#TogetherWeCan, Red Nation Celebration Institute and Outfest are committed to celebrating diversity, inclusion and authentic representation in the film industry. This collaboration marks a significant step forward in promoting pride and representation for both the LGBTQIA+ and indigenous communities, fostering a powerful alliance that we hope will inspire future joint endeavors.

This Place will be shown on July 14 at the Directors Guild of America at 7:15 PM. Click to visit the Event & Ticket Page.

Film Synopsis: Though still emotionally tied to the Mohawk community where her mother raised her, Kawenniióhstha (Reservation Dogs’ Devery Jacobs) pursues her dreams of being a poet by moving to Toronto: the city where her estranged Iranian father happens to live, a city where she can begin to explore the other side of who she is. Malai (newcomer Priya Guns) is also estranged from her father, but now that he’s battling terminal cancer, she begins tries to repair her relationship with him, the one remaining link she has to her Tamil roots. But when the two young women lock eyes in a laundromat and sparks fly. As they grow closer, the weight of family and culture — which bear legacies of loss, migration, and displacement — complicate the growing intimacy they share. In her feature directorial debut, co-written with Jacobs and Golshan Abdmoulaie, V.T. Nayani crafts a nuanced love story of beautiful specificity and tenderness.

Fancy Dance will also be screened and celebrated on July 15th 7:15 PM. Visit the Event & Ticket Page.

Film Synopsis: With her first narrative feature, director Erica Tremblay crafts a moving family drama about community, sisterhood, and Native identity. Lily Gladstone gives a standout performance as Jax, a queer Native woman scraping by as best she can while struggling to keep her family together. When Jax’s troubled sister disappears and law enforcement responds by threatening to remove Jax’s teenage niece Roki (impressive newcomer Isabel Deroy-Olson) from her home — quietly highlighting the oppressiveness of institutions like the FBI that prioritize the safety of white citizens over the Indigenous people who were the first to live on the land — Jax hits the road with Roki to find answers. As their journey deepens and complicates their bond, these two remarkable women provide a sense of warmth that makes Fancy Dance linger in the heart long after the credits roll.

Visit Outfest for more film screenings. Visit RNIFF for this year’s 28th Festival November 1-30. 2023. Film submissions are open, with a deadline of August 1st.