Native and Indigenous highlights from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Indigenous filmmakers, various creatives and film fans gathered Jan. 18-28 for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Directors and crews premiered documentary and dramatic films, short films, animations and episodic content during one of the world’s most celebrated film festivals. Buffalo’s Fire participated in this year’s press line for Indigenous filmmakers, including the premiere of Sugarcane, a documentary about a residential boarding school and unmarked graves in British Columbia. Sugarcane was directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat, Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen, and co-director Emily Kassie. NoiseCat was awarded the Sundance Festival’s directing award.

In addition to eight films with Indigenous-related content, Illuminative hosted the Indigenous House, a gathering of Native and Indigenous filmmakers, actors and political strategists. On Jan. 20, the Sundance Institute announced the 2024 Merata Mita Fellowship and the inaugural Graton Fellowship for Artists from California-Based Tribes. The Merata Mita Fellowship supports Indigenous women-identified artists directing their first feature film. Libby Hakaraia — Ngati Kapu, Ngati Raukawa au ki te tonga — received this year’s annual fellowship. In addition, the Sundance Institute announced that Tazbah Rose Chavez, –Dinè, Nüümü, San Carlos Apache, –was the recipient of the inaugural Graton Fellowship, an award to support Indigenous artists from California-based tribes. Chavez, a writer-director of the critically acclaimed Hulu series “Reservation Dogs” told Buffalo’s Fire she will use the grant to develop a feature film, a project she is working on with Jana Schmieding, a Mniconjou and Sicangu Lakota writer, actor and comedian. Go to www.buffalosfire.com for more Sundance reporting.

Video by Lise Balk King, Contributor to Buffalo’s Fire