Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival

About the Event

Our 8th Annual Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival. Festival events will take place at both the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Schedule of Events

9am: The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open (2019) - Canada
Film by Elle-Maija Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn
Directed by Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn - Screenplay by Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Maija Tailfeathers - Produced by Tyler Hagan, Lori Lozinski, Alan R. Milligan

Written and directed by Elle-Maija Tailfeathers (who also stars) and Kathleen Hepburn, the drama explores two Indigenous women living very different lives who are briefly brought together by desperate circumstances. The film debuted at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019 and made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

11am: Nigiqtuq (The South Wind) - Canada
Presented by Lindsay McIntyre
Written and Directed by Lindsay McIntyre (Inuk)
Based on a true story, an Inuk mother lives under the watchful eye of her RCMP officer husband, falling under pressure for her and her daughter to assimilate to their new life in the south in the 1930s, as they struggle amidst forced assimilation.

11am: Ajjigiingiluktaaqtugut (We Are All Different) 2021 - Canada
Presented by Lindsay McIntyre
Written and Directed by Lindsay McIntyre (Inuk)
What does it mean to be Inuk? Historically depicted as welcoming and friendly people in remote snowy landscapes, in reality, Inuit live across the globe. Using antique wind-up bears, layered animation, and analogue techniques, McIntyre constructs an animated documentary in an exploration of identity and belonging by Inuit, both in and outside of community. Herself of mixed Inuk and settler heritage, McIntyre asks what it means to belong in a changing world when our ideas of Inuk-ness are so tied to particular representations.

2pm: The Electric Indian (2024)
Presented by filmmaker Leya Hale
A documentary from filmmaker Leya Hale, The Electric Indian follows Ojibwe hockey legend, Henry Boucha. A stand-out hockey star from Warroad, Minnesota, Boucha impressed on the ice from the 1969 Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament to the 1972 Olympics to the NHL, but an on-ice assault and injury ended his athletic career that unexpectedly led to a journey of healing and cultural reclamation.

Realms Of Resilience (2024)
Realms of Resilience is a documentary by self-taught Dakota artist Marlena Myles that premiered on April 9, 2024 on the ALL ARTS site, app, and broadcast channel. The documentary uses augmented reality and digital technology to reveal Indigenous connections with the natural world, while also sharing stories that inspire hope, strength, and love for future generations. The documentary was filmed on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation in North Dakota and in areas around Minneapolis & Saint Paul, Minnesota including Little Earth of United Tribes.

3:15pm: Tule (2024)
Tule is a poetic 2D animated mixed media short film championing awareness and hope. A young Pomo girl serves as the narrator of our project. Her poetic contemplations ring true with convictions shared by her Pomo community at Clear Lake, California. She revels in the local nature’s glory, but dread strikes when she faces today’s careless pollution damage that impedes cultural practices.

3:15pm: How To Cope With Your Team Changing Its Native American Mascot (2024)
Produced in partnership with Comedy Central
Joey Clift along with an all-native voice cast, offers cheeky solutions to fans who may miss performing the Tomahawk chop or wearing redface.

3:15pm: Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics (2021) - Canada
Stop-motion animation - English with some Anishinaabemowin
Written and Directed by Terril Calder
Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics dives deeply into the innate contrast between the Seven Deadly Sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Pride and Envy) and the Seven Sacred Teachings (Love, Respect, Wisdom, Courage, Truth, Honesty and Humility), as embodied in the life of a precocious Métis baby. Brought to life by Terril Calder’s darkly beautiful stop-motion animation, Baby Girl’s inner turmoil is laid bare with unflinching honesty. Convinced she’s soiled and destined for Hell, Baby Girl receives Anishinaabe Teachings from Nokomis that fill her with strength and pride, and affirm a path towards healing. Calder’s tour-de-force unearths a hauntingly familiar yet hopeful world that illuminates the bias of colonial systems.

Awards, Toronto, Canada (2022) Audience Choice- Best Short Film Cinefest Sudbury, Canada (2022)Nomination – Best Animated Short Canadian Screen

4:15pm; Rosie (2023) - Canada
Directed by Gail Maurice
A film about family, love, and misfits, ROSIE tells the story of a young, orphaned, Indigenous girl who is forced to live with her reluctant, street-smart Aunty Fred (Frédérique). Rosie is thrust into the fringes of 1980’s Montréal into the care of Fred, who just lost her job, is on the verge of eviction, and who looks and sounds nothing like her. Fred, an artist who creates art from found and discarded objects or other peoples’ trash, introduces Rosie to her two best friends Flo and Mo, glamorous human beings who refuse to be confined by gender. In the end, Rosie transforms the lives of these colorful characters and finds love, acceptance, and a true home with her new chosen family of glittering outsiders.

Toronto International Film Festival, imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, Queergestreift Festival, Vancouver International Film FestivalIndigenous peoples’ film festival SkabmagovatNative Cinema ShowcaseRome Independent Film FestivalLes reflets du Cinéma CanadienSXSW Sydney.

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