{"id":2449735,"date":"2019-10-10T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=314075"},"modified":"2019-10-10T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T22:00:00","slug":"n-scott-momaday-doc-to-screen-at-shining-mountains-film-festival-in-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/n-scott-momaday-doc-to-screen-at-shining-mountains-film-festival-in-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Scott Momaday doc to screen at Shining Mountains Film Festival in Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Author N. Scott Momaday in the new documentary “N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear.” The film screens Sunday at the Wheeler Opera House’s Shining Mountains Film Festival.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Fifty years ago, when N. Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel \u201cHouse Made of Dawn,\u201d he became the first Native American to win a major literary award and he marked the beginning of a new era for indigenous writers and artists.<\/p>\n

The new documentary \u201cN. Scott Momaday: Words From a Bear,\u201d<\/a> captures the Kiowa writer\u2019s lasting legacy and paints an intimate portrait of his early life and how it shaped his immortal work.<\/p>\n

In the film, Momaday, now 85, recalls receiving the phone call from his editor informing him he\u2019d won the Pulitzer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought she was kidding,\u201d he recalls with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Former Heard Museum director Letita Chambers says the publication and mainstream embrace of \u201cHouse Made of Dawn\u201d was \u201celectrifying for a generation of Native Americans\u201d in the film, which demonstrates how it fueled the Red Power movement, influenced a generation of artists and scholars and the began a more nuanced cultural understanding of indigenous Americans that moved away from the stereotypes perpetuated through generations of white propaganda and decades of cowboy-and-Indian movies and books.<\/p>\n

Momaday\u2019s breakthrough novel \u2013 about a Native American veteran of World War Two struggling to integrate in the U.S. after the war \u2013 took Native American writers out of the folklore section of bookstores and into the literary canon.<\/p>\n

This new documentary is directed by Kiowa filmmaker Jeffrey Palmer, who grew up in a family of competitive powwow dancers steeped in Kiowa history and tradition. Through his Rainy Mountain Films, Palmer aims to make movies about Native American subjects for a wide audience that capture the rich and diverse experience of indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always in the presence of Kiowa elders and listened closely to the stories they told,\u201d Palmer said in his director statement. \u201cTelling the profoundly important story of N. Scott Momaday, therefore, is more than a job for me \u2013 it feels like an important obligation that I owe to my family and my people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWords from a Bear\u201d makes evocative use of Momaday\u2019s writing. The author himself recites his poetry along with sections of \u201cHouse Made of Dawn,\u201d \u201cThe Way to Rainy Mountain\u201d and the memoir \u201cThe Names,\u201d often with the text running across the screen. The film itself carries on the Kiowa oral tradition and innovates upon it,<\/p>\n

using lively animations to illustrate Momaday\u2019s telling of the Kiowa legends of Sitting Bear, Tai-Me and the Seven Sisters.<\/p>\n

The film includes commentary by Momaday\u2019s family, scholars and authors like Joy Harjo and Rilla Askew, who observes of Momaday: \u201cHe\u2019s not just writing to native people. This is the story of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollywood figures like Robert Redford and James Earl Jones also speak to his influence. Beau and Jeff Bridges tell the story of developing a film about the \u201cIndian boarding school\u201d era, for which Momaday wrote an unproduced screenplay about the Carlisle Indian Industrial School defeating West Point in a 1912 football game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords from a Bear\u201d also details Momaday\u2019s early life in Oklahoma, in the wake of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would be considered on the bottom of the scale, in terms of poverty,\u201d Momaday recalls.<\/p>\n

But their life was rich, inspiring his continued work as a writer and painter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting came to be more or less naturally because of my mother, she was a writer,\u201d Momaday says, explaining that he announced at age 8 his intention to be a writer.<\/p>\n

It also depicts Momaday\u2019s stylized portraits and his painting practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cPainting is the other half of my spiritual expression,\u201d Momaday says in the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords from a Bear\u201d premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and will be broadcast on the PBS series \u201cAmerican Masters\u201d next month.<\/p>\n

The film will screen Sunday evening at the Wheeler Opera House\u2019s second annual Shining Mountains Film Festival, showcasing new films by and about Native American and indigenous peoples. Presented by the Aspen Ute Foundation, the Wheeler Opera House and Aspen Film, the festival includes free events all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday along with screenings of 10 new movies.<\/p>\n

The festival coincides with Indigenous People\u2019s Day, which the City of Aspen began officially celebrating \u2014 in place of Columbus Day \u2014 in 2017.<\/p>\n

SHINING OFF-SCREEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the pocket park Wheeler Parcel, beside the historic Wheeler Opera House, the Shining Mountains Film Festival will host free events throughout the festivities Oct. 12 through 14.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s family-friendly activities include storytelling, dancing and songs. Sunday\u2019s and Monday\u2019s include Native American arts and crafts hosted by the Ute Indian Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so thrilled to have so many amazing partnerships that will help enhance Shining Mountains for the community and our native guests as we make the festival an important part of Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day in the Valley,\u201d Wheeler executive director Gena Buhler said in an announcement about free events running through festival.<\/p>\n

In preparation for the event, the Wheeler has installed four large-format paintings in the park by artist Andrew Bolam. The installation of massive six-by-six foot portraits was curated by Valley Fine Art, located around the corner on Mill St.<\/p>\n

Bolam was profiled in this month\u2019s issue of Southwestern Art magazine, in which he explained his move from working in tiny, intricate landscape works to the large-format portraits.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I barely paint under 40 by 40 inches \u2013 that\u2019s a small painting for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI usually like to work 48 by 48 or larger.\u201dOff-site festival events include a sweat lodge ceremony in Carbondale with the Aspen Ute Foundation on Saturday and a free pow wow regalia demonstration by Ci Bradford of the Ute Indian Museum at the Red Brick Center for the Arts on Sunday.<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author N. Scott Momaday in the new documentary “N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear.” The film screens Sunday at the Wheeler Opera House’s Shining Mountains Film Festival.Courtesy photo Fifty years ago, when N. Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel \u201cHouse Made of Dawn,\u201d he became the first Native American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2449735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 17:48:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}