Festival First Look: Six Must-See cINeDIGENOUS Marvels

Friday, April 18, 2025

Your next programming peek has arrived! We're delighted to present a first look at the cINeDIGENOUS program of this year's Seattle International Film Festival. This program amplifies the voices of Indigenous filmmakers from around the globe, featuring some of the very best in Indigenous-made cinema, like the SXSW Documentary Jury Prize Winner Remaining Native and New Zealand's top grossing film of 2024, Ka Whawhai Tonu (Struggle Without End), which will make its US premiere. Check out these feats of Indigenous filmmaking.

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Drowned Land

The Choctaw Nation of southeastern Oklahoma fights against cultural displacement and the developers who wish to dam and divert the Kiamichi River, one of the most ecologically diverse bodies of water in the state, in this call to action from SIFF 4th World Media Lab alum Colleen Thurston. (d: Colleen Thurston (Choctaw Nation), USA 2025, 86 min)

Free Leonard Peltier

In 1975, Indigenous American Leonard Peltier was accused of shooting two FBI agents while defending South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and then sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. As he faces his final years, learn the real facts from those who fought for his clemency. (d: Jesse Short Bull (Oglala Sioux), David France, USA 2025, 110 min)

Ka Whawhai Tonu (Struggles Without End)

Ka Whawhai Tonu (Struggle Without End)

Cliff Curtis and Temuera Morrison (both of 1994’s Once Were Warriors) star in this sweeping Māori-language epic about the 1864 Battle of Ōrākau, as an Indigenous tribe defends their land from invading British forces. (d: Michael Jonathan
c: Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis, Jason Flemyng, Paku Fernandez, Hinerangi Harawira-Nicholas, Aotearoa New Zealand/Great Britain 2024, 115 min)

Medicine Circle: Indigenous Stories of Return

This selection of short, Indigenous-made films exemplifies the stunning fortitude and vibrant visions born of communities from around the snowy northern regions of the world. (short film package, 71 min)

Remaining Native

As Indigenous teenager Ku Stevens aspires to go to the University of Oregon and become an Olympic-level cross-country runner, we learn of his family’s history through his great-grandfather’s narrow escape from the horrible clutches of an Indian boarding school. (d: Paige Bethmann (Haudenosaunee) f: Ku Stevens, Misty Stevens, Billy Mills, USA 2025, 87 min)

Tinā

From Miki Magasiva (SIFF 2023’s Indigenous anthology film We Are Still Here) comes this heartfelt and tuneful underdog story about Mareta, a grieving Samoan teacher who finds a new lease on life and connection to community when she forms a student choir at a wealthy school. (d: Miki Magasiva (Māori) c: Anapela Polataivao, Antonia Robinson, Beulah Koale, Aotearoa New Zealand 2024, 125 min)

4th World Media Lab

We are also pleased to announce this year's cohort of 4th World Media Lab fellows. The 4th World Media Lab is a year-long traveling fellowship for emerging and mid-career Indigenous filmmakers, providing opportunities to develop filmmaking skills and networks through festival participation, hands-on training, master classes, workshopping projects in development, pitch activities, and meetings with funders and other industry decision-makers rooted in cultural and community care.

Date: April 18, 2025
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