Sundance 2023 #4: Indigenous Films, from Bad Press to Twice Colonized to Murder in Big Horn and beyond.

Seventh Row Podcast

In the fourth episode of the Sundance 2023 podcast season, we discuss the North American films by and about Indigenous Peoples at the festival, including Twice Colonized, Bad Press, Murder in Big Horn, and Fancy Dance.

Click here to read the episode show notes.

You will also find an AI-generated transcript in the show notes.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:05 Why are we discussing Indigenous films at Sundance?
• 14:11 Fancy Dance is our favourite Indigenous film at Sundance
• 14:54 Murder in Big Horn
• 31:00 Twice Colonized
• 41:13 Bad Press
• 49:26 The trend of an Indigenous filmmaker and a settler filmmaker co-directing
• 57:58 Indigenous films at Sundance set outside of North America: Heroic, Sorcery, Against the Tide

More about the episode

In this episode, we discuss Indigenous Films at Sundance: films directed or co-directed by Indigenous people as well as a couple of films about Indigenous people but directed by settlers. We kick off with our favourite Indigenous film at the festival, Fancy Dance, about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) which we already went deep on in episode 3.

We then dig into the disappointing documentary miniseries Murder in Big Horn (dir. Razelle Benally who is Oglala Lakota/Diné and Matthew Galkin), which looks at MMIWG in the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Nations. The Sundance miniseries Murder in Big Horn is told through the lens of an Indigenous investigative journalist looking into the case and uses the tropes of true crime. We talk about the often thoughtful but inchoate Twice Colonized, which was directed by a settler The film Twice Colonized follows the wonderful Inuk lawyer Aaju Peter (who also appears in Angry Inuk).

Next, we talk briefly about another disappointing Sundance US Indigenous film, a documentary co-directed by an Indigenous director, Bad Press (dir. Muscogee filmmaker Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler), about the Mvskoke Media in the Muscogee Creek Nation navigating gaining and then losing and then trying to regain their status as free press. We also touch briefly on Fox Maxy's New Frontiers experimental film.

Finally, we briefly discuss Heroic, a World Dramatic Competition film about an Indigenous character and mention the other World Cinema films that are about (but not made by) Indigenous people.

About the Sundance 2023 season

This is the fourth episode of our new podcast season on the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on the 2023 Sundance podcast season and coverage on the website.

Sundance 2023 runs from January 19-28, and we'll be covering this year's festival in a new podcast season about the films this year and how the programming fits into the festival's history. This is Seventh Row's second podcast season (the first was on Women at Cannes in 2022).

Become a Member

All of our episodes that are over 6 months old are available to members only.

We also regularly record members only episodes.

To get full access to the podcast, including episodes from past Sundance Film Festivals and past Sundance films, become a member.

How to follow our Sundance 2023 coverage

Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on the 2023 Sundance podcast season and coverage on the website.

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter and Instagram @SeventhRow; Alex Heeney @bwestcineaste on Twitter and Instagram; and Orla Smith @orlamango on Twitter and @orla_p_smith on Instagram.

Show Notes About the Sundance 2023 season

This is the thid episode of our new podcast season on the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on the 2023 Sundance podcast season and coverage on the website.

Sundance 2023 runs from January 19-28, and we'll be covering this year's festival in a new podcast season about the films this year and how the programming fits into the festival's history. This is Seventh Row's second podcast season (the first was on Women at Cannes in 2022).

Sundance 2023 Bingo

Because the festival loves to program films by slot and quota, we are also introducing our annual Sundance Bingo Card, which you can download here. Play along during the festival (or look at past festival editions and the films you've caught which screened there). You can find this year's bingo card in the show notes on our website.

In each expisode we'll track our progress on the Bingo card, individuall and as a Seventh Row team.

Become a Member

All of our episodes that are over 6 months old are available to members only.

We also regularly record members only episodes.

To get full access to the podcast, including episodes from past Sundance Film Festivals and past Sundance films, become a member.

How to follow our Sundance 2023 coverage

Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on the 2023 Sundance podcast season and coverage on the website.

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter and Instagram @SeventhRow; Alex Heeney @bwestcineaste on Twitter and Instagram; and Orla Smith @orlamango on Twitter and @orla_p_smith on Instagram.

Show Notes

• Explore our archive of interviews with Indigenous filmmakers.
• Listen to the third episode of our Sundance 2023 podcast season, in which we discuss Erica Tremblay’s film Fancy Dance.
• Listen to the podcast Finding Cleo on CBC Radio.
• Read our interview with Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers on her film Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy.
• Read our interview with Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn on The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, in which they discuss their collaboration. Then listen to our four-person masterclass with the pair and Mouthpiece collaborators Norah Sadava and Amy Nostbakken.
• Read our interview with Sonia Boileau on her film Rustic Oracle, which is about the issue Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
• Read our interview with director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril on Angry Inuk, her documentary about seal hunting.
• Listen to our last podcast season, which discussed the history of women filmmakers at the Cannes film festival.
• Discover all of our past podcast episodes on films that screened at Sundance.

Related episodes

At Seventh Row, we have a long-standing interest in covering Indigenous Films from around the world, with a special focus on films produced in Canada. In this episode, we reference any great Indigenous films and creatives that we've discussed on previous episodes. If you'd like to learn more about Indigenous filmmaking, we recommend checking these out.

• Ep. 131: Remembering Jeff Barnaby (FREE). The great Mi'gmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby passed away last year. We paid tribute to his enormous influence on Indigenous filmmaking, Canadian cinema, and the filmmaking industry more broadly through his work and activism. We also discuss his short films and two feature Rhymes for Young Ghouls and Blood Quantum, and why they have had such a lasting impact.
• Ep. 126: Run Woman Run (also featuring a discussion of Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy) (FREE, soon becoming Members Only). We discuss the Indigenous film Run Woman Run. The film is the second feature from director Zoe Leigh Hopkins. It's a coming-of-age at 30+ story about an Indigenous woman and mother who must learn to care for herself after getting a diabetes diagnosis. We also talk about Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers's documentary Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy. In this episode, we discuss how Murder In Big Hornlacks the empathy for its subjects that we see in The Meaning of Empathy.
• Ep. 62 and 63: Indigenous YA part 1 and Indigenous YA part 2 (in which we discuss Rustic Oracle) (Members Only): We discuss a number of Indigenous YA films out of Canada, including the MMIWG films Rustic Oracle.
• Ep. 120: David Gulpilil: Remembering his work in Charlie’s Country and beyond (FREE, soon becoming Members Only): The great Australian Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil passed away in 2021. We began 2022 with a tribute to his work and legacy.
• Ep. 38: Australian westerns and True History of the Kelly Gang (in which we discuss Sweet Country) (Members Only): We discuss how Aboriginal filmmaker Warwick Thornton upends colonial tropes in the Australian Western with his film Sweet Country (which screened at Sundance!). We look at the film in context with some contemporary settler Australian Westerns.