Red Nation Film Festival *Pre-Oscar* Screening Series
Home to the Native Documentary Voice – The Authentic Voice of American Indian & Indigenous Cinema
Three nights of American Indian Cinema Leading Up to the Oscar – Benefiting “Native Youth Matter”
Exclusive Los Angeles Premiere’s / Star-Studded Red is Green Carpet Galas / American Indian Traditional Entertainment
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE: To one or all screenings by FEBRUARY 1st and you receive two Red Nation Records CD’s and Red Nation Posters (collectors item) …
FILMS
“LOOKS TWICE” a film by Russell Means & Bayard Johnson
*Russell Means received the Red Nation Oyate Wayanka Po Win Lifetime Achievement Award
Director: Bayard Johnson
26 minutes * United States * Documentary Short
The first motion picture affiliated with the American Indian Movement, Looks Twice takes its name from a traditional Lakota story that chroniclesa young man’s search. The movie relates the journey of a young city Indian, seared by genocide and personal tragedy, from self-destructive
nihilist to revolutionary patriot.
Looks Twice opens at a roadblock in the state of Chiapas, Southern Mexico. A carload of Americans chronicling brutality to local Indians is caught up in the conflict and massacred. Among the victims is an ancient Lakota spirit (Russell Means), who next appears at LAX just in time to save his grandson (Franco Vega) from annihilation courtesy of L.A.’s finest.
In league with the grandson’s stripper girlfriend (Ashley Anderson), the two Indians share a spiritual catharsis. The young man’s rage and despair are transformed into the defiance of a warrior, empowering him to defy the tradition of genocide that continues to victimize the innocent from Indonesia to Central Africa to the World Trade Center.
Soundtrack features tracks from Dr. Timothy Leary’s posthumous release LSD as well as selections from Chief Seattle’s famous oration prophesying the fate of the ruthless civilization that destroyed his people.
Red Nation FilmLab Conversations with Russell Means (Actor, Activists), Director Bayard Johnson, Producers Russnell, Bayard Johnson, Hans Christopher Vera Cruz, Paul Raczkowski.
All will be in attendance.
ABOUT
Russell Means an Oglala/Lakota and long time AIM activist, civil rights, Actor and Author. Mr. Means has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The Washington Post called Means “one of the biggest, baddest, meanest, angriest, most famous American Indian activists of the late twentieth century.” Star of Pocahontas, Last of the Mohicans, Black Cloud, and so many notable films and television appearances.
Russell Charles Means (born November 10, 1939) is an Oglala Sioux activist for the rights of Native American people. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) after joining the organization in 1968, and helped organize notable events that attracted national and international media coverage. The organization split in 1993, in part over the 1975 murder of Anna Mae Aquash, the leading woman activist in AIM. Means has been active in international issues of indigenous peoples, including working with groups in Central and South America, and with the United Nations for recognition of their rights. He has been active in politics at his native Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and at the state and national level. Since 1992, he has acted in numerous films and released his own music CD. He published his autobiography Where White Men Fear to Tread in 1997.
and
“HOLY MAN: THE USA vs DOUGLAS WHITE”
* Winner of Red Nation Film Award for Best Documentary & Best Director
Director: Jennifer Jessum
85 minutes * United States * Documentary Feature
Narrated by Martin Sheen
Holy Man is the story of Douglas White, an 88 year old Lakota Sioux medicine man from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, who spent 17 years in federal prison for a crime he did not commit. During the making of this film, filmmakers uncovered new evidence of White’s innocence and brought the case back to Federal Court. Holy Man offers a rare glimpse into the mysterious world of Lakota religion, their intimate connection to the land, and a provocative expose of the systemic injustice that Native Americans face in the criminal justice system.
Red Nation FilmLab Conversations with Jennifer Jessum (Director, Producer), Simon Joseph (Writer, Producer). All will be in attendance.
and
Joanelle Romero Winner of Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award in 2005 for the vision to see the truth… and the courage to speak it.
“AMERICAN HOLOCAUST: WHEN IT’S ALL OVER I’LL STILL BE INDIAN”
This is the first and only film to date that addresses the American Indian and Jewish Holocausts
* Winner of the American Indian Film Festival Documentary Short
*Considered for OSCAR Nomination*
Director: Joanelle Romero
26 minutes * United States * Documentary Short
Narrated by Edward Asner
This powerful, hard-hitting documentary reveals the link between Adolf Hitler’s treatment of German Jews and the U.S. government’s treatment of American Indians depicts disturbing parallels between these two Holocausts and explores the historical, social and religious roots of America’s own “ethnic cleansing.” The film also examines, through the words and experiences of contemporary Indian people, the long term lasting effects of this on-going destructive process and the possible ramifications for the future of American Indian people in the 21st century.
What Native director Chris Eyre (Director of Smoke Signals, Skins, A Thousand Roads, Edge of America) has to say about Romero’s film >
American Holocaust is very powerful and honest. It is probably more than most non-Indian people, and unfortunately, most Indian-people, want to acknowledge or hear. it is a laboring and sad truth that anyone who is truly Indian understands and lives with to some degree everyday. as polarizing as this movie is, it’s existence is critical for the hundreds of thousands of people that come to understand more about the real-story and for those that need to reflect and heal as they walk their own red-road.
Romero is the only American Indian director, producer, music composer, writer to be this close to OSCAR nomination.
This film was entered into the OSCARS for consideration in 2000. 22 short films were entered that year. “9 were chosen for consideration” We are proud that American Holocaust: When It’s All Over I’ll Still Be Indian was part of that 9 chosen. Then five were nominated.
This film is Supported by: Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev, Rabbi Debra Orenstein, Shoah Foundation, Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles & American Indian Communities.
Executive Producers: Joanelle Romero, Elizabeth Sage Galesi, Phillip M. Haozous, Teddy Parker, Kathleen Jones, David Aurbey, Windhollow Foundation.
Red Nation FilmLab Conversations with Joanelle Romero (Director, Producer, Writer, Editor) Will be in attendance.
VENUES/DATES/TIMES
Thursday, February 23, 2012 – RSVP
SPECIAL EVENT > ONE TIME ONLY > An Intimate Evening with Russell Means
Screenings “LOOKS TWICE” & “AMERICAN HOLOCAUST: WHEN ITS ALL OVER I’LL STILL BE INDIAN”
Red Nation FilmLab Conversations with Russell Means & Joanelle Romero
Venue: Private Home (address will be provided once ticket(s) are purchased)
Time: 4:00pm to 7:00pm
Admission: $100 – *Limited Seating*
Friday, February 24, 2012
Screenings: “LOOKS TWICE” & “HOLY MAN: THE USA vs DOUGLAS WHITE”
Venue: The Sacred Space, 2594 Lillie Avenue
Summerland, CA 93067, Summerland (Santa Barbara), Ca 93067
Time: 6:30pm Red is Green Carpet Arrivals, 7:00pm to 10:00pm Opening
Traditional Blessing, Screenings, Red Nation FilmLab Q & Q with filmmakers
Admission: $20 – *Limited Seating*
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Screenings: “LOOKS TWICE” & “HOLY MAN: THE USA vs DOUGLAS WHITE”
Venue: The Actors Gang at the Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
Time: 2:00pm Red is Green Carpet Arrivals, 2:30pm to 5:30pm Opening
Traditional
Blessing, Screenings, Red Nation FilmLab Q & Q with filmmakers
Admission: $20 – *Limited Seating*
