Lumbee Film Festival

The 5th annual Lumbee Film Festival will take place July 6 to July 8, 2023 in Pembroke, NC during Lumbee Homecoming. The Lumbee Film Festival showcases bold, original new films made by Native Americans, Indigenous Filmmakers, and American Indians, especially members of the Lumbee Tribe living in North Carolina and across the United States.

“Each year the Lumbee Film Festival gets better and better. I am so excited about this year’s lineup of short and feature films. Some are traditional and some have us thinking out of the box.  Some are local and some are far away. Just like in real life. Something for everyone. Come join us. You will be glad you did,” – Kim Pevia, Festival Director

The Lumbee Film Festival is a partnership between the Lumbee Tribe of NC and the Cucalorus Film Foundation.

For questions about the Lumbee Film Festival, email dan@cucalorus.org or kim@kimpevia.org.

2023 Official Film Schedule

The Lumbee Film Festival takes place during Lumbee Homecoming from June 30-July 9, which is the largest American Indian cultural celebration in North Carolina and the Southeast. Celebrate the Lumbee Tribe by listening to the Summer Jam Outdoor Concert, supporting  the Teen and Miss Lumbee Pageant, running in the morning Lumbee Homecoming 5K and watching the All Veteran Parachute Team Skyshow before heading indoors for the evening screenings at 7:30 pm. All of the films will be shown in one location: James A. Thomas Hall, 333 Braves Drive Pembroke, North Carolina. FREE ENTRY for all screenings! And don’t forget to eat a collard-green sandwich before the festivities are over!

OPENING NIGHT SHORTS: Thursday, July 6th @ 7:30pm / James A. Thomas Hall

 

Faces from the Interior with Mary Two Axe-Earley: Friday, July 7 @ 7:30pm / James A. Thomas Hall 

 

Tough Skin by Montana Cypress: Saturday, July 8th @ 7:30pm / James A. Thomas Hall

OPENING NIGHT SHORTS
Thursday, July 6 @ 7:30 PM / James A. Thomas Hall

Arctic Song

Directed by Germaine Arnattaujuq, Neil Christopher, Louise Flaherty

Canada | 6:25

Arctic Song is an animated short about Inuit creation stories from the Iglulik region in Nunavut.

Nalujuk Night

Directed by Jennie Williams

Canada | 13:07

Nalujuk Night is an up close look at an exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, Labrador Inuit tradition.

Can Archaeology Repair its Past with Indigenous America?

Directed by Victoria Sutton

United States | 14:39

The story tells how statutes and training a new generation of archaeologists have been used to repair and restore damage done over the centuries.

Our way

Directed by Laura Fontaine, Yasmine Fontaine

Canada | 5:30

Two young Innu women take up the old roads of the past to revive the identity of their Nation.

Mysterious Lines

Directed by Bryan Coocoo

Canada | 2:25

Aski Masinikan is the first experiment to tell the story of the mysterious lines on the plateau of the former reservation site, near Wemotaci.

Nukum Mary (My grandmother Mary)

Directed by Normand Junior Tshirnish

Canada | 6:31

A Naskapi grandmother passes on to her Innu granddaughter her experience, knowledge and culture.

Mapping America’s Native Food Trail

Directed by Rene’ Locklear White

United States | 18:08

Is it possible to reconnect our Native people to their Native foodways and can this reconnection help heal?

My Stories: Fallen Leaf

Directed by Vibrina Coronado

United States | 1:39

Reading of a poem over related natural images.

My Stories: the Black Mirror

Directed by Vibrina Coronado

United States | 1:47

Poem read over related natural imagery.

Daydreams

Directed by Véronique Picard

Canada | 5:38

Rêveries (Daydreams) is a poetic film where the filmmaker navigates between a plurality of contradictory emotions that echo a personal healing process.

Faces from the Interior with Mary Two Axe-Early
Friday, July 7 @ 7:30 PM / James A. Thomas Hall

Mary Two Axe-Earley: I Am Indian Again

Directed by Courtney Montour

Canada | 32:00

Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again shares the powerful story of Mary Two-Axe Earley, who fought for more than two decades to challenge sex discrimination against First Nations women embedded in Canada’s Indian Act and became a key figure in Canada’s women’s rights movement.

Faces From The Interior

Directed by Justin Deegan

United States | 40:02

Faces From The Interior, addresses the impact of Karl Bodmer sketched and painted images, which are historical art documents that are iconic in present day America, among the direct descendants of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation. Which, were a few of the many indigenous nations the Prince Maximilian Expedition made contact with.

 

Tough Skin by Montana Cypress
Saturday, July 8 @ 7:30 PM / James A. Thomas Hall

Tough Skin

Directed by Montana Cypress

United States | 61:19

Director Montana Cypress gives a look into the perilous world of Alligator Wrestling through the eyes of Florida’s Indian tribes. From a culture based practice to the commercially viable world of gator wrestling championships, we discover the innovative paths the tribes have embraced to sustain their sovereignty in an ever evolving world.

Lumbee Film Festival Staff

Kim Pevia, Festival Director

Kim Pevia is an experienced life strategist, an engaging keynote speaker, and a skilled workshop facilitator. Her workshops are experiential and transformational. She specializes in identifying  the issues that keep us stuck and addresses them by developing a personalized toolbox to help us hurdle over them.  Her favorite work is done in circles.  Her favorite topics include Emotional intelligence, Gifts of Conflict, Impacts of Historical Trauma, Cultural Healing, Innocuous Nature of Fear, most of which she includes in Race, Equity and Inclusion work.  Born and educated in Baltimore, MD she currently lives in Robeson County, NC where her roots run deep as a member of the Lumbee Tribe. 

She serves on many local, state and national boards that support community activism and local economy through arts, food, culture and tourism. She recently served as Chair of the Board of Alternate Roots.  In 2015 she founded Artist Market-Pembroke, providing retail opportunities for local and regional artists in southeast North Carolina. Her love of community and films is expressed as the curator of the annual Lumbee Film Festival (along with Cucalorus) and the quarterly CommUnity Cinema (in partnership with Working Films). She expresses her creativity as a writer and workshop/training facilitator.

Chad Locklear, Communications Director

Chad Locklear is from St. Pauls, NC. He is the director of marketing for the Givens Performing Arts Center at UNC Pembroke and was recently selected to join the 2020 South Art’s Emerging Leaders of Color inaugural cohort. He has performed at numerous venues as a member of the traditional native group, the Deer Clan Singers. His previous work was in journalism and graphic design at UNC Wilmington and the Fayetteville Observer. Chad earned a graduate degree in liberal studies from UNC Wilmington and bachelor’s degrees in communication and art studies from N.C. State University. He is currently completing his thesis for an M.A. in digital communications at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Read More about the Fourth Annual Lumbee Film Festival in 2022

 

Here’s the full schedule of 2022 films:

 

Thursday, June 30

7pm / SHORTS: The Sun Shines, The Water Flows

Charlie by the Sea / Charlie Ekomiak / 5:29

Climate Change / Leanna Deese, Ethan Deese / 15:47 

Wajak: At the End of the Lake / Peter Poucachiche, Kobe Wawatie / 4:00 

Lumbee Indians; the Color of the Sun / Catherine Oxendine, Nolan Locklear / 6:39 

Sardis / Colleen Thurston / 10:56

Lumber River / Denise Hunt, Tiffany Locklear / 3:45

 

Friday, July 1

7pm / FEATURE: The Transcenders / Montana Cypress / 01:22:23

Screening followed by Q and A with Efrain Colon

 

Saturday, July 2

4pm / Live table read with Montana Cypress

7pm / SHORTS: Roots Run Deep

Lumbee Homecoming / Kylee Malcom / 1:02 

Wearing my Culture / Olivia Uviluk / 3:22 

Lumbee Accent / Gabby Maynor, Lexie Caulder / 5:42 

The Origin of the Dreamcatcher / Cassandra Ambroise-St-Onge, Donavon Vollant / 4:00

Concrete 49 / Justin Deegan / 10:23 

Roots of Lacrosse / Shelby Tsioweri:iohsta Adams, Joanne Storkan / 23:34

 

Sunday, July 3

5pm / SHORTS: All my Relations

Two Brothers / Montana Cypress / 10:14

Kakatshat / Eve Ringuette / 7:44

The Treaty of COVID-19 / Andy Winstend / 18:16

My son, My Father / Steven Bignell, Gabriel Constant / 13:08

Red Orchid / Montana Cypress / 25:00

7pm / FEATURE: RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World / Catherine Bainbridge, Alfonso Maiorana / 01:43:00

 Live musical intro by Charly Lowry

Awards followed screening

Read More about the Third Annual Lumbee Film Festival in 2020

 

Here’s the full schedule of 2020 films:

 

Wednesday, July 1

8:00 PM| SHORTS: Youth Making Their Way (46:33)

“Keep My Memory” / Alexis Raeana Jones, Matthew Ruprich / 3:45

Native and American / Taylor Hensel, Brit Hensel / 16:04

Hard Learning / Daniel Fortin / 6:51

Little Chef / Erica Tremblay / 11:40

Puktew Muin (Fire Bear) / Daniel Fortin / 8:13

 

Thursday, July 2 

8:00 PM| SHORTS: Stories We Tell (42:01)

Totems / Justin Deegan / 14:00

The House Tour / Evan Ramseur / 2:54

You Love Who You Love / Ryan Craig, Javier Morin, Jr. / 11:48

Jhana / Evan Ramseur / 3:37

Portrait Of An Artist / Evan Ramseur / 6:47

Caenis or Caeneus? / Keith Carter / 2:55

 

Friday, July 2 

8:00 PM| SHORTS: The Past Ensures Our Future (37:15)

Now Is the Time / Christopher Auchter / 16:00

Zibi Yajdan/The River Tells It / Brit Hensel, Taylor Hensel / 8:01

Tecendo nossos caminhos (Weaving our paths) / Cledson Kanunxi, Jackson Xinunxi e Marta Tipuici / 5:40

SKY AELANS (Ski Islands) / Edward Manuga, Georgianna Lepping, Jeremy Gwao, Regina Lepping, Zahiyd Namo, Junior Patrick Makau, Manner Levo, Neil Nuia, Daniel Kakadi / 7:34

 

Saturday, July 4 

8:00 PM| FEATURE: Another Scar of Genocide: Diabetes in Indian Country (52:34)

 

Sunday, July 5 

6:00 PM| CLOSING NIGHT FEATURE: maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (80:16)

 

Read More about the Second Annual Lumbee Film Festival in 2019

 

Here’s the full schedule of 2019 films:

 

Thursday, May 16

5:30 PM: Shorts / 47:23

Telling People You’re Native American When You’re Not… / Joey Clift / 2:02

Shiny Object / Kevin Tikivik / 5:00

Lumbee Art Legacy / Landon Oxendine / 6:34

Raven Goes Fishing / Daniel Foreman / 9:26

Gʷidəq (Geoduck) / Tracy Rector / 6:13

Gutk’odau (Yellow) / Adam Piron / 8:24

The Violence of a Civilization without Secrets / Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, Jackson Polys / 9:44

 

7:30 PM: Feature / 85:00

Words from a Bear (Kiowa) / Jeffrey Palmer / 85:00

 

Friday, May 17 

5:30 PM: Shorts / 49:43

Shell No / Tracy Rector / 6:52

Inuk Hunter / George Annanack / 4:05

What Lumbee Means to My Family / Evan Ramseur / 7:56

A History of Service (Auburn Veterans) / Tracy Rector / 4:23

Maintaining Cultural Identity as Lumbee Women / Reagan Cummings / 7:09

Mommy goes race / Charlene McConini / 5:50

Sweetheart Dancers / Ben-Alex Dupris / 13:28

 

7:30 PM: Feature / 90:00

Kayak to Klemtu / Zoe Hopkins / 90:00

Read More about the First Annual Lumbee Film Festival in 2018

Read Festival Director Kim Pevia’s interview with the Fayetteville Observer. 

The First Ever Lumbee Film Festival took place on June 23rd, 2018 from 3 to 9 p.m. in the Thomas Family Entrepreneurship Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, 202 Main St. in Pembroke. The highlight of the festival was a 7 p.m. screening of “Warrior Women,” directed by Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle. The film tells the story of the American Indian movement from the perspective of Madonna Thunder Hawk of the Oohenumpa Lakota tribe. Thunder Hawk and King attended the festival to discuss the film.

Here’s the full schedule of 2018 films:

3pm: Shorts Block

Real Indian / Malinda Maynor Lowery
After All / Brannigan Carter
Get Up / Brannigan Carter
Creation & Hope / Keith Carter, Gia Kereselidze
Ohero:kon / Katsitsionni Fox
Water Warriors / Michael Premo

4:30pm: Panel Discussion
Who Tells Our Stories: Extraction and Appropriation in Indigenous Communities
Featuring community organizers, filmmakers and tribe members discussing cultural extraction, cultural appropriation, and other issues faced by indigenous communities and their work within the cultural sector.

5:30pm: Grand Opening Celebration
Launching the Lumbee Film Festival: Reception with refreshments and special guests

7pm: Feature Film
Warrior Women, directed by Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle
featuring Special Guest Madonna Thunder Hawk
Screens with: Lumbee Spring Moon Powwow / John “ManiQ” Whittemore

**Films from the Lumbee Filmmaking Challenge were shared at both screenings**

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