Image Alt

STILL HERE, STILL FIGHTING

CINEMARIAN Sismani 6, Neos Kosmos | 26.11.2022, 20:00 – 22: 00 | Admission Free

 

Since the invasion of the Americas by Europeans, the indigenous people have been fighting to preserve their language, culture and above all their ancestral land. Numerous treaties were signed about the indigenous’ rights to their land and later encroached one by one by the colonial governments, until the indigenous people were driven away from their lands and forests. Detached from their way of life, they were forced to live in reservations or in pieces of land “given away” by the white occupiers. Hollywood’s contribution to land rights was critical, as the indigenous people were depicted as the “bad Indians” and the “wild savages” that attacked the “poor white settlers”, who were merely looking for a piece of land to live in, thus justifying the killing of the indigenous people and the theft of their country. White people were the “good guys” who had every right to be there and the indigenous the “bad guys” that needed to be driven away and erased from the history of the continent. “Still here, still fighting” focuses on the perpetual struggle of the indigenous people of the Americas to safeguard the rights over their land, their culture and thus over their future.  Two stories told through the eyes of a western filmmaker, who focuses on issues of  Indigenous land conflicts and politics/ethics in the postcolonial and globalised context, and of an indigenous filmmaker, who has experienced the effects of colonisation and its rhetoric.

The Village Resists

David Bert Joris Dhert | Brazil, Belgium  | Documentary | 2019 |  54’ 00”

What happens when your ancestral land is claimed as an event zone for the two biggest sport events of the planet? Ahead of the World Cup and Olympic Games in Brazil, the Indigenous community of Rio de Janeiro is facing increased pressure. The group lives right next to the sports stadium that will stage the finals of both sports events. They wish to maintain their land as an Indigenous meeting place like it has been since the early 20th century, but that does not correspond with the plans of the Brazilian authorities. From within the Indigenous settlement, the film explores how the arrival of the sport events is experienced, how the pressure rises and how the village …resists.

 

David Bert Joris Dhert is a Belgian documentary filmmaker, researcher and visual artist working on the theme of Indigenous land conflicts and politics/ethics in the postcolonial and globalised context. Resulting from long term involvement and collaboration with communities, the creative output of a project is made to cross borders of disciplines, perspectives and ways of knowing. Doing so, it enables a broader understanding of past and present Indigenous realities, with the aim to inspire possible futures of reconciliation

a

Beans  

Tracey Deer | Canada | Fiction | 2021 |  92’ 00”  

Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence; forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.

 

Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer led the acclaimed dramedy Mohawk Girls to five award-winning seasons as its co-creator, director, and co-showrunner. She received four consecutive Canadian Screen Award nominations for Best Direction in a Comedy Series for Mohawk Girls, and she has been honoured at TIFF with the Birks Diamond Tribute Award. Tracey’s debut narrative feature Beans, a coming-of-age story about a young Mohawk girl during the Oka Crisis that was inspired by her own experiences. She began production after returning from LA, where she was a writing co-EP on the Netflix/CBC series Anne with an E. Tracey chairs the Board of Directors of Women in View, a non-profit that promotes greater diversity and gender parity in Canadian media. She has mentored emerging talent as leader of the Director Training Program at the imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival, a guest at the National Screen Institute (NSI) New Indigenous Voices Program, and NSI’s new IndigiDocs training course.

a
NEWS & FILM UPDATES

Subscribe to our newsletter.

© 2023 Balkan Can Kino. Manufactured by Sociality