Sandra Hale Schulman
ICT
The latest: Film premieres and awards, ‘avatar’ fiction, Santa Fe art market
FILM FESTIVALS: Los Angeles hosts two Indigenous film fests
Two big Indigenous film festivals are taking over Los Angeles for Native American Heritage Month, featuring screenings with the directors and actors in attendance, some major premieres, and awards shows.
Red Nation Celebration Institute (RNCI) is running the 31st Red Nation International Film Festival Nov. 8-15 with screenings at the Grove AMC theater. There are 96 official selections, including six features, 28 documentaries, one animated feature, 38 documentary shorts, 14 narrative shorts, and nine animation shorts.
The competition offers audiences a first look at new voices from Native and Indigenous perspectives in independent film.
The opening night feature is “Timber Lands,” from Director Baylee Toney, starring Wes Studi, Irene Bedard, Robert Clohessy, Tanaya Beatty, Owen Crowshoe, and Myles Clohessy. In the remote Oregon timber country, the sudden death of a celebrated bronc rider exposes a violent rift between two powerful families who will stop at nothing to protect their sovereign land.
The film, “Nine Little Indians,” by Shannon Kring, tells the story of nine sisters seeking justice and healing after abuses at Indian boarding schools. Credit: Courtesy photo
Another screening is “Nine Little Indians,” Shannon Kring’s wrenching documentary about nine Charbonneau sisters, members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and their decades-long fight for acknowledgement, justice, and healing after the abuses they suffered in the American Indian boarding school system. Executive producers are Leonardo DiCaprio and Tony Robbins.
Acclaimed actor Lou Diamond Phillips, Filipino/Cherokee, will receive the RNCI Lifetime Achievement Award on Nov. 14 after a screening of “Gangland.’ The RNCI Red Nation Award show with several Native actor presenters takes place at the Beverly Hilton on Nov. 15.
The LA Skins Fest in Los Angeles will kick off Nov. 18, 2026, with a special screening of the series, “North by North,” showing on Netflix. Credit: Courtesy photo
The LA Skins Fest runs Nov. 18-22 at TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California, launching the 20th year with a special screening of the acclaimed series, “North of North.” presented by Netflix. The series shows winter is settling over Ice Cove, and young Inuk mother Siaja, played by Anna Lambe, is still determined to make life better — for herself and everyone around her.
Feature films include, “What The Crows Saw,” on Nov. 20. The film features a determined Pueblo woman who must confront the mysterious inhabitants of a strange tavern as she searches for her missing sister.
Excellence in Indigenous storytelling will be celebrated at the 15th Annual Native American Media Awards, hosted by Kiowa Gordon, of “Dark Winds,” at the Hard Rock Hollywood on Sunday, Nov. 22 starting at 7 p.m. The awards recognize the talent, creativity, and contributions of Native American artists and filmmakers.
In addition to the film festivals, “People of the West” will be streaming on FNX.org all of November with a marathon of all 10 episodes on Thanksgiving Day of the hard-hitting series that frames California’s complicated history through Native voices.
Creator/executive producer Brad Munoa, Payómkawichum, uses oral storytelling, cinematic dramatization, archival material, and expert testimony to trace five centuries of how California tribes were affected by colonizers who came by sea and by land. Its wealth of natural resources — gold, fish, crops, minerals, and water — made it a last frontier in the push for western expansion.
BOOKS: ‘Old School Indian’ gets schooled
A new book, “Old School Indian,” by Aaron John Curtis, Ahkwesáhsne, tells an irreverent coming-of-middle-age story about an Indigenous man’s search for intimacy, healing, and a second chance.
A new book, “Old School Indian,” by Aaron John Curtis, Ahkwesáhsne, tells the story of an middle-aged Indigenous man’s search for healing.
Credit: Courtesy photo
The book’s main character, Abe Jacobs is Ahkwesáhsne, from the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. At 18, Abe left the reservation where he was raised. He met the love of his life, started writing poetry, and chose to open his marriage — building a life far from the Rez.
Now he’s 43, facing a relationship collapse and a rare yet fatal diagnosis. When he returns to the Rez to undergo a healing from his Great Uncle Budge — a wry, recovered alcoholic — Abe is forced to reckon with who he’s been, and who he might still be.
Curtis jumps the barrier and addresses the reader directly in this unusual format, to explain Indigenous words and customs.
“I did a lot of direct address,” Curtis, who worked as a buyer at Miami’s top tome seller Books & Books for 20 years, told ICT. “A lot of that came from my writers group. Although at some points I was assuming some negative thoughts that the readers weren’t having. So I did have to play around that a little bit.”
Abe is Curtis’s avatar; Curtis did have serious health issues and went home to heal them.
Aaron John Curtis, Ahkwesáhsne, is author of a new book, “Old School Indian.” Credit: Courtesy photo
“I had an autoimmune disorder as described in the book,” he said. “I’ve been in remission since about 2021. It started off as a short story and I was venting all this frustration of everything I was going through and fear, and my writers group was really excited by it. So I fleshed it out, and it’s me, but it’s fiction, not a memoir.”
The tone is humorous and serious, sarcastic and direct. It took him 10 years from start to publication.
“The original manuscript was twice as long as it is now,” Curtis said. “I cut out a lot of Miami backstory and may publish that down the road.”
The artsy cover art of a Native in shades and open crown hat,is by artist Alex Jacobs, a former writer for Indian Country Today, and Curtis’s real life uncle.
“That’s my Uncle Alex Jacobs,” Curtis said. “I had that image of his art on my computer for 20 years. Alex had sold the original, so they got Emily Mahome, a digital illustrator, to recreate it digitally for the cover.”
Reviews have been stellar and Curtis embarks on a book tour through the fall.
ART: SWAIA Winter Market
The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) hosts its 21st Annual Winter Indian Market on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28-29, at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts hosts its Annual Winter Indian Market on Nov. 28-29, 2026, in Santa Fe, including displays of jewelry, pottery, paintings and textiles. Credit: Courtesy of SWAIA
The indoor holiday market gathers 160 juried Indigenous artists displaying jewelry, pottery, paintings, textiles, and holiday ornaments.
Smaller and more intimate than the summer Indian Market, Winter Indian Market offers a chance to slow down, linger at the booths, and have genuine conversations with the artists themselves. One can hear firsthand about the techniques, traditions, and inspirations behind each piece, from finely crafted jewelry and hand-coiled pottery to paintings, sculpture and more.
A silent auction adds another way to take home a remarkable work. Winter Indian Market is a meaningful way to celebrate the season and support Native artists directly.
“Winter Indian Market is built for connection,” said Jamie R. Schulze, Northern Cheyenne/Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, SWAIA executive director. “In a more intimate setting, visitors can spend real time with an artist: hearing the story behind a piece, learning the process and traditions that shaped it, and getting to know the person making contemporary Native art today. That conversation changes what a purchase means. You’re not just taking home something beautiful. You’re investing directly in an artist and carrying their story with you.”
Sales go directly to the artists and their home studios, generating economic support for Native entrepreneurs across New Mexico and North America.
The post INDIGENOUS A&E: LA Film Fests, an ‘Old School Indian’ story, Winter Market appeared first on ICT.
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