This Saturday the Burchfield Penney Art Center on the Buffalo State Campus will play host to a unique film festival. One that is devoted to the works of Haudenosaunee filmmakers from across Turtle Island.
Indigenous filmmakers aren’t only using the artform to show the world their culture and stories – but to put their own stamp on Native portrayals in film.
The Haudenosaunee Micro Short Film Program is the brainchild of Spark Filmmakers Collaborative, Burchfield Penney Art Center, and Seneca filmmaker Terry Jones. It brings amateur and experienced filmmakers of the Six Nations together all in one space. Even though many may not have met each other before or seen each other’s works – Jones said you wouldn’t know that.
“The way the stories are told – there’s a common thread that you can definitely tell its Haudenosaunee. But also the most important thing is representation,” Jones said. “And that the film’s and people we show in it are representative of who we are. In a lot of ways we’re trying to emerge from what the dominant culture already has as an idea of who we are, and what we should look like, and what our stories should be in their minds.”
That idea – cemented by decades of stereotypical and one dimensional portrayals of Native American characters and culture in mainstream movies.
“Are we claiming, or re-claiming? We really had no control in the input of how we were portrayed, or what stories were told,” Jones pondered. “But now in the age of Haudenosaunee filmmaking we’re in complete control. We can show what we want to show. Say what stories we want to tell. And we definitely don’t try to reinforce stereotypes. We more or less try to defy stereotypes.”
He said in the past years of the program – half or more of the audience has been non-Haudenosaunee and non-Native – he believes the stories you see in these films – all five minutes or less – can be just as impactful.
“Even though we are neighbors, there are a lot of things the dominant culture or our neighbors – they don't know about us. And this would be a great way to find out, and it’s not all doom and gloom. Some of it, yeah there’s serious subjects. But some of it is comical, some of it is traditional, it’s custom, and it’s history.”
The Haudenosaunee Micro-Short Film Project is scheduled for this Saturday, September 7th, at the Burchfield Penney Art Center 12:30 to 3. It is free to register and attend.
