American Indian and Indigenous Studies

Thunderheart

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March 5, 2021 at 5:00 pm
The American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) Program at the University of Florida is pleased to present a Native American Film Series in March 2021. Richard Conley, associate professor of political science and director of AIIS, will provide background on the films and moderate a brief discussion after viewing. The films span issues of Native American governance and federal relations, law enforcement, social justice and violence against women.

The first film in the series is Thunderheart directed by Michael Apted.

“When a series of murders stuns a small Native American reservation, the FBI sends in agent Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer) to investigate. While Ray is relatively inexperienced, he is one quarter Sioux, and the FBI hopes that will make it easier for them to gather information from the locals. While the reservation police officer (Graham Greene) views the agent as an outsider, the tribal elder (Chief Ted Thin Elk) believes him to be the reincarnated spirit of Thunderheart, a Native American hero. [Inspired by true events].”

– Rotten Tomatoes

Skins

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March 12, 2021 at 5:00 pm
The American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) Program at the University of Florida is pleased to present a Native American Film Series in March 2021. Richard Conley, associate professor of political science and director of AIIS, will provide background on the films and moderate a brief discussion after viewing. The films span issues of Native American governance and federal relations, law enforcement, social justice and violence against women.

The second film in the series is Skins, directed by Chris Eyre.

“The film is set on the fictional Beaver Creek Indian Reservation in South Dakota near the Nebraska border, a place very much like the actual Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. … Lakota Sioux tribal police officer Rudy Yellow Lodge (Eric Schweig) struggles to rescue his older, alcoholic brother, Mogie (Graham Greene), a former football star who was wounded three times in Vietnam.”

—Wikipedia

Road to Paloma

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March 19, 2021 at 5:00 pm
The American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) Program at the University of Florida is pleased to present a Native American Film Series in March 2021. Richard Conley, associate professor of political science and director of AIIS, will provide background on the films and moderate a brief discussion after viewing. The films span issues of Native American governance and federal relations, law enforcement, social justice and violence against women.

The third film in the series is Road to Paloma, directed by Jason Momoa.

“After murdering his mother’s rapist, Wolf, a Native American, flees from the law. Six months later he meets up with a drifter called Cash and heads north to his sister’s property where he intends to go spread his mother’s ashes, but with the law right behind him, his dream to lay his mother to peace may come at a price.”

–Wikipedia

Wind River

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March 26, 2021 at 5:00 pm
The American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) Program at the University of Florida is pleased to present a Native American Film Series in March 2021. Richard Conley, associate professor of political science and director of AIIS, will provide background on the films and moderate a brief discussion after viewing. The films span issues of Native American governance and federal relations, law enforcement, social justice and violence against women.

The fourth and final film in the series is Wind River, directed by Taylor Sheridan.

“The film stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and an FBI agent, respectively, who try to solve a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Sheridan has said that he wrote the film to raise awareness of the issue of the high number of Indigenous women who are raped and murdered, both on and off reservations.” —Wikipedia