LibGuides: Native American Heritage Month: Films and Film Resources

Native American Heritage Month Collection on Kanopy

Native American Heritage Month Collection
A collection of documentary and feature films honoring Native American history and heritage

Documentary Films

Gather by Sanjay Rawal (Director)
Gather follows the stories of natives on the frontlines of a growing movement to reconnect with spiritual and cultural identities that were devastated by genocide. An indigenous chef embarks on a ambitious project to reclaim ancient food ways on the Apache reservation; in South Dakota a gifted Lakota high school student, raised on a buffalo ranch, is proving her tribes native wisdom through her passion for science; and a group of young men of the Yurok tribe in Northern California are struggling to keep their culture alive and rehabilitate the habitat of their sacred salmon. All these stories combine to show how the reclaiming and recovery of ancient food ways is a way forward for native Americans to bring back health and vitality to their people.
A Good Day To Die by David Mueller and Lynn Salt (Directors)
A Good Day to Die chronicles a movement that started a revolution and inspired a nation. By recounting the life story of Dennis Banks, the Native American who co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 to advocate and protect the rights of American Indians, the film provides an in-depth look at the history and issues surrounding AIM's formation. From the forced assimilation of Native Americans within boarding schools, to discrimination by law enforcement authorities, to neglect by government officials responsible for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, AIM sought redress for the many grievances that its people harbored.
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World by Catherine Bainbridge (Director)
This revelatory documentary brings to light the profound and overlooked influence of Indigenous people on popular music in North America. Focusing on music icons like Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Taboo (The Black Eyed Peas), Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Jesse Ed Davis, Robbie Robertson, and Randy Castillo, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World shows how these pioneering Native American musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives. Winner of a Special Jury Award for Masterful Storytelling at the Sundance Film Festival and Best Documentary at Hot Docs.
The Thick Dark Fog: Reclaiming Native American Identity by Randy Vasquez and Jonathan Skurnik (Directors)
Walter Littlemoon is a 69-year-old Lakota man born and raised in Wounded Knee, South Dakota. At the age of five, he was removed from his family to attend a Federal government boarding school where his culture, language and spirituality were suppressed. The Thick Dark Fog profiles Walter's journey to heal himself and his community while reclaiming his heritage. The film's title comes from Walter's own self-diagnosis of the state-of-mind that he lived in for so many years until he began to tell his story and heal from his childhood trauma. As time has passed, more positive accounts have surfaced from Native Americans about their school experiences such as being saved from poverty and making life-long friends.
Up Heartbreak Hill by Erica Scharf (Director)
Up Heartbreak Hill chronicles the lives of three Native American teenagers in Navajo, New Mexico-Thomas, an elite runner; Tamara, an academic superstar; and Gabby, an aspiring photographer-as they navigate their senior year at a reservation high school. As graduation nears, they must decide whether or not to stay in their community-a place inextricably woven into the fiber of their beings-or leave in pursuit of opportunities elsewhere. Largely isolated from mainstream America, they hesitate to separate from their families and traditions, rooted to home in equal parts by love, obligation, and fear. Tribal elders urge members of the younger generation to leave-acquire an education or learn a trade-and return home with the skills to help their people. But, with a poverty rate of 65% and a per capita income under $6,200, Navajo has few prospects.

Native Media Theory YouTube Channel

Native Media Theory
YouTuber Elias Gold discusses and analyzees Indigenous representations in various forms of media, along with reactions and reviews to and for Indigenous content or Indigenous themed content.

Recommended Streaming Series

Reservation Dogs - streaming on Hulu
From Co-Creators and Executive Producers Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, FX’s Reservation Dogs is a half-hour comedy that follows the exploits of “Elora Danan” (Devery Jacobs), “Bear Smallhill” (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), “Willie Jack” (Paulina Alexis) and “Cheese” (Lane Factor), four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma. Filmed on location in Oklahoma, Reservation Dogs is a breakthrough in Indigenous representation on television, both in front of and behind the camera. Every writer, director and series regular on the show is Indigenous. This first-of-its-kind creative team tells a story that resonates with them and their lived experiences. Throughout its first two seasons, Reservation Dogs landed on 180+ critics’ year-end best lists, was honored as an AFI Television Program of the Year for two consecutive years and won two Independent Spirit Awards, a Gotham Award and Peabody Award. The show was among seven programs recognized in 2022 by the Television Academy as part of its 15th Television Academy Honors, showcasing exceptional programs and their producers who have leveraged the power of television to fuel social change.

Reservation Dogs is co-created by Sterlin Harjo (Love and Fury, Four Sheets to the Wind) and Academy Award® winner Taika Waititi (Our Flag Means Death, What We Do in the Shadows) and executive produced by Harjo, Waititi and Garrett Basch (What We Do in the Shadows, The Night Of). Reservation Dogs is produced by FX Productions.

Native American Heritage Month

Feature Films

Film Resources in the JSCC Library

Native American Heritage Month Collection on Kanopy

Documentary Films

Native Media Theory YouTube Channel

Recommended Streaming Series