Native biennial film festival to feature record number of Native
women filmmakers
Mark your calendars: The 2011 Native American Film + Video Festival at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York begins on March 31. It’s free and this year it will feature a larger number of women film makers, the Tanka Bar blog said.

A movie that will make its premiere at the festival is Apache 8 by Sande Zeig, about an all-woman Apache wildland fire-fighting crew that has worked together for 22 years. Zeig said that all the firefighters would attend the festival, which she said was the best venue for the movie’s world premiere.

No “Indian” for comedy duo?
The ongoing controversy over the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo sparked an interesting request for the comedy duo “the Indian and the White Guy” when they were asked to cut out the word “Indian,” from performances if they played at UND’s Alerus Center, the Grand Forks Herald reports.

The duo’s manager said he was made aware of the stipulation but talks to have his clients perform didn’t get far.

Phil Potter, national director of programming for VenueWorks in Ames, Iowa, said he was looking at Williams and Ree among several acts as possible entertainment at a “business after hours function” at the Alerus on March 17.

“There were at least half a dozen acts we kicked around, and it never got to an offer point,” he said.

Potter said he knew nothing of the nickname controversy until someone in Grand Forks mentioned it to him. Potter said he called Williams and Ree’s agent and asked “if that is too sensitive right now.”

He said he made the suggestion that the act limit its references to Indians.

He said the discussions didn’t advance further, and the event planners apparently decided “to do something smaller, maybe local,” and he didn’t think more about it.

“Living Sicker, Dying Younger”
If you’re still hungry, take some time to check out the University of Montana School of Journalism Native News Honors Project 2010 . It includes stories about the state of Native health from the seven Montana reservations and the urban outlook as well.

Photos, video and text included.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: 2011 native american film and video festival, dying younger, Fighting Sioux, indian and white guy, living sicker, montana school of journalism native news honors project, smithsonian's national museum of the american indian, University of North Dakota, unversity of montana