Navajo Talking Picture

A film by Arlene Bowman

1986 | 40 minutes | Color | 16mm/DVD | Order No. 99330

Host a screening

SYNOPSIS

In NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE film student Arlene Bowman (Navajo) travels to the Reservation to document the traditional ways of her grandmother. The filmmaker persists in spite of her grandmother's forceful objections to this invasion of her privacy. Ultimately, what emerges is a thought-provoking work which abruptly calls into question issues of "insider/outsider" status in a portrait of an assimilated Navajo struggling to use a "white man's" medium to capture the remnants of her cultural past. Excellent for film studies as well as those interested in Native American culture.

PRESS

"Bowman herself emerges as a sympathetic character from an absurdist comedy as both her ancestry and film goals elude her."

Steven Mikulan Los Angeles Weekly

"Unsparingly honest."

Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • Margaret Mead Film Festival
  • National Educational Film and Video Festival
  • UCLA Native American Film and Video Festival
  • New Museum of Contemporary Art
  • Turin Int'l Film Festival

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Arlene Bowman

Arlene Bowman is a Dine (Navajo) filmmaker and producer from Phoenix, Arizona. She completed her master's degree in film at the University of California at Los Angeles. Her most recent project is a mini digital video titled THE GRAFFITI, a 30-minute color experimental drama.

Arlene Bowman’s filmography is mainly composed of documentaries such as the award-winning NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE(1986) about herself and her shima sani Ann Ruth Biah; and SONG JOURNEY (1994), a documentary about Pow Wow women singers who sing songs in a traditional and not so traditional style. However, WOMEN AND MEN ARE GOOD DANCERS (1994), a Pow Wow dance-music video, as well as several video poems (1998 & 2000) represent the break from making documentaries. Although Arlene has produced mostly documentary films, she does not consider herself to be a conventional documentary filmmaker. Since the mid-80s, Arlene aspired to make a drama and THE GRAFFITI represents this first effort.

In the last five years, she has begun to perform songs at the open mic, both solo and with her partner. However, this new performance work did not develop overnight, it started during 1977 in Los Angeles with two guitarists, Terry Sullivan and Chuck Bauser from Seattle, who played rock and roll and delta blues music. Also within the last five years, she has begun to write and sing her own songs. Her first completed song called "Southern Dreamin" was included in THE GRAFFITI soundtrack.

Presently, Arlene considers herself to be a filmmaker/still photographer who performs, sings songs and recites poetry she has written. The photographs she shoots appear in her blog. In the future, she aspires to create a conference for Indigenous women filmmakers and a nonprofit organization for Indigenous and low-come filmmakers in the United States. (8/14)

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN

Apache 8

For 30 years, the all-female Apache 8 unit has protected their reservation from fire and also responded to wildfires around the nation. This group of firefighters, which recently became co-ed, soon earned the reputation of being fierce, loyal and dependable—and tougher than their male colleagues. Facing gender stereotypes and the problems that come with life on the impoverished reservation, the women became known as some of the country’s most elite firefighters. From director Sande Zeig and executive producer Heather Rae, APACHE 8 combines archival footage and present-day interviews and focuses primarily on four women from different generations of Apache 8 crewmembers, who speak tenderly and often humorously of hardship, loss, family, community and pride in being a firefighter. The women are separated from their families, face tribe initiation, and struggle to make a living in a community ravaged by unemployment and substance abuse. But while the women may have initially set out to try and earn a living in their economically challenged community, they quickly discover an inner strength and resilience that speaks to their traditions and beliefs as Native women.
Learn more

Skydancer

Renowned for their balance and skill, six generations of Mohawk men have been leaving their families behind on the reservation to travel to New York City, to work on some of the biggest construction jobs in the world. Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a gruelling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. Their wives are only too familiar with the sacrifices that their jobs have upon family life. While the men are away working, the women often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of this economically deprived area. Through archival documents and interviews, Academy Award®-nominated director Katja Esson (FERRY TALES, LATCHING ON) explores the colorful and at times tragic history of the Mohawk skywalkers, bringing us a nuanced portrait of modern Native American life and a visually stunning story of double lives.
Learn more

LaDonna Harris: Indian 101

LADONNA HARRIS: INDIAN 101 from Comanche filmmaker Julianna Brannum, chronicles the life of Comanche activist and national civil rights leader LaDonna Harris and the role that she has played in Native and mainstream America history since the 1960s. In this new verite style documentary, Brannum, the great niece of Harris, celebrates her life and the personal struggles that led her to become a voice for Native people and her contemporary work to strengthen and rebuild indigenous communities and train emerging Native leaders around the world. Harris’s activism began in Oklahoma, fighting segregation and assisting grassroots Native and women’s groups. In Washington LaDonna introduced landmark programs and legislation returning territory to tribes, improving education and healthcare for Native Americans, ending job discrimination against women, and targeting other pressing issues of the time. For over three decades, “Indian 101,” her course for legislators, combatted ignorance about America’s most marginalized population. Using interviews, archival footage and photographs, this film justly celebrates one of the most important women leaders in Native American and U.S. history.
Learn more

Conscience Point

CONSCIENCE POINT unearths a deep clash of values between the Shinnecock Indian Nation and their elite Hamptons neighbors, who have made sacred land their playground.
Learn more

Sisters Rising

Native American survivors of sexual assault fight to restore personal and tribal sovereignty against the backdrop of an ongoing legacy of violent colonization.
Learn more
Shopping Cart