{"id":12934,"date":"2026-03-05T14:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/native-lens-showcases-indigenous-filmmakers-at-durango-independent-film-festival\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:30:23","slug":"native-lens-showcases-indigenous-filmmakers-at-durango-independent-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/native-lens-showcases-indigenous-filmmakers-at-durango-independent-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Lens showcases Indigenous filmmakers at Durango Independent Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u201cHealing
\u201cHealing Rituals,\u201d directed by Raven Sienna Myers, will be shown Saturday at Durango Arts Center. (Courtesy of Native Lens)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The 21st Durango Independent Film Festival is in full swing, and today at Durango Arts Center, Native Lens will screen its Indigenous Film Showcase, featuring the work of eight filmmakers.<\/p>\n

The screening will be followed by a post-showcase reception from 4 to 5 p.m. at Sorrel Sky Gallery. Both events are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

WHAT: <\/strong>Native Lens Indigenous Film Showcase and Community Reception at the 2026 Durango Independent Film Festival<\/p>\n

WHEN:<\/strong> 2 p.m. today showcase; 4-5 p.m. post-showcase reception<\/p>\n

WHERE: <\/strong>Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave., showcase; Sorrel Sky Gallery, 828 Main Ave., reception<\/p>\n

TICKETS: <\/strong>Free and open to the public<\/p>\n

MORE INFORMATION: <\/strong>Visit https:\/\/www.durangofilm.org<\/a> and https:\/\/nativelens.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Native Lens was formed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the lack of venues for Native film, said Colleen Thurston, project producer at Native Lens. So the idea to partner with Rocky Mountain PBS and KSUT Tribal Radio to start hosting Native films and Native videos ultimately came to fruition, and the platform has remained and an educational component has also been added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still a digital host for Native film and video that\u2019s content, stories that are directed by Native people,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve also expanded into being more of a training platform: We have fellowships, we have a symposium that offers more networking, community building and hands on practical training.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cSpeaking
\u201cSpeaking Ute,\u201d by John Oberly, Faustino Joy, Tallias Cantsee and Phillip Velasquez will be featured in Saturday\u2019s showcase at the DAC. (Courtesy of Native Lens)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As part of the organization\u2019s commitment to showing films, Native Lens has partnered with DIFF the past four years to present a showcase of short films.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no shortage of artists who wanted to participate this year, Thurston said. To fill the eight film fest spots and the 30 to 40 selected for Native Lens\u2019 online curation, she said there were about 190 submissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow incredible is it that there\u2019s this many short films that are being submitted to us that are made by Indigenous creatives?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s showcase selections span not only tribal affiliations but the continent as well, and include a variety of genres \u2013 there are student films, animation and narrative shorts, Thurston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur criteria right now is we select films and stories from across North America and from Indigenous creatives that are living within North America,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes that means that they are Indigenous to another land base, but that they\u2019re living here. We have student films. We have a really cool animated film that I believe was made with sand art called \u2018Healing Rituals.\u2019 It\u2019s really short and just a visual treat. We have a really intriguing film called \u2018Sacred Ink,\u2019 which is directed by Antonia Hatch. That film talks about traditional Indigenous tattooing practices. And then we also have a film that was produced in Peru called \u2018Kusi Smiles,\u2019 which is a lovely little narrative short.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cSacred
\u201cSacred Ink,\u201d directed by Antonia Hatch, will be featured in Saturday\u2019s showcase at the DAC. (Courtesy of Native Lens)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

There will also be two local films that were produced out of the Colorado Film Office\u2019s summer program for youths on the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute reservations \u2013 \u201cSpeaking Ute\u201d and \u201cWe are Nuche.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storytelling through film is a popular format because it is a way to get one\u2019s own narrative across, Thurston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s a storyteller. We all come from storyteller cultures. But I think it\u2019s also a very empowering medium,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s this notion of narrative sovereignty that allows Native people, in our own voices, through our own words and perspective, to tell our own stories. And I think that\u2019s very empowering, especially coming from cultures and populations that have historically been disenfranchised, been silenced and been erased from mainstream narratives and from mainstream media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cFacing
\u201cFacing The Storm: Youth Activism,\u201d directed by Mikayla Gingrey, will be featured in Saturday\u2019s showcase at the DAC. (Courtesy of Native Lens)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And the stories told by Native American filmmakers span a range of emotions, Thurston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that we always try to platform is this spirit of joy and resilience. A lot of times, if you do see a Native story out in the mainstream, it\u2019s often focused on the quote, unquote, \u2018plight of the Indian,\u2019 right? It\u2019s like what we\u2019re all facing in our communities,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd while those struggles and challenges are very real, there are so many people that are thriving and that are creating these incredible stories and creating incredible futures for all of us. So that\u2019s always an underlying theme of anything that we do at Native Lens is look at how amazing our cultures are, look at how beautiful our people are, look at the art that we create and the futures that we are currently building for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Screening at DAC and reception at Sorrel Sky will be held today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,1108,28,1107,561,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-12934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-durango-independent-film-festival","tag-headlines","tag-movies","tag-native-american","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12934"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18732,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12934\/revisions\/18732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12934"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=12934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}