Navajo Talking Picture (1986)

About the Film

Film student Arlene Bowman (Navajo) travels to the Reservation to document the traditional ways of her grandmother. The filmmaking persists in spite of her grandmother\'s forceful objections to this invasion of her privacy. Ultimately, what emerges is a work which abruptly calls into question issues of "insider/outsider" status in a portrait of an assimilated Navajo struggling to use a "white man\'s" medium to capture the remnants of her cultural past.

Awards

  • National Educational Film and Video Festival, UCLA Native American Film and Video Festival, Margaret Mead Film Festival, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin Int\'l Film Festival

Licensing

For licensing, film rights and permissions, contact Arlene Bowman, the distributor Women Make Movies, or Folkstreams.

Film Details

  • Film by: Arlene Bowman
  • Produced by: Arlene Bowman
  • Cinematographer: Arlene Bowman, James Mulryan
  • Sound: Jeanine Moret, Bethlehem Tsehayu, Hiroko Yamazki, Laura Elijaek
  • Editor: Arlene Bowman, James Mulryan
  • Funding: American Indian Scholarship,Try Inc.; Association of American Indian Affairs; Graduate Division Research, UCLA; Institute of American Cultures, UCLA; James Pendleton Award, UCLA; Navajo Tribe Scholarship.
  • Original Format: Film: 16mm
  • © 1986, Arlene Bowman
  • 40mins, Color
  • Categories:
    Women Native American Cultures
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