{"id":75046,"date":"2020-03-01T19:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T02:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/navajo-bands-featured-in-film-festivals-native-cinema-program\/"},"modified":"2020-03-02T02:05:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T02:05:00","slug":"navajo-bands-featured-in-film-festivals-native-cinema-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/navajo-bands-featured-in-film-festivals-native-cinema-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Navajo bands featured in Film Festival\u2019s Native Cinema Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

The 15th annual Durango Film Festival, \u201cFocus on Film,\u201d is about to take over Durango, with more than 110 films telling more than 110 different stories starting Wednesday.<\/p>\n

One of those stories, \u201cMetal From the Dirt,\u201d is featured in Extreme Roots \u2013 Native Cinema Program. It\u2019s a short film \u2013 14 minutes long \u2013 that tells the story of heavy metal bands playing on the Navajo reservation.<\/p>\n

Director Clarke Tolton, who worked on the film with \u201cEverything Is Stories\u201d and Revolver magazine, said \u201cMetal From the Dirt\u201d was a project that happened over the course of a few years. Initially, he said, he accompanied his friends Mike Martinez and Tyler Wray, who were working on a story about Duane \u201cChili\u201d Yazzie for their podcast \u201cEverything is Stories.\u201d While the trio was in New Mexico and Arizona, Martinez had mentioned that there were some metal shows going on, so they went and checked those out, shooting photos and hanging out with some of the guys there. It\u2019s the podcast\u2019s policy to bring a photographer along with them on projects to document everything, which is why Tolton went on the trip, he said.<\/p>\n

A couple of years passed, he said, and nothing came of the metal story, so he posted some of his photos online and was contacted by metal and hard rock magazine Revolver, which wanted to publish the pictures of the black metal photos that had been taken on the trip. And, Tolton said, the magazine asked him if he\u2019d be interested in going back to Arizona and New Mexico for more material.<\/p>\n

\"Mutilated
Mutilated Tyrant\u2019s Laurence Tsosie puts on corpse paint in \u201cMetal From the Dirt.\u201d<\/span>Courtesy of Clarke Tolton<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThat started the ball rolling \u2013 Mike and Tyler got in touch with all the bands. So we went back out there and shot for a week, just crisscrossing \u2013 I think we drove a thousand miles \u2013 we would meet up with one band, and they would say, \u2018You\u2019ve got to meet my friend over here,\u2019 and we\u2019d go meet up with these other guys,\u201d Tolton said. \u201cIt basically all centered around this band I Dont Konform. They put on a show just for us and got their friends together. And we just went around and interviewed people across all generations, from teenagers to guys that used to play in the \u201970s and \u201980s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lardel
Lardel Tsosie and Laurence Tsosie from Mutilated Tyrant are featured in the short film \u201cMetal From the Dirt.\u201d<\/span>Courtesy of Clarke Tolton<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I Dont Konform is based in Window Rock, Arizona, and another band \u2013 black\/death metal band Mutilated Tyrant from Ganado, Arizona \u2013 is featured in the film, too.<\/p>\n

In the film, the bands talk about how because the reservation is so large and there are virtually no venues, there\u2019s a do-it-yourself spirit that prevails \u2013 bands will set up just abut anywhere to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of heavy metal bands on the Navajo reservation, and for some reason, this music, this subculture, seems to permeate with the youth,\u201d I Dont Konform\u2019s manager Jerold Cecil said in the film. \u201cWhat rez metal is, is \u2018rez\u2019 is an inside word for \u2018reservation.\u2019 Our brand of metal is different than anybody else, and whether you grew up with it, or, like myself, sort of tagged along with it and made it your own, it\u2019s blowing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Members
Members of I Dont Konform play in \u201cMetal From the Dirt.\u201d<\/span>Courtesy of Clarke Tolton<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And despite the fact that \u201cMetal from the Dirt\u201d clocks in at a mere 14 minutes, the message it conveys is much bigger, Tolton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it was important to get it out because it\u2019s not something that\u2019s not in the public, it\u2019s not in the mainstream, and that they\u2019re, in their lyrics and in their music, they\u2019re speaking to their cultural heritage, and it\u2019s a voice that\u2019s not heard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

What:<\/strong>
\n \u201cFocus on Film,\u201d 15th annual Durango Independent Film Festival.
\n When:<\/strong>
\n March 4-March 8.
\n Where:<\/strong>
\n Various venues in downtown Durango.
\n Tickets and More information:<\/strong>
\n Visit
\n durangofilm.org<\/a>
\n .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

festival is this week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1108,28,1107,1655,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-75046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-independent-film-festival","tag-headlines","tag-movies","tag-navajo-nation","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75046","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=75046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75046"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=75046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}