In a celebration of native peoples and indigenous culture, Richmond will be hosting The Pocahontas Reframed: Native American Storytellers Film Festival (PRNASFF) this coming weekend.
The three-day free event will be held at the Byrd Theatre will feature multiple films and performances all focusing on Native American peoples, culture, language, and customs. Named the premiere East Coast Native American Film Festival, the event will be attended by producers, directors, and actors from the international and Native American film community, including the actors, directors, and producers of the featured films themselves. These individuals will be present for the duration of the weekend to discuss their films with audience members, with question-and-answer sessions after each film.
“There really has not been a really good Native American Film Festival on the East Coast,” said Brad Brown, PRNASFF Board of Directors member. “There have been a couple, but they haven’t lasted. This was really the idea {of} Peter Kirkpatrick.”
Kirkpatrick, in addition to being the co-founder of the French Film Festival, is a professor of Native American film at VCU. In collaboration with Native American director George Aguilar, Byrd Theatre General Manager Todd Schall-Vess, and Brown, the group began creating this new festival.
Film still: A Thousand Voices
“There needs to be a really good Native American film festival here in Richmond because of our history, including the history of the first contact with the Pamunkey tribe with the English in 1607,” Brown explained.
Those present will include George Aguilar, a PRNASFF director and International Native American Actor, Peter Kirkpatrick, and Pierre William Glenn, a cinematographer representing the Cannes International Film Festival.
All 16 films, as well as several featured performances, were written, directed, enacted and produced by Native Americans, presented in an effort to share and educate the Richmond community and surrounding communities on Native American history and culture. All films shown on Sunday are either written by or are specifically about Native American women.
“Every Emotion Costs”, a film by Darlene Naponse, centers around a woman named Quilla and her sister, June, as they return home to bury their mentally ill mother. “From medications to love, addiction revels in the characters’ lives, edifying their own personal rituals, pain, lust, and disappointment.”
“First Daughter and The Black Snake”, is another woman-focused film, which is a documentary that follows Winona LaDuke to prevent crude oil pipelines from destroying her Ojibwe community’s wild rice beds.
The performances will include Native American musicians as well as a sketch comedy group.
“There are so many good Native filmmakers, and their films just don’t get the exposure that Hollywood movies get,” Brown said. “We really wanted to give them more exposure to the public. We also wanted to not only include films, but we have musicians and comedians and artists. It’s Native American storytellers. It’s not just about film, it’s about how we tell stories in Native culture. We wanted to bring that to the public and try to expose some of the stereotypes and misconceptions about Native Americans for the public.”
The festival is sponsored by film director and producer Francis Ford Coppola, as well as Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration, ‘American Evolution.’ The 2019 Commemoration examines the continued impact from the 1619 collision of three cultures in Virginia: Virginia Indian, English and African. It explores the untold stories that have had an enduring impact on 400 years of history in both Virginia and the United States.
The festival begins tonight, Nov. 17 and will conclude Sunday, Nov. 19 with a final film at 5 p.m. There is no charge for tickets, but seating is limited. You can see the entire schedule of films here.
