♪ [bold drums] ♪ ♪ [traditional vocalizing] ♪ ♪ ♪ Ariel: Welcome to Native Shorts presented by Sundance Institute's Indigenous Program.

I'm Ariel Tweto.

Bird: And, I'm Bird Runningwater.

Ariel: And, today's episode is gonna be pretty awesome!

Bird: Yes.

Ariel: I think it's gonna be super cool because, one, it's in Alaska!

Bird: Yes!

Your part of the world.

Ariel: Aleuts!

I'm not Aleut, but I know some Aleuts and they're pretty cool.

Bird: Apparently, this film is set on an island out between Alaska and Russia.

Which, seems kind of like an interesting space because couldn't Sarah Palin see Russia from her house, or something?

Ariel: So, she says!

(laughter) I could see Russia from my house!

Bird: Your former governor!

Ariel: Yeah!

But, the Aleutian Islands are this huge, huge, huge chain of islands and it is somewhere between Alaska and Russia.

But I mean, you have that cold.

You have all the winds.

Bird: Yeah.

Ariel: I mean, it's just that really intense rugged- like, not scary.

But, you have to be a tough person to live there.

Bird: Yeah.

Ariel: And, it breeds an interesting- Bird: Tough weather.

Ariel: Tough weather, and tough people.

Bird: Wow!

Alright.

I couldn't cut it.

Ariel: Yeah?

(he laughs) I was gonna say 'ehhh?'

No!

(laughs) Bird: Well, our filmmaker today is Sky Hopinka who belongs to the Ho-Chunk, and Pechanga band of Luiseño tribes.

He's a really interesting guy, you know?

He grew up in the Pacific Northwest where he studied this indigenous trade language called Chinuk Wawa.

So, he studied that.

He speaks that.

He studied his own Ho-Chunk indigenous language, as well.

So, he kind of uses language as the foundation for his approach to place and story.

Ariel: Well, it's interesting that you say he's an interesting person because this film is very interesting, too.

You'll have a lot of, like, "what?

What's that mean?"

moments.

Bird: Yeah.

I don't want to give too much away.

Ariel: Yeah, me neither.

Bird: Let's let our audience watch it.

Ariel: Okay.

Bird: So, here is "Visions of an Island" by Sky Hopinka.

[breezy wind blowing] [birds squawking] ♪ [chimes/percussion] ♪ ♪ ♪ [chimes/percussion] ♪ ♪ ♪ [choir singing] ♪ ♪ [choir singing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [choir singing] ♪ ♪ [choir singing] ♪ ♪ [singing fades] (throaty bird calls) [chirping bird calls] - I gotta see what it is, what I'm out going to see.

(chuckling) How can I talk about it now?

Gregory: Got it.

Go ahead.

Okay?

My name is Gregory Fratis Se nior, and I'm from Saint Paul.

I've lived all my life in Saint Paul.

I'm fluent with the Aleut language.

What I'm assuming I'm seeing is hills.

Every hill that you see has a name.

Had an English name, but now they're all Aleut.

Even the sea, you see there.

The birds, the mammals, everything is all now in Unangam Tunuu.

So when I say Unangam Tunuu, it's Aleut language.

Gregory: It was named probably by the Russians and everything, you know?

Maybe it was them who named it and then the Americans came in.

So, they translated the Russian.

And, I don't know what we called it.

That Russian I don't think is of any importance.

It's the cliffs that's going down.

It's very high.

You look down, you get dizzy.

I called it (pronounced) iigunaatuuk, "a big cliff".

It's very high and everything.

(waves crashing) Yeah, you see down.

It would probably be- you see the birds from there.

If they're near sea level, near the water, they look only about 6 inches!

(he chuckles) That's how high that cliff is.

(birds chirping) So this hill, right straight down to sea level and it's just full of birds where there's various amounts.

We have millions of them nesting on the cliffs.

We have the kittiwake, (birds squawk) and we have two species of murres.

(voices talking over each other) But, we have land birds which you see on the land here: longspur, the snipes, the different species.

(birds singing) [clattering] [TV voices murmuring] [clattering] (TV voices murmuring) (people laughing) (speaking Aleut language) (group conversing in Aleut language) (group laughing) [conversation in Aleut language continues] [conversation in Aleut language continues] [static] [breezy wind blowing] Gregory: I would say-?

I would say... (speaks Aleut language) Okay?

I saw a lot of seals from Northeast Point to Halfway Point.

They covered all that.

That's big!

That's a "big distance", (pronounced) awuunakuu.

I think they compare of the places you know.

I know Northeast Point, and I know how far it is to Halfway Point.

And, that whole area is covered with seals.

(Gregory speaks Aleut language) Gregory: It's "full".

So, numbers?

I don't think I ever heard.

It's of what you see, and the area it covers.

I think they use that.

Me?

If I was, saying they're going down, (speaks Aleut language) When I go to (pronounced) Sapani and I observe the seals, the areas where they were, they're not there anymore.

(pronounced) kee-mu-nuk, "it's getting smaller."

Gregory: If you ever visit the island if I'm still here, I'll be glad to tell you about it.

[breezy wind blowing] [birds singing] [breezy wind blowing] ♪ [chimes/percussion] ♪ ♪ ♪ [chimes/percussion] ♪ [chimes fading] [song "This is Romance" playing] VO (sings): ♪ This is romance, ♪ ♪ there's a sky to invite us.

♪ ♪ And a moon to excite us, ♪ ♪ yet you turn from my kiss.

♪ ♪ This is romance, ♪ ♪ it's a moment of splendor.

♪ ♪ Yet you fail to surrender ♪ ♪ to a night such as this.

♪ [loud ATV puttering] ♪ Enchanted my heart.

♪ ♪ But will the magic of your love ♪ ♪ be granted my heart?

♪ [ATV motor puttering] [breezy wind blowing] [breezy wind blowing] [breezy wind blowing] ♪ [soft percussion] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [seal growling] Gregory: I love this beautiful island, my island.

If you ever saw it, I'm pretty sure you would have the same feeling.

[bird sings/seal growls] (footsteps on wood planks) (plodding footsteps) ♪ [lush symphonic strings] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [trumpet/lush strings] ♪ ♪ ♪ [old-time waltz music] ♪ ♪ VO (sings): ♪ Don't know why ♪ ♪ there's no sun up in the sky.

♪ ♪ Stormy weather.

♪ ♪ Since my gal and I- ♪ Ariel: I told you there was a lot going on!

I have so many questions!

(he chuckles) Aw, like- okay.

So, why is some of it filmed upside down?

Why is some of the words all jumbled together, and like talking over?

The music?

Bird: Yeah?

Ariel: It was just- I didn't?

It just seems like 'why is that music playing?'

But, yeah.

So, do you know any of those answers?

Bird: Well?

You know, sometimes when you watch a film it's like you end up with so many questions, and you're impacted in such a particular way because of the choices of storytelling.

Right?

So, there's visual imagery.

There's framing.

There's layered imagery.

There's inverted imagery combined with sound textures.

And, I think one of the things that, I think, as indigenous filmmakers that most of our community I think should embrace, and really do embrace, is this idea of sound.

Sound, and visual impact.

But, sound specifically.

Because, we come from these oral traditions.

Nothing we ever had was historically written down, right?

So, we rely upon the aural thing- Ariel: Yeah.

Bird: of listening and hearing.

And, I feel like the music choices he makes- they're kind of seen as transitions between places that he goes on this little island.

And also, I find them a bit transcendent.

Ariel: Yeah.

Like, some of it was tribal but then you get into some that seems like European/French type?

Bird: Yeah.

Ariel: Sort of like eerie- Bird: Yeah.

Ariel: things, and so that sort of got me.

But then, you talk about sound.

So, silence- Bird: Yeah.

Ariel: that plays into it, too, because I was wondering why- instead of asking the questions verbally or orally, they would just write it down?

Bird: Yeah.

Ariel: So, that's just another choice that- Bird: Yeah.

Sky is... Well?

He studied film.

He studied experimental film.

But also he's considered what you call an "essay filmmaker" which is basically like this nebulous form of storytelling that's really being embraced by specific doc-makers, experimental filmmakers, who really- they exist within a particular world, and they film things from their particular perspective.

But in Sky's case, because he kind of roots some of his films in a place but also the indigenous language of a place.

Like, he's also really respecting the boundaries, I feel like, of the community.

Like, this particular Aleut community.

We're gonna see another piece by him down the road later in the program where he's traveling with his dad, and his dad is speaking Ho-Chunk.

Ariel: OK. Bird: And, you know, he works with language just wants its place.

But he uses silence, he uses text- Ariel: Yeah.

Bird: in a really interesting way.

And then, he also uses like you said, silence; these pregnant pauses which really give you contemplative moments- Ariel: Yeah, it's like time to think.

Bird: which I think are important.

Ariel: Yeah.

What about the moment when they're in the living room?

Bird: Yeah!

Ariel: To me, that seemed just like 'now, what is this?'

Bird: Well, I kind of felt like the imagery is so obstructed.

Right?

I kind of feel like it's quite dark.

But also, the backstory behind this particular elder man who's kind of telling the story, being asked the questions, he's apparently a fluent speaker.

He's also a teacher of the language, and all the others that he's conversing with are learning the language.

Ariel: Okay!

Bird: Yeah.

And so, he's kind of testing them about their use of the language and how to say things.

Questions and answers.

Ariel: Even though, I didn't- we didn't see the old man, the elder that was talking, I fell in love with him.

Bird: I know!

Ariel: Because he has the cutest voice!

Bird: Yeah.

Ariel: And, he's nostalgic.

Like, he felt like a grampa.

Like, I just want to hug him even though I don't know who he is.

But, yeah!

I really liked his voice and it just sucks you in.

Bird: And, there's also this kind of space that I feel like, with essay filmmaking/doc-making, that a lot of indigenous filmmakers are starting to really- kind of a practice they're starting to employ which is just really respecting boundaries.

Which, is something that ethnographic filmmaking "historically" didn't to us, you know?

An anthropological perspective?

And so, he goes into these spaces but he also really respects the cultural and linguistic, and intellectual kind of boundaries that the world and his subjects are giving him.

But, at the same time, he makes the world seem so expansive and endless because of his visual treatment, and his use of the music, the sound, and the inverted imagery.

Ariel: Yeah!

Bird: It's kind of got a metaphysical feel to it.

Ariel: It does.

Now, I want to watch it again!

Bird: I know!

Ariel: Speaking of watching it again, though?

Bird: Let's do it.

Ariel: How could our audience watch it again?

Bird: Well, we could look at the app which is now available online.

You can download it onto your phone, or-?

Ariel: Or, your beeper!

Bird (laughs): Your flip phone!

Ariel: Or, store anything.

Or, you could get on your computer and go to www.FNX.org/nativeshorts, and watch it as many times as you want on there.

Bird: Yes.

And, you can also research and read more about Sky Hopinka.

You know, he's really been embraced by the art world especially.

He's been at the Whitney Biennual.

He's had pieces acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

So, I would study his work.

He's a really great talent.

Ariel: Cool!

I'm gonna jump on that.

Bird: Alright.

And then, we'll see another piece of his, later on down the road.

Ariel: Cool, cool.

Well, that was fun!

Bird: Alright.

Ariel: Yeah.

We'll see you guys all next time!

Bird: Take care!

♪ [bold drums] ♪ [traditional vocalizing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [vocals fade]