2020
DECOL
WEEK
NOV 30 - DEC 04
the theme for the final day of our film festival is: “About Storytelling” which focuses on the importance of marginalized people telling their own stories through fiction, non-fiction, film, tv, song, dance and stand-up, or any way that we communicate our subjective experiences with creative nuance. This particular film is about how Native American people have been historically misrepresented in Hollywood media. In the words of the director, Neil Diamond himself, “A documentary about the evolution of the depiction of First Nations people in film, from the silent era to today. Featuring clips from hundreds of films, candid interviews with famous Native and non-Native directors, writers and actors, Reel Injun traces how the image of First Nations people in cinema have influenced the understanding and misunderstanding of their culture and history.” (written by Neil Diamond for IMDB). This film is available for free to any SAIC student at this link.
FILM
OF THE DAY
Reel Injun
PANEL
MARCELLA GILBERT
Marcella (Marcy) Gilbert is the daughter of Madonna Thunder Hawk and a Lakota and Dakota community organizer with a focus on food sovereignty and cultural revitalization. She earned a Master’s Degree in Nutrition and currently works as a Community Development Field Specialist for South Dakota State University Extension on Cheyenne River reservation.
Before moving home to the Cheyenne River reservation, she was the director of Common Grounds Garden for Little Priest Tribal College where she served as the Primary Prevention Coordinator of Whirling Thunder Wellness Program for the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. Gilbert was a 2014 Cohort of the Bush Foundation's Native Nations Rebuilders Program.
V NJOKU
V Njoku is a multi-media artist and educator based in Mexico City, MX & Brooklyn, NY. In addition to her work as a video artist and performer, since 2008 Ms. Njoku has instructed youth and adults in video production and conceptual, social justice-based art.
Ms. Njoku holds a Masters Degree in Art Education from New York University and is licensed through the state of New York as a Visual Arts Instructor for all grades. She has collaborated with a number of non-profit organizations, including the Tribeca Film Institute, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, and Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.
SHELLYNE RODRGUEZ
Shellyne Rodriguez is an artist, educator, writer, and community organizer based in the Bronx. Her practice utilizes text, drawing, painting, collage and sculpture to depict spaces and subjects engaged in strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation. Shellyne graduated with a BFA in Visual & Critical Studies From the School of Visual Arts and an MFA in Fine Art from CUNY Hunter College. She has had her work and projects exhibited at El Museo del Barrio, Queens Museum, New Museum and her work has recently been commissioned by the city of New York for a permanent public sculpture, which will serve as a monument to the people of the Bronx.
MODERATORS
IYOMI HO KEN
Iyomi Ho Ken is a fashion, fibers, and photography artist studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her current work is focused on self, race and the effects of the two. Working primarily through fashion, creating garments that tell a story- while using fibers to communicate through the made fabric, and photography to capture her vision. Using fashion as an art form is the basis of her approach.
HAYLEY MACKENZIE BAIN
Hayley is a Chicago based maker with a Queens based heart. Curator, drafts(wo)man, printmaker and educator with an ever evolving relationship with the museum. She has been a member of the activist group screen printing collective Mobile Print Power since 2016 and a perpetual NEMESISTER. Always learning and forever a work in progress.
CAMILLE BILLIE / KATAHTU'NTHA
My English name is Camille Billie and my Oneida name is Katahtu'ntha (pronounced: guh/duht -- doont/tuh). I'm from the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin and I'm a third year at SAIC. I study designed objects, but my preferred medium is mixed media and fibers. My concentration is indigenous futurism and allowing my roots to influence my expressionist painting and fiber work.