Paper short abstract:

As a film festival programmer during the Columbus Quincentennial the author curated a sidebar program screening selections about Native Americans and by native makers themselves. In this paper I recount the history of one problematic “post-contact” encounter – between a Hopi maker and myself.

Paper long abstract:

As a film festival programmer during the Columbus Quincentennial the author curated a sidebar program screening selections from 100 years of filmmaking about Native Americans and recent works by native makers themselves. In this paper I recount the history of one problematic “post-contact” encounter – between a Hopi maker and myself. The incident in question relates to the decision to exhibit Itam Hakim Hopiit (we someone, the Hopi) by noted Hopi video artist Victor Masayesva, paired with Techqua Ikachi, Land – My Life by Swiss/German filmmakers Anka Schmid and Agnes Barmettler, in collaboration with Hopi informant James Danaqyumptewa. Both Masayesva and Danaqyumptewa have ties to the same village of Hotevilla (Third Mesa), and each of the two productions makes use of a village elder who, speaking in Hopi, weaves together a native discourse around the origins and history of the Hopi people – and in the case of Danaqyumptewa, about troubled relations with the U.S. government. But as a non-native actor choosing to pair two works tied to the same cultural milieu, I learned that topic and locale is where similarities end and potential for conflict begins. My paper is both an attempt to appraise unforeseen (and unseen) social forces at work in circumstances of public cultural programming and a consideration of ethical issues inherent in screening Native American film and video.