All events and screenings take place at CCA Cinematheque, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, 982-1338. Tickets for films are $5-$8, $50 for an all-festival pass which includes priority admission to all shows and admission to Native Roots and Rhythms. Call for complete schedule of events or visit www.ccasantafe.org.
***image2***
5th World
Written and directed by Blackhorse Lowe
An official selection at Sundance this year, Lowe's first feature film explores contemporary Navajo culture as seen through the eyes of Andrei (Silentwalker) and Aria (Knoki), two young people who meet and fall in love while hitchhiking back home across the rez; scuttlebutt has it that the film was shot for less than $300. As an added treat, Institute of American Indian Arts alumni Melaw Antoine, Richard Castaneda and Orlando White have brief musical roles.
8:30 pm Friday, Aug. 19 and 8:15 pm Saturday, Aug. 20
Chac: The Rain God
Written and directed by Rolando Klein
Chilean director Klein spent two years living among the Tzeltal of Chiapas before shooting
Chac
, laregly cast with indigenous Mexican non-actors. Reminiscent of the modest culture-clash charm of
The Gods Must Be Crazy
, Klein's 1974 feature tells the story of a remote Mexican village whose inhabitants don't get the promised precipitation they've come to expect from their usual shaman and seek help from a mysterious hermit.
4:15 pm and 8:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 21
***image3***
Christmas in the Clouds
Written and directed by Kate Montgomery
In what may be Indian Country's first romantic comedy, Mohawk beauty Tina (Mari Ana Tosca) and frazzled ski-resort manager Ray (Tim Vahle) enter a French-farcical comedy of errors over mistaken identities. With oodles of crossover appeal,
Christmas
is sweetly funny à la
Waiting for Guffman
and does exactly what it sets out to do: delight, cheer and warm the heart toastier than an aprés-ski cup of cocoa. (Keep an eye out for a career-altering cameo from Warrior Mouse.)
6:15 pm Saturday, Aug. 20
Edge of America
Directed by Chris Eyre
Shot entirely in Utah and based on a true story, an African-American high-school teacher (James McDaniel of TV's
NYPD Blue
) is shanghaied into coaching the girls' basketball team at the Three Nations Reservation school. The only problem: They're up against the local all-white high school…and they can't play basketball to save their lives. Funny without being syrupy-think
Bend It Like Beckham
, not
Bad News Bears. 2 pm Sunday, Aug. 21
***image1***
Homeland
Written and directed by Roberta Grossman
Profiling Native activists from Alaska (Tlingit) to Maine (Penobscot), this grim yet also inspiring doc walks us through the experiences of five different Native leaders in their struggles to assert tribal sovereignty over their own land, water and mineral rights in the face of big business-and the fact that the current administration is dismantling 30 years' worth of environmental legislation and infrastructure as fast as it can.
4 pm Saturday, Aug. 20 and 6 pm Sunday, Aug. 21
Trudell
Directed by Heather Rae
See SFR's
.
6:30 pm Friday, Aug. 19 and noon Saturday, Aug. 20
