mexico
Day after day, for over 20 years, a group of women in Mexico, prepare and give meals to Central American migrants who travel atop La Bestia, a U.S.-bound freight train. They call themselves Las Patron...

Land, Rain & Fire: Report from Oaxaca
Tami Gold & Gerardo Renique
Producer: Tami Gold & Gerardo Renique
2007, 30 min., Color, US/Mexico
What began as a teachers' strike for better wages and more resources for students has erupted into a massive movement for profound social change in the state of Oaxaca. With the largest indigenous pop...

Little Brother: Series
Nicole Franklin
Color, US
LITTLE BROTHER is a series of short documentary films dedicated to giving Black boys a unique voice. Beginning in 2010, filmmakers Nicole Franklin and Jasmin Tiggett started taking an annual look at B...

Little Brother: The Fire Next Time (Chapter 4)
Nicole Franklin
2014, 17 min., Color, US
LITTLE BROTHER is a series of short documentary films dedicated to giving Black boys a unique voice. Beginning in 2010, filmmakers Nicole Franklin and Jasmin Tiggett started taking an annual look at B...

Little Immigrants
Sonia Fritz & Frances Lausell
2008, 42 min., Color, Mexico/US
LITTLE IMMIGRANTS is an insider's look into child smuggling captured from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. This documentary is a dramatic firsthand account of a family's journey to reunite after ...

Living Along the Fenceline
Lina Hoshino & Gwyn Kirk
Producer: Lina Hoshino, Gwyn Kirk & Deborah Lee
2012, 65 min., Color, US
LIVING ALONG THE FENCELINE tells the stories of seven grassroots women leaders from across the Pacific to Puerto Rico whose communities are affected by the U.S. military presence in their backyards. A...

Living Quechua
Christine Mladic Janney
2014, 18 min., Color, US
An uplifting journey through a diverse network of Quechua speakers and students in New York City, one Peruvian woman’s mission to revive her indigenous language becomes an inspiration for a historical...

Loving Each Other in the Shadows
Marcelina Cárdenas
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
2001, 47 min., Color, Bolivia
Rosita, from a privileged background, and Juancito, from a poor family, fall in love during Carnival time, a time for everyone in their community, rich and poor, to get together, dance and drink the t...

Mi Otro Yo (My Other Self)
Isaac Artenstein
Producer: Cinewest
1989, 30 min., Color, US
Expanding his exploration of marginalized identity and border culture, videomaker Artenstein's MI OTRO YO looks at the work of Chicano artists living in California. Their cultural ties to Mexico and h...

Mohawk Nation
Allan Siegel
Producer: Third World Newsreel
1978, 45 min., Color, US
In 1974, a group of Mohawks reoccupied a part of their ancestral land and proclaimed it Ganienkeh. MOHAWK NATION, made in the mid-70s by the occupants themselves and the Third World Newsreel crew, is ...

Of Kites and Borders
Yolanda Pividal
2014, 60 min., Color, US/Mexico/Spain
OF KITES AND BORDERS, winner of the Best Documentary Award at the San Diego Film Festival and the Havana Film Festival in New York, tells the story of the daily struggle to be a child living on the US...

Our Word: The Story of San Francisco de Moxos
Julia Mosúa
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
1999, 22 min., Color, Bolivia
In this docudrama, elders of the San Francisco de Moxos community tell the story of the courageous pioneers who founded their village in the Bolivian Amazons and the indigenous “cabildo”, or neighborh...

Plastic Warriors
Amy Tall Chief
Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop
2004, 26 min., Color, US
Native New Yorkers give their emotional responses to terms like "squaw" and "redskin" in this thought-provoking documentary about Native American stereotypes in American culture....

The Quilmes According to Miguel Mamani
Mabel Maio
2007, 22 min., Color, Argentina
Decimated during the Spanish colonization and vilified by Argentina's official history, the Quilmes remain alive in the ruins of their ancient city and in the passionate voice of Miguel Mamani, a prou...

Raised by Our Own Authority
Mauricio Acosta
Producer: Association of Indigenous Councils of the North of Cauca
2006, 24 min., Color, Colombia
In May 2006, more than 300,000 Colombians, including indigenous communities and social justice organizations came together at the National Traveling Summit to demand a national referendum on the Free ...

Ruins
Jesse Lerner
1999, 78 min., BW, US
Ancient Maya and Aztec objects have been shown in circuses, art galleries, World's Fairs and natural history museums. This experimental documentary suggests how diplomacy and Pan-Americanism recast a...

Sipakapa Is Not for Sale
Alvaro Revenga
2005, 55 min., Guatemala
Montana Exploradora, subsidiary of the Canadian/US transnational company Glamis Gold, received 45 million US dollars in financing from the World Bank to exploit an open-pit gold mine in Sipakapa, Guat...

Sirionó
CEFREC/CAIB
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
2010, 56 min., Color, Bolivia
In the years leading to the historic 1990 March for Indigenous Land and Dignity, the Sirionó community of Ibiato resists the imposition of a Eurocentric educational system that devalues their way of l...

Tenacity
Chris Eyre
1995, 10 min., BW, US
The story of two Indian boys who encounter the violence of the adult world in a roadside hit-and-run accident. Filmed in Onondaga Territory in upstate New York, this award winning short is about frien...

Tinku Kamayu
Mabel Maio
2008, 30 min., Color, Argentina
This inspiring documentary tells the story of a group of Indigenous women who responded to Argentina's economic crisis by rediscovering the ancestral tradition of spinning and weaving wool. They call ...

To Light the Spirit
Reynaldo Yujra
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
2002, 45 min., Color, Bolivia
In a collective production, an Aymara filmmaker follows the Kallawayas, healers and spiritual leaders of the Chari community of La Paz, to learn about the indigenous reality of the region. Traditional...

Tongues of Heaven
Anita Chang, An-Chi Chen, Leivallyn Kainoa Kaupu, Monica Hau‘oli Waiau & Shin-Lan Yu
2013, 60 min., Color, US/Taiwan
Set in Taiwan and Hawai‘i, territories where the Austronesian family languages are spoken, TONGUES OF HEAVEN focuses on the questions, desires and challenges of young indigenous peoples to learn the l...

Two Spirits: Native American Lesbians and Gays
Teresa Osa Hidalgo de la Riva
Producer: Deep Dish TV
1994, 28 min., Color, US
This video explores the Native American belief in “Two Spirit” human androgyny. A combination of the ability to love another of the same gender, to encompass “masculine” and “feminine” attributes with...

Vest Made of Money
Patricio Luna
Producer: CEFREC/CAIB
1998, 25 min., Color, Bolivia
In this Aymara folktale about greed and betrayal, Satuco sells his possessions and hides the cash in his vest. In the process, he turns his back on his wife and his community. Confronting the sign...

War for Guam
Frances Negrón-Muntaner
Producer: Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Baltazar B. Aguon, Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Cristine Borja Sumbi, Beni Matías
2015, 57 min., Color, US
WAR FOR GUAM is a 57-minute film about World War II and its enduring legacy in Guam, a U.S. territory since 1898. The film tells the extraordinary story of how the Native people of Guam, the Chamorros...

Women and Men Are Good Dancers
Arlene Bowman
1994, 6 min., Color, US
"Women and Men Are Good Dancers," is a translation from the Cree language of an intertribal pow wow song. Bowman was inspired to create this tape by the "nizhoni" (Dine) or "it is beautiful" of the Pl...


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TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape, Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to be inflicted upon Indigenous and People of Color communities here and abroad, which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice.

TWN is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Color Congress, MOSAIC, New York Community Trust, Peace Development Fund, Ford Foundation, Golden Globe Foundation, Kolibri Foundation and individual donors.