Native Spirit Festival : WORLD INDIGENOUS CINEMA DAY (LAST LONDON EVENT)

ZUNI: CONNECTIONS THROUGH TIME

Dir. Daniel Byers, Carrie Heitman, Octavius Seowtewa | 2025 | English | United States, United States | 17’

This film project, funded by The Mellon Foundation, reconnected Zuni religious leaders and knowledge keepers with ancestral collections removed from the Pueblo of Zuni to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The film asks: What was lost in the taking? And what can be regained by sharing A:shiwi histories of connection? It follows Zuni elders and artists as they travel to Washington, D.C. and back home, reflecting on the need to protect their culture (past and present) and their hopes for future generations.

HOPI POTTERY: CONNECTIONS THROUGH TIME

Dir. Daniel Byers, Carrie Heitman, Karen Charley | 2025 | Hopi. United States | 13’

Follow Hopi artists as they reconnect with the art of their ancestors, bringing back lost patterns from collections in New York to their practice at First Mesa.

This film project, funded by The Mellon Foundation, reconnected Hopi artists and knowledge keepers Karen Charley, Larson Goldtooth, Darlene James, Valerie Kahe, and Emmaline Naha with ancient and historic Hopi pottery collections held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The film follows them on their journey to New York and back home to First Mesa. They reflect on the transformative power of reconnecting with the art of their ancestors, the origins and evolution of the art form, and their hopes for the next generation of Hopi artists.

WATER STAR MEDICINE

Dir. Lisa Spencer | 2025 | | United States, United States | 5’

Dr. Lisa Spencer assigns her Santa Fe middle school students the study of water. They traveled to sites to explore the Rio Grande, drought in New Mexico, and farming in the desert by early Pueblo peoples. Interviews were conducted that include the research of New Zealand Māori Scientist, Veda Austin. This film also explores water beyond the science realm to include the emotional, historic, and spiritual power of water. It also explores water being from outer space, perhaps from asteroids, and the study of water on Mars. About 10% of the footage is from various NASA stock footage. This film won Audience Choice Award for middle school films in New Mexico.

THE PEOPLE FROM THE LAKE

Dir. Charlene DeCicco | 2024 | Tachi Yokut. United States | 5’

The Tachi Yokut tribe of San Joaquin of Kings County, California were the largest tribe that built their life around the Tulare lake . The lake has been dried up for many years. But, with the devout faith of the Yokut people and recent fascinating change in nature, the lake has returned. The Yokut believe the lake is alive & speaking, and they are listening. This is their story.

ARLETTA

Dir. Montana James Miller | 2025 | Díne. United States | 12’

Travel with us to the Díne (Navajo Nation) to visit a member of the Deaf Indigenous community. This is the powerful story of Arletta. An elder woman who is Deaf and grew up and still lives on the rural Navajo Nation. Find out her Super Power through this incredible journey Arletta wants to share with you and the world. Please keep an open mind and learn from Arletta.

THE INCIDENT AT JUNIPER RIDGE

Dir. Brandon Barber | 2024 | Diné (Navajo), United States | 25’

Our film is about two young sheep herders who come across an injured patron on the run from a robbery gone wrong. Their adventures include western shoot-outs, betrayal, and Spanish treasures.

YOUR TOMORROW WILL BE MY SONG / TU MAÑANA SERÁ MI CANTO

Dir. Fernando Saldivia Yáñez | 2025 | Quechua, Spanish. Chile, United States | 14’

After years of living in Chicago, a Quechua couple envisions their return to their homeland in the Andes. Memory, tradition, and tenderness converge as they reenact a conversation in which they share their hopes for what awaits them.

PUPUKA

Dir. Daniel Díaz | 2024 | Mapuche. Chile | 6'

Amid the lush forests of southern Chile, the voice of Elba Jara Trecanahuel recalls the ancient Mapuche tale of the "Pupuka," guardian spirits that assist in household chores for those in need.

MY NATIVE AMERICA

Dir. Jim Warne | 2024 | Oglala Lakota. United States | 73’

A documentary presented in an episodic travel exploration show format introducing “My Native America” creator and host Jim Warne (Tásunka akân Wicakte) from the Oglala Lakota of the Oceti Sakowin (The Great Sioux Nations). Join us for our journey to four distinct Tribal Nations starting in San Diego County, home to 18 separate recognized Indian Reservations, the most concentrated area of Tribal Nations in one county. Next stop Buffalo NY, Seneca territory, "Keepers of the Western Door" within the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy of Six Nations. Second stop, Oglala Lakota, my people of the Oceti Sakowin in the plain’s region and Paha Sapa... the Black Hills of South Dakota, and a visit to my home reservation, Pine Ridge.

Third stop to visit Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California near the Oregon border, Redwood Country. The Hoopa Valley Tribe’s reservation is located in the Trinity River Valley and is the largest reservation in California. Hoopa Tribal lands consist of beautiful mountain and river valley terrain, with traditional Hoopa Village sites carbon dated from over12,000 years ago. We will return to MNA Homebase, and visit the mountains and foothills of the Iipay Nation on the Santa Ysabel reservation, located in San Diego County.

Our focus is to help our non-Native brothers and sisters understand the diversity of Tribal Nations and the unique culture, different foods, and ways of life at each of these different Tribal Nations. We will provide a new perspective of “Indian Country” in contemporary America for the audience to learn and understand what sovereign Tribal Nations are in the United States.

Jim has been a lifelong advocate, educator and storyteller addressing Indigenous Cultures, Public Health Disparities, Disability Challenges, and protection of sovereignty for Indian Country. As a university administrator he has created several Indigenous programs at various medical schools throughout the nation and devoted most of his professional life in university systems indigenizing curriculum through program and organizational development.

MĀHŪ: A TRANS-PACIFIC LOVE LETTER

Dir. Lisette Marie Flanary | 2025 | Hawaiian. United States | 30’

Documentary about an innovative theater production by master hula teacher, Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakāne, which aims to reclaim and celebrate the traditional place of honor and respect given to māhū (transgender) people. The concept of gender fluidity from a Native Hawaiian perspective is explored in a multi-media stage performance around hula dance, chant, and contemporary music, and intimate interviews featuring acclaimed transgender artists such as Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Iwalani Hoʻomanawanui Apo, and Kaumakaiwa Kanakaʻole, great-grandchild of esteemed Kumu Hula Edith Kanakaʻole — one of the seminal figures of Hawaiian Renaissance. As they prepare to open the MĀHŪ show in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, we meet Kumu Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a revered community leader, kumu hula, and filmmaker known for her activism in the field of kanaka maoli language and cultural preservation.

The term māhū itself is one of the most controversial words in all of the Hawaiian language, one used in a derogatory, pejorative sense and now reclaimed in this creative showcase to bring it out of shame. Māhū is the traditional Hawaiian term for transgender or the “expression of the third self which embodies both male and female aspects within while acknowledging and embracing both.” Māhū were an integral part of Hawaiian culture before the arrival of missionaries in the 1820s, respected as cultural standard bearers, artisans and healers. Today, in many Pacific Islander communities, māhū still face discrimination and unequal treatment due to their gender identity. MĀHŪ serves as a reminder to the Native Hawaiian community and the world that before colonization, before Western concepts of gender and colonial prejudice, there was an Indigenous sensibility of queer culture that celebrated cultural truths based on inclusivity, diversity, and aloha.

HAAGUA / HAAGUA, SURF FILM INDÍGENA

Dir. Marc Antony Chavez, Octavio Aceves Coutiño | 2024 | English, Spanish | Mexico, United States | 15’

An Indigenous surf film that celebrates the timeless bond between humanity and the ocean, “Haagua” follows a group of Native American surfers as they revive ancestral traditions, blending cultural resilience with the cultural art of surfing to honor the past and inspire the future. “Haagua” explores the profound bond personified by Great Great Grandmother Ocean (played by Jacinda Townsend). Through voices from the past and prayers for the future, the film traces the enduring memory of survival that connects generations. Surfing emerges not merely as a sport but as a rediscovery of cultural practices and a revival of an original way of life. This cultural regeneration comes to life through the journeys of featured Indigenous surfers, including Andy Nieblas(Acjachemen), David Flores Ramos (Nahua), Kaliko Kahoonei (Hawaiian), Shuuluk Leo-Retz (Kumeyaay), Amon B. Chavez (Nahua-Carib), Reg Macarro (Payomkawichum-Ojibwe), and Marc Chavez (Nahua-Xicano). Together, they embody a modern resurgence of ancestral wisdom, blending tradition with the rhythm of the waves in a story of resilience, identity, and connection.

KÜĪ

Dir. Kahu Kaiha | 2024 | Samoan. Aotearoa/New Zealand | 11'

In the face of her mother’s absence and her father’s alcoholism, 12 year old girl, Küī, rises above her age, caring for her brothers and confronting life’s harsh realities. Inspired by a true story.

TOA

Dir. Joey Schuster | 2024 | Aotearoa/New Zealand | 5’

Inspired by the first Pacific Island contingent to fight alongside Great Britain in WW1. A group of 1,255 soldiers, who were all left nameless and reduced to a statistic.

RAPIDO

Dir. Richard J Curtis | 2024 | Māori. Aotearoa/New Zealand | 13’

A young Māori boy’s favourite war comic ‘Battalion’ fills his fantastical mind with action and adventure. When he takes part in a spiritual cleansing he discovers his estranged grandfather was a World War II veteran.

NGARRIDURNDENG KURED (WE GOING HOME NOW)

Emma Masters, Dean Munuggullumurr Yibarbuk | 2024 | Australia | 18’

Follows Dean Yibarbuk, his family and and the Indigenous Fire Rangers he leads into the heart of Kuwarddewardde. Here ancient rhythms and traditional practices combine with western science to create a unique relationship to guard against devastating wildfires and support the return of Binninj Nawarddeken to their traditional homelands and ways of living in the bush.

SALOME

Dir. Gutierrez II Mangansakan | 2024 | Cebuano, English, Tagalog | Philippines | 97’

Jose Andres Galicia, an art critic, historian, and professor, loses his memory as a result of chronic alcoholism. To retrieve his memories, he visits his cousin Christine in a town in Mindanao, southern Philippines. He starts dreaming of a woman named Salome from a catalogue of an exhibition he is curating to commemorate the 500th year of Magellan’s arrival in the Philippines. Salome appears as a housemaid in Christine’s house who returns to the nearby forest at night. When a local historian Fabian solicits the help of Andres to stop the desecration of a site dedicated to a Spanish colonial-era priestess named Salome, the real identity of Salome begins to unravel.

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Host or Publisher Native Spirit UK