{"id":95026,"date":"2019-03-24T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T18:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kiowa-writer-finally-gets-the-film-he-deserves\/"},"modified":"2019-03-24T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T18:03:10","slug":"kiowa-writer-finally-gets-the-film-he-deserves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kiowa-writer-finally-gets-the-film-he-deserves\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiowa writer finally gets the film he deserves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"N.
N. Scott Momaday is the subject of the new film \u201cWords from a Bear.\u201d<\/span>Courtesy of IMDB<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the new documentary \u201cWords from a Bear,\u201d there is a scene in which the subject of the film, N. Scott Momaday, hangs on for dear life from the side of a tall cliff, somewhere in the outer regions of the Southwest. He is frightened, wondering if he will survive. There is no one around to help him. He then finds himself at the bottom of the cliff, alive, with no idea how he got there. Was it a fever dream? Did he somehow block out his fear and struggle safely to the bottom without remembering? Neither the viewer nor Momaday is ever quite sure. And that is fitting: After getting to know the man through the course of the film, you come to understand that Momaday himself lives in the liminal space between reality and dream.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Palmer\u2019s authoritative documentary is the first feature-length film about the life and work of prolific Kiowa author and artist Momaday, the only Native American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. Here, we finally gain insight into a well-known and widely respected writer who is taught in Native American literature programs across the country, yet has never gotten the visual biography he deserves.<\/p>\n

This glimpse into the life of Momaday, an indigenous intellectual powerhouse, portrays him as arguably the most important part of the first Native American literary renaissance of the late 1960s and early \u201970s. One can\u2019t help but wonder: What took so long for us to get a documentary of this magnitude about Momaday? It could be that the material was simply waiting for the right director (and fundraiser). Here we have a subject that is at once historical and contemporary.<\/p>\n

Palmer deftly intersperses Kiowa history and culture with Momaday\u2019s musings about life and art. It\u2019s not an easy timeline to navigate, and a lesser director might have trouble with the story. \u201cThere\u2019s things in there that are definitely Kiowa,\u201d said Palmer. \u201cBut there\u2019s things in there that can be sort of crossed, and people can get what they want out of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmer, a Kiowa citizen himself, understands that to know Momaday, one must know Kiowa culture as well. The two are intertwined: Although Momaday grew up at Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, he was born near the heart of Kiowa country in Lawton, Oklahoma. Like previous generations, he was a migratory man.<\/p>\n

Palmer makes good choices in his talking-head interviews. There is a focus on Momaday\u2019s colleagues, writers and thinkers like Muscogee Creek poet Joy Harjo, Acoma writer Simon Ortiz and Oklahoma writers such as Rilla Askew. Notably absent are any interviews of white anthropologists or Native American \u201cexperts\u201d in the field of Indian things. It makes a big difference when you have a Kiowa filmmaker making a film about a Kiowa subject.<\/p>\n

An interesting, perhaps little-known, side of Momaday is revealed: He is also a painter. Momaday lovingly speaks of his mother being a writer, but he also fondly remembers watching his father paint. It makes sense that he would do both. But Momaday is not content with merely creating \u201ctraditional\u201d types of Kiowa art. \u201cA lot of my paintings, I hope, are disturbing,\u201d Momaday says. While his father painted in the traditional, flat painting style of the Kiowa 6 \u2013 an influential group of Kiowa artists who worked in the early 20th century \u2013 Momaday moves away from their strict realism with its emphasis on tribal regalia, anatomy and realism, and instead chooses to live and create in the threshold spaces on canvas. Anthropological documentation of traditional dress is not involved. Momaday\u2019s work is a more modernist, abstract expressionist style, reminiscent of Luiseno painter Fritz Scholder. \u201cRealism is overrated,\u201d Momaday, ever the dreamer, says with a sly smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords from a Bear\u201d doesn\u2019t tackle \u201cHouse Made of Dawn,\u201d the Pulitzer Prize-winning book that made Momaday a literary sensation, until well after the second half of the film. \u201cI had something in me that I wanted to express,\u201d Momaday says of the novel, about the struggle of a young Native World War II veteran reconnecting to his community. It\u2019s a simple phrase, yet when you hear him say it in the documentary, it makes perfect sense. After hearing Momaday recite prose from the beginning of the book, accompanied by imagery of a young Native American man running on a reservation in New Mexico, one wonders what a film adaptation might look like.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, especially in today\u2019s polarized political community, Momaday makes a point of saying he resists obvious political associations in his work. He did take part in the occupation of Alcatraz, so he is no political pushover \u2013 far from it. But he has no interest in writing about political matters.<\/p>\n

In the documentary, Momaday says that his preference is for \u201cliterary matters.\u201d This is in contrast to many of today\u2019s indigenous creatives and artists, who tend to directly attack the status quo, creating work in protest of land and water rights issues. Momaday has never done this and still chooses not to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that everyone has their own way of dealing with the matters that we deal with,\u201d Palmer said.<\/p>\n

In \u201cWords from a Bear,\u201d Palmer shows us a man who has devoted his life to the poetics of living and creating. Here is a man who lives in the space between dream and reality \u2013 a man who understands how important it is for all of us to know where we come from, and how meaningful it is to understand what our place in the world is, even if we are hanging from a cliff. These are not small things to ponder. Long after watching the film, I am still pondering them.<\/p>\n

Jason Asenap is a Comanche and Muscogee Creek writer and director (and an occasional actor) based in Albuquerque.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Words from a Bear\u2019 gives glimpse of indigenous literary giant Momaday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5961,5843],"tags":[1107],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-entertainment","category-living","tag-movies"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95026","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=95026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95026"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}