Realizing Futures

Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series Imagining Indigenous Cinema: New Voices, New Visions. Register at cinema.ucla.edu/events to attend this in-theater screening.

From the reclamation of traditional matriarchal ceremony to the activism of poetic expression and depictions of eternal love, this program of short films showcases world-building narratives of Indigenous existence and resistance. Centering joy, gratitude and resilience acts as a powerful reminder of the potentials of narrative change in storytelling practice, and in the creation of Indigenous futurisms. Together, these films offer a non-linear approach that reflect how these Indigenous filmmakers see themselves, and the past-present-futures of their communities, and stories.

Two futuristic creatures perform a dogmatic monologue focusing beyond colonialism—“We must practice maintenance rather than preservation.”
5 min.

Queer joy transcends time and space in this love story rooted in Chaac, the Mayan deity of Rain, and Yum, the Mayan deity of corn.
12 min.

Jennifer unexpectedly experiences an awakening and her first kiss within the pages of a magazine.
9 min.

A Karuk community reclaims their matriarchal tradition of celebrating a girl’s transition to womanhood.
22 min. 

Originally an 8mm installation conceived as a loop, They Told Me "Apikaan" Means Braid serves as a reminder of the cyclical nature of language and tradition.
3 min.

For Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, poetry is an act of resistance and an empowering tool for advocacy.
12 min.

Gwich’in cultural identity is intermeshed with the caribou. In this intergenerational story, an elder teaches his granddaughter about the reciprocal relationship.
6 min.

Grandma Betty Slim reflects on Diné identity and resilience—though we are all different, we are all made of the earth, and remain strong throughout time.
3 min.