PEMBROKE — The second installment of the Lumbee Film Festival will be Thursday and Friday at Thomas Entrepreneurship Hub at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
The festival is made possible by the N.C. Arts Council and the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and will highlight 16 films, all made by indigenous filmmakers.
Although the films are exclusively made by American Indians, audiences from all backgrounds are encouraged to attend. The festival is free to the public. Each day of the festival starts at 5:30 p.m. with a block of shorts that highlight a variety of voices, including the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Colville Confederated Tribes, Canadian First Nations and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.
This year’s lineup of films has doubled in entries from the inaugural event in 2018, according to Kim Pevia, festival director.
“I laughed and I cried as I watched the films submitted this year,” Pevia said. “I was entertained and intrigued, and I know you will be too.”
Sundance favorite ”Words From a Bearshares” tells the story of iconic Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1969. Directed by Jeffrey Palmer, a Kiowa tribe member, the film plays just after the festival’s opening party on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
“Kayak to Klemtu” chronicles a teenager’s adventurous journey, eccentric family and environmental activism. The narrative feature closes the festival on Friday immediately after an awards ceremony and reception. The film was directed by Zoe Leigh Hopkins, a Heiltsuk/Mohawk member who is known for ”Mohawk Midnight Runners” (2013) and “One-eyed Dogs Are Free” (2006).
Short films cover the range of the art form from animation to documentary to comedy. Lumbee Tribe members, from youth to emerging directors, are prominently represented in the shorts category. The “Unlocking Silent Histories” indigenous youth film project landed multiple spots in the festival with shorts such as ”Lumbee Art Legacy and “Maintaining Cultural Identity as Lumbee Women.” A Sundance Film Festival staff member, Kiowa/Mohawk member Adam Piron, also snagged one of the shorts spots with his film ”Gutk’odau” (Yellow).
The full schedule of the Lumbee Film Festival is available at http://www.cucalorus.org/lumbee-film-festival/.
The Lumbee Film Festival is a program of the Cucalorus Film Foundation. Cucalorus is a community bringing together filmmakers, performers and entrepreneurs who collide at the foundation’s annual schedule of festivals, residencies, grants, and educational events.
