Events
Kin Theory is hosting a series of Indigenous media creative events throughout 2021 to highlight the importance of databases and communities dedicated to the global majority, as well as people with disabilities, people who are trans, femme, nonbinary, people who are undocumented, people who are LGBTQIA+, and more. Watch this space and Nia Tero’s social media for new events at international film festivals, academic conferences, community events, and more with our mission-aligned partners
Courtesy Kiliii Yuyan (Nanai/Hezhe)
Calendar
imagineNATIVE Industry Days: Building Community and Abundance Across Indigenous Creative Networks
Thursday, October 22nd, 2021, 3 – 4:30pm ET
Alongside skyrocketing demand for Indigenous made media must be strong support networks, increased visibility, and safe industry connections. It’s essential that Indigenous artists have access to networks and resources that support their artistic journeys. In this virtual panel, hear from those who have created (and are creating) Indigenous media online communities and how they are uplifting Indigenous storytellers, why collaboration and care are prioritized, and where their networks (and others) are intersecting to create a wider web of support for Indigenous creatives. Contributing to this conversation are: Amalia Cordova (Latinx), Supervisory Curator, World Cultures, at Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage; Jennifer Loren (Cherokee), Director of the Cherokee Film Office; Jennifer Podemski (Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi), Founder and CEO of Shine Network; and Tracy Rector, Nia Tero Managing Director of Storytelling and Executive Producer of Kin Theory. Tracy Rector will also moderate this discussion.
Kin Theory: Why Indigenous Representation Matters
November 9, 2021, 6 – 7:30pm ET
Join this robust, virtual screening and conversation about the importance of narrative sovereignty, where Indigenous creators (re)take control of their stories in a rapidly shifting industry landscape. Indigenous media makers are making important interventions at all levels of production in order to bring authenticity and respect to screens big and small. Watch stories and get advice from Brit Hensel (Reservation Dogs, Osiyo TV, Reciprocity Project) and Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Molly of Denali, Reciprocity Project), and more. Those who register for this event in advance will receive access to a private screening link to work by the panelists. Filmmaker and Nia Tero Managing Director of Storytelling Tracy Rector will moderate. This event is a collaboration between Florida State University’s Department of Art History in the College of the Fine Arts and Nia Tero’s Kin Theory Indigenous media makers database.
Past Events
KIN THEORY: New Work in Indigenous Media (Virtual Screening)
Friday, September 24th, 4 – 6pm ET
Join us for a virtual screening and discussion of work by three 4th World Indigenous Media Lab fellows: Ivy MacDonald (she/her; Blackfeet), Alex Sallee (she/her; Iñupiaq and Mexican), and Raven Two Feathers (he/they, Two-Spirit; Cherokee, Seneca, Cayuga, and Comanche.) This conversation will be moderated by Tracy Rector(Black, Choctaw, Jewish), Managing Director of Storytelling, Nia Tero.
Register at: https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_m4mxbrUARpWqwxfFop9kSA
Academic Conference Presentation: The Business of Film (Virtual Event)
July 30, 2021, 11 – 12:30 pm EST
Kin Theory strategist Michelle Hurtubise will be presenting her paper, Indigenous media industry futures, Kin Theory database discussions at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, at the 75th annual University Film and Video Association (UFVA) Conference. UFVA is an international organization where media production and writing meet history, theory and criticism.
- Tickets: All sessions will be live-streamed and available for UFVA members who have registered for the conference. Learn more at: http://ufva.org/2021-ufva-conference/
Media Industries as Sites of Struggle
Friday, June 25, 2021
Academic Conference Presentation: Union for Democratic Communications Conference Panel
Kin Theory strategist MIchelle Hurtubise will be presenting her paper, Indigenizing with Kin Theory, Making New Tables in Media Industries, at the 40th annual Union for Democratic Communications (UDC) Conference. Since 1981, UDC has been a place for scholars in the political economy of communications to level theoretically sharp inquiry into the relationship between media, quality of life, democracy, and equality. This year’s focus is on the politics of “masking” and “unmasking” in relation to our broader political, economic, and media.
- Tickets: This is a free, virtual event. Those interested in attending can reach out to the Kin Theory team to request access: mediacommunity@niatero.org
Landfall Documentary Discussion Series
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Decolonial Case Study: Puerto Rico, Palestine and Hawai’i
On Thursday, April 22, Nia Tero’s Kin Theory will join the team behind the documentary Landfall and more for a panel discussion: “Decolonial Case Study: Puerto Rico, Palestine & Hawai’i.” Kin Theory strategist Michelle Hurtubise will join Lorraine Liriano (A Call to Action on Puerto Rico), Sumaya Awad (The Adalah Justice Project), Dr. Craig Santos Perez (University of Hawai’i at Mānoa), and Dr. Sara Awartani (Harvard University.) This is part of a 7-event series. Register for this (or every) event to receive a FREE sneak preview link to view the film.
Register: https://www.landfallfilm.com/series
Screening Scholarship Media Festival
April 18th, 10 am EDT
This panel features media and art research projects that propose interventions to destabilize the settler colonial archive. Participants on this panel will talk about issues that address the consolidation of indigenous-centered databases for filmmakers in Canada, the amplification of untold stories from African American elders who fostered the Great Migration, and the critical intervention of personal narratives of Yellow Spring’s villagers in Ohio.
Seattle International Film Festival
April 10th, 12pm PST
Indigenizing Film Industry Spaces
Tracy Rector moderates a frank and iterative discussion with two of the Sundance Indigenous Program leaders around the work of the Sundance Institute and how to expand kin relationships to the film industry. Indigenous creatives are on the rise, and SIFF and Sundance have been industry leaders in carving out space for them for almost two decades. Now the rest of the industry just needs to catch up, with BIPOC creatives and communities at the table. In this conversation, Managing Director of Nia Tero and multicultural industry leader Tracy Rector (she/her) will moderate a frank and iterative discussion with two of the Sundance Indigenous Program leaders: Japanese/Portuguese/Samoan creative Ianeta Le’i (she/her) and Kiowa/Mohawk filmmaker Adam Piron (he/him). Topics will include the work of the Sundance Institute and how to expand kin relationships to the film industry. What will the future of solidarity connections look like for safe, radically supportive, and innovative Indigenous filmmaking? As with all Kin Theory events, this one will be unapologetically rooted in community, solidarity, and reciprocity. Join us as we indigenize the film industry.
Zoom details will be emailed to ticket registrants shortly before the scheduled event.
Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) Annual Conference
March 20th, 9am EST
Space, Place, and Race Panel N21
Chair: Michelle Hurtubise, Temple University
- Jasper Lauderdale, New York University, “Time-traveling while black: Chronotopic narratives of radical alterity”
- Julia Peres Guimaraes, Northwestern University, “Queer Temporality, Race as Technology and the Dystopian Archive in Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer”
- Michelle Hurtubise, Temple University, “SGaawaay K‘uuna: Edge of the Knife, Capacity Building and Indigenous Language Revitalization through Film”
- Meghan Tibbits-Lamirande, Carleton University, “Working for No Money: Aid Slavery and Debt-Peonage in Renzo Martens’s Enjoy Poverty: Episode III”
Our strategist Michelle Hurtubise will be discussing our team and ongoing database development while reporting on the Big Sky DocShop: Kin Theory panel at several online academic conferences. Bring your questions, join in the conversation, and reach out to us at mediacommunity@niatero.org with access questions!
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
February 22nd, 2021
Kin Theory: Creating Community with Indigenous and BIPOC Filmmakers Across the Industry
The uniqueness of 2020, which included a global pandemic, distinct but overlapping human rights movements, and heart-filling cross-community mutual aid efforts, has deepened conversations about systemic inequities, including in the film industry. The need for capacity building, education and mentorship, resourcing, and distribution of work by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, undocumented, female, trans and nonbinary people, people with disabilities, and otherwise underrepresented artists has never been more prevalent. A session of deep and honest conversation about who’s doing the work to support Indigenous and Black filmmakers, as well as other creators of color, what’s still needed, and how we can work together to get there.
Panelists include partners from Working Films, Firelight Media, COUSIN Collective, imagineNATIVE, and the University of Arkansas. The Panel will be moderated by Nia Tero’s Managing Director of Storytelling, Tracy Rector.