This course focuses on the ways that Indigenous filmmakers (directors and writers) explore Indigenous lives, voices, and narratives. We will consider questions such as: How are Indigenous peoples portrayed? From whose points of view are the stories told? Whose voices dominate the film's narrative and perspective? We will view films from Indigenous filmmakers from many countries and continents, including Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Native North and South America, India, and Asia. The course will also consider how social and political issues involving Indigenous peoples are presented.

Nancy Bonvillain is an anthropologist and linguist (PhD. Columbia University) specializing in Native American cultures and languages. She has taught at SUNY-Stony Brook, Columbia University, and most recently at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. She has written about 20 ethnographies of Native American nations as well as four textbooks in anthropology. Additional interests include the resurgence of Indigenous activism worldwide for the protection of lands, resources, and cultural heritage and arts. Nancy’s fieldwork has been at the Akwesasne Mohawk First Nation in upstate New York and southern Québec/Ontario.

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