Synopsis

The 2024 Sundance Institute Indigenous Film Tour is a 83-minute theatrical program featuring eight short films from Indigenous filmmakers: four from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival program, three from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and one short film from the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

The curated selection reflects a variety of Native stories and showcases inventive, original storytelling from indigenous artists previously supported by the Festival. Sundance Institute has a long history of supporting and launching talented Indigenous directors including Erica Tremblay, Taika Waititi, Blackhorse Lowe, Sterlin Harjo, Sky Hopinka, Caroline Monnet, Fox Maxy, and Shaandiin Tome. Support for screenings is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Program

Bay of Herons / U.S.A.
Director: Jared James Lank

Calling on the strength of his ancestors, a young Mi’kmaq man reflects on the pain of bearing witness to the destruction of his homelands. Fiction.

Winding Path / U.S.A.
Directors: Alexandra Lazarowich, Ross Kauffman, Producer: Robin Honan

Eastern Shoshone MD-PhD student Jenna Murray spent summers on the Wind River Indian Reservation helping her grandfather anyway she could. When he suddenly dies, she must find a way to heal before realizing her dream of a life in medicine. Nonfiction.

Headdress / U.S.A.
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Taietsarón:sere ‘Tai’ Leclaire, Producer: David Spadora

When an act of casual racism confronts a Queer Native man, he retreats into his mind to find the perfect clap back from various versions of his own identity.

Ekbeh / U.S.A.
Director: Mariah Eli Hernandez-Fitch

While learning to make gumbo, the creator shares personal stories about their grandparents as a way to honor and preserve their Indigenous history and life. Nonfiction.

Baigal Nuur – Lake Baikal / Canada, Germany
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Alisi Telengut

The formation of Lake Baikal in Siberia is reimagined, featuring the voice of a Buryat woman who can still recall some words in her endangered Buryat language (a Mongolian dialect). Animation.

Hawaiki / New Zealand
Director and Screenwriter: Nova Paul, Producer: Tara Riddell

At the edge of the playground close to the forest, the children of Okiwi School made a refuge they call Hawaiki. Hawaiki has spiritual and metaphysical connections for Māori as the children create a space for their self-determination. Fiction.

Sunflower Siege Engine / U.S.A.
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Sky Hopinka

Movements of resistance are collapsed and woven together, from reflections of one’s own body in the world today, to documentation of Alcatraz, the reclamation of Cahokia, and the repatriation of the ancestors. Fiction.

Goodnight Irene / U.S.A.
Director: Sterlin Harjo

Three Seminole patients share some laughs and poignant truths as they wait for treatment at the local Indian hospital. Fiction.

Trailer

Film Details

Director: Various
Studio: Sundance Institute
Running Time: 83 minutes
Country: Various
Release Year: 2024
Rated: Unrated

Reviews

“These eight shorts include narrative and documentary projects, some from Native storytellers outside the U.S., and they’ve all resonated with Sundance Film Festival audiences in the past–it’s our pleasure to take such a diverse cross-section of Indigenous cinema on tour..” – Adam Piron, Director of the Sundance Institute Indigenous Program