6:30 pm | Thursday, April 20th | Lawrence Hall 115
Free and open to the community

Join Cinema Studies and directors Olivia Camfield and Woodrow Hunt for a screening of We Only Answer Our Land Line (2019). Learn how this experimental essay film explores the character of the Alien, non-linear Indigenous experience, and the material specificity of digital video to resist the violence of Settler Colonialism.

Adam Piron, cofounder of the Indigenous film collective COUSIN, will join the directors to discuss how the collective supports Indigenous artists experimenting with and pushing the boundaries of the moving image.

Reception and mingling after the talk.

WE ONLY ANSWER OUR LAND LINE | 2019 | 6 MIN
BY OLIVIA CAMFIELD AND WOODROW HUNT

Olivia Camfield ​​​​​​is a multimedia movement artist of the Muscogee Creek Nation, born and raised in the Texas Hill Country. Their work includes experimental film and movement using horror, sci-fi, and Indigenous Queer Futurism practices in cinematic narratives.

Woodrow Hunt is an artist of Klamath, Modoc and Cherokee descent. Woodrow was born and raised in Portland, OR where he is currently making work. Woodrow's film practice is focused on documentary and experimental forms. Woodrow is a featured artist of COUSIN Collective and was a 2022 Sundance Institute Non-Fiction Intensive Fellow.

6:30 pm | Tuesday, April 25th | Lawrence Hall 177
Free and open to the community

Join Cinema Studies and Adam Piron for a night of screenings and discussion about his multifaceted career as a filmmaker, writer, curator, and community builder. 

We'll screen Piron's short documentary, Halpate (2021), and hear about his work as a member of the Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Programming Team and as director of the Sundance Institute's Indigenous Program. Together, we’ll learn how Piron’s curation of film festivals and community building is amplifying new filmmakers’ voices.

Piron's films have screened in ESPN’s 30 for 30, The New Yorker's Documentary showcase, MoMA Doc Fortnight, MOCA Los Angeles, True/False Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, and various other festivals and programs. In Halpate, Piron profiles members of the Seminole Tribe, who have been publicly wrestling alligators for over a century—risking life and limb to improve the lives of the wrestlers and their people.

Reception and mingling after the talk

HALPATE | 2021 | 14 MIN
BY ADAM PIRON AND ADAM KHALIL
 

The Seminole Tribe has been publicly alligator wrestling for over a century, risking life and limb to improve the lives of the wrestlers and their people.

6:30 pm | Thursday, April 27th | Lawrence Hall 115
Free and open to the community

Join Cinema Studies for a screening of Fox Maxy's GUSH (2023) and a discussion with Adam Piron.

GUSH | 2023 | 71 MIN | Written and Directed by Fox Maxy
An embodied rumination of both male and female power, healing and haunting, all within an apocalyptic world. A transformation that courses through unknown terror to untamed collective joy.

GUSH screened in the 2023 Sundance Film Festival “New Frontier,” which champions artists who engage in experimental storytelling at the crossroads of film, art, performance, and media technology, showcasing cutting-edge work that explores and evolves cinema culture in today’s rapidly changing landscape.
 

“Pieced together from a near decade’s worth of personal archives, Fox Maxy’s GUSH delivers a kaleidoscopic diary of horror and survival. The film flows seamlessly through found footage, documentary sequences, and digital animation as it weaves through a stream-of-consciousness meditation on the impact of sexual violence and healing through collective joy. At first, it is a fiery manifesto on the sovereignty of land and the body, then an ode to the bonds of friendship before morphing into a celebration of what it means to endure. Maxy’s film is a work defiantly without limits, refusing to be categorized. After building a body of work that established her as an artist to watch within the experimental film space, Maxy’s feature film debut is a continuation of her signature freestyle and sumptuous approach to the medium. GUSH blends an intimate collage of personal footage and fixations that — true to its director’s form — creates something like its own cinematic language. It’s a film that speaks to viewers on its own terms and demonstrates the radical possibilities of personal filmmaking.” –Sundance Program Guide

Adam Piron is a filmmaker, writer, and member of the Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Programming Team. He is a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and is Mohawk. He is also the Director of Sundance Institute's Indigenous Program where he oversees the organization's investment in Indigenous filmmakers globally. He is also a filmmaker and co-founder of COUSIN: a film collective dedicated to supporting Indigenous artists experimenting with and pushing the boundaries of the moving image. His films have screened in ESPN’s 30 for 30, The New Yorker's Documentary showcase, MoMA Doc Fortnight, MOCA Los Angeles, True/False Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, and various other festivals and programs.