This past weekend the fifth annual Pueblo Film Festival showed off films created by Native American filmmakers from across the world.
The main theme for this year’s film festival was to focus on the female filmmakers of the Native American community.
“The theme is ‘Empowering Women Through Film’ in the Native American filmmaker community, which is a very important theme,” said Jonathan Cabada, the coordinator of the volunteers of the event.
Following the opening ceremony that took place on Friday, the festival was kicked off with the first film of the three day event.
The film that kicked off the festival was written and directed by Georgina Lightning, titled “Older Than America.” The film touches on an important aspect of Native American culture and shares in the experience of that culture.
Stephanie Oyenque, the host of the film festival, said that the film focuses on Native American boarding schools, which is an issue that is not addressed and discussed by most people.
“I think when we are able to present issues that are specific to the Native American community we are able to bring it to wider audience and we can heal and reconcile from the experience that people have gone through when attending Native American boarding schools,” Oyenque said.
The film includes the writer and director Georgina Lightning as well as Bradley Cooper, Wes Stud and Adam Beach.
Following the opening ceremony, first film and Q&A session with the director, Saturday and Sunday had more films to watch.
“We have about twenty films as well as music videos, about four of those,” Oyenque said. “About 70 percent of the films this year are from women as we are really trying to stick to the theme of empowering and highlighting women.”
Besides films and music videos, the event included other activities that those in attendance could participate in.
On Saturday and Sunday the festival had workshops, discussions and panels that all covered different topics.
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“I think that when people come and watch the films they can learn from what is on screen and communicate with others on their personal experiences,” Oyenque said. “I think that’s what the filmmakers have in mind when creating their films, they want to share their vision and bring the audience with them.”
Tiffani Watteyne is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted by email at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @tiffanirosew.
