Tacoma Sister Cities Indigenous Film Festival – Day #1

Tacoma Sister Cities Indigenous Film Festival – Day #1

Tues., Nov. 7

The Grand Cinema

606 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma

Info: TacomaSisterCities.org

Tacoma Sister Cities Indigenous Film Festival line-up begins with five screenings. In The Grand’s Theater 1 will be “In the Land of the Headhunters” at 4:30 p.m. followed by the 15-minute short film “More Than Bows and Arrows” then “Ever Deadly” at 7 p.m. “Crazywise” shows at 4:30 p.m. in Theater 2, and “Hamada” at 4:30 p.m. in Theater 3.

Made in 1914, “In the Land of the Headhunters” is the creation of indigenous photographer Edward S. Curtis and George Hunt. In 1911, Curtis traveled to British Columbia and visited the Kwakwaka’wakw, an indigenous tribe of the Pacific Northwest coast. Over the course of three years, Curtis and Hunt, a Kwakwaka’wakw interpreter, crafted an elusive fusion of documentary and dramatic recreation in collaboration with the tribe’s significant figures. 

“Ever Deadly” (2022), by Chelsea McMullan and Tanya Tagaq, weaves together intimate concert footage of renowned Inuk throat singer Tagaq alongside moving personal reflections, stunning sequences filmed in Nunavut, and hand-drawn animation by Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona to seamlessly bridge history, landscapes, stories, and songs with pain, anger, and triumph.

Filmmaker and human-rights photographer Philip Borges will be in attendance for “Crazywise” (2012), a film about mental health and powerful shamanic ways of healing. “Hamada” (2018), from Tacoma’s sister country Morocco, paints an unusual portrait of a group of young friends living in a refugee camp in the middle of the stony Saharan desert.