'Trailblazers': Smithsonian Native Cinema Showcase returns with forward-looking films

Aug. 14—Ojibwe ice hockey legend Henry Boucha rose to prominence as a prolific center who bagged goals for the Detroit Red Wings and represented the U.S in the 1972 Olympics.

But his career was abruptly cut short in 1975, when an infamous, on-ice attack from another player left him badly injured.

In an era when NHL players were not required to wear helmets, Boucha donned a distinctive red headband to demonstrate pride in his Native American heritage, part of what earned him his reputation as a pioneer in the sport.

"He was really at the height of his career during the Red Power movement in the 1970s," said Leya Hale, a Minnesota-based filmmaker, adding Boucha played a role in "raising awareness about Native rights" in the American mainstream.

Hale's 2024 documentary film about Boucha, The Electric Indian, is among the 36 films that will be screened at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe this weekend as a part of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indians' 24th Native Cinema Showcase. The screenings will run from Friday to Sunday at the downtown museum and feature voices in Native cinema across a slate of genres and filmmaking styles.

This year, the Smithsonian considered 200 films for the showcase and selected 38. Funded in part by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, the screenings are free to attend and seating will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.

The 2024 Native Cinema Showcase has two prevailing themes — looking back and moving forward — honoring the 20th anniversary of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., said Cindy Benitez, film program manager for the museum.

"They are all super unique [films] in terms of their Native voices, Native perspectives, and the topics they handle, Benitez said. "In the past 24 years, you've really seen an increase in Native voices embracing things that usually had never been explored."

The Santa Fe area will be awash with Native art festivals and other events on a weekend centered on the Southwestern Association of Indian Arts' 102nd Santa Fe Indian Market.

The second annual Get Indigenous Film Festival, a component of Indian Market, is another event this weekend intended to provide a platform for Native American film and television artists to share their work.

The Get Indigenous Film Festival will kick off at 6 p.m. Thursday with a screening of Sugarcane by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, followed by a filmmaker question-and-answer session and after-party.

Other screenings of Sugarcane, as well as the television pilot Borders by Kenneth Shirley and Adam Conte, are scheduled throughout the weekend. While Thursday's kickoff is invitation-only, the Get Indigenous Film Festival's other events are not.

New this year at the Native Cinema Showcase is a panel discussion set for 7 p.m. Thursday that will feature four veterans of Native cinema who will discuss their careers and the future of Native film and television. Panelists are Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal, Gary Farmer and Wes Studi.

Talking about her documentary, Hale said the attack on Boucha effectively ended his career at age 24, leaving the Minnesota native with vision issues, but it also led him down a path of healing and cultural reclamation. Boucha died in 2023.

"He didn't let [his injury] hinder him," Hale said. "But he definitely grew to know the importance of Native issues and what you have to fight for. [That is] what he turned his attention to after coming back and going through that negative spiral after he lost his career."

Scheduled to be screened at 1 p.m. Friday, I'm Just Here for the Riot — a documentary directed by Asia Youngman and Kathleen Jayme — explores the massive riot that broke out in Vancouver after the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to the Boston Bruins in 2011.

Benitez said the films will explore various issues, including missing and murdered Indigenous women and "repatriation of the buffalo," but all of them "will honor that theme: looking back and moving forward."

Beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, there will be a series of short films that deal with chills, thrills and suspense.

Canadian filmmaker Tasha Hubbard's 99-minute documentary Singing Back the Buffalo focuses on the repatriation of buffalo to the heart of the North American plains in the context of Indigenous communities in that region. It will be screened at 2 p.m. Sunday at the museum.

"The film is really about the deep and complex relationship that Indigenous people have with buffalo, and lot of times that story has been told from a non-Indigenous perspective, and I really wanted to show just how important and integral they are to us," Hubbard said.

Benitez said the independent films that will be shown this weekend are unique, different from what people may be accustomed to.

"The majority of the time, people have never seen films like this because they are not readily accessible on Netflix or Hulu," she said. "These are very independent films that these filmmakers allow us to screen and have this platform to do it."