The Smithsonian Institution hired us to create a trailer for their 2021 Native Cinema Showcase in Santa Fe, NM.
The concept of cutting out a waterfall from the arid background came from a marriage of opposites. These films are so diverse, yet still connected by an indigenous thread. In turn, that evolved into the cutout collage concept of splitting the screen into 30 slices – for the 30 tribes that are represented in the festival.
Indigenous peoples are often presented as a monolith, the reality could not be more different. An Inuit person and a Navajo are worlds apart. A Comanche from a Gwich’in, Cree from a Pech, Ute from an Anishnaabe. All connected through indigenous identity but powerful and unique in their own right.