This experimental documentary explores the Ojibwe story of the Seven Fires Prophecy, which has been interpreted as predicting the arrival of the Europeans in North America and the subsequent destruction they caused. Bold, smart, and unflinching, the film examines the relationship between cultural tradition and modern indigenous identity. Copresented by the Augsburg Native American film series. 2016, US/Canada, 75 minutes.
A conversation between filmmakers Zack Khalil, Adam Khalil, and Sky Hopinka and producers Sarah Kerr, Franny Alfano and Steve Holmgren follows the screening, moderated by Missy Whiteman or Heid E. Erdrich.
Preceded by Jáaji Approx.
Directed by Sky Hopinka
Jáaji Approx. explores the relationship between audio recordings of the filmmaker’s father and videos gathered of the landscapes they have traversed. The distance between the logger and the recordings, of recollections and of songs, new and traditional, narrows while the images become an expanding semblance of filial affect. “Jáaji” is a near translation for directly addressing a father in the Hočak language. 2016, US, 7:36 minutes.
Ticket Discounts
For information about discounted tickets for individuals and groups, please contact Alison Kozberg (Alison.kozberg@walkerart.org) at least one business day before the screening.
Post-Screening Reception
Friday, March 17, 8:30 pm–12 midnight
147 Holden Street North, Minneapolis
Get together after the screening at a free reception celebrating the release of Issue 10 of The Third Rail, which features filmmakers Adam and Zack Khalil’s interview with Sky Hopinka. Enjoy music by Feel Free Hi Fi, video by Mati Diop/Manon Lutanie and Adam Khalil/Zack Khalil, food by the Sioux Chef and Salty Tart.
About the Filmmakers
Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil (Ojibway) are filmmakers and artists from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Their work subverts traditional forms of ethnography through humor, transgression, and innovative documentary practice. Their films and installations have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Maysles Cinema, UnionDocs, e-flux, Microscope Gallery (New York), Spektrum (Berlin), Trailer Gallery (Sweden), and Carnival of eCreativity (Bombay). They both graduated from the Film and Electronic Arts program at Bard College and are UnionDocs Collaborative Fellows and Gates Millennium Scholars.
Sky Hopinka is a Ho-Chunk Nation citizen and descendent of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians. He was born and raised in Ferndale, Washington, and spent a number of years in Palm Springs and Riverside, California, and Portland, Oregon. He is currently based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Portland Hopinka studied and taught chinuk wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin. His work centers around personal positions of homeland and landscape, designs of language and the facets of culture contained within. Hopinka received his BA from Portland State University in Liberal Arts and his MFA in Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.