04/27/2021
Sky Hopinka's MaĹni â Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore is a New York Times top pick, and we are screening it!! Catch it to celebrate this Earth Day, or through the moody next couple days to come. Tickets and info at nwfilmforum.org/calendar
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An essential portrait of contemporary Indigenous life that resists the touristic gaze, âMaĹni â Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore,â the debut feature from the Ho-Chunk artist and filmmaker Sky Hopinka, isnât too concerned with whether we fully understand the traditions and rituals it entrancingly commits to screen. It refreshingly centers the Native perspective, and beckons audiences onto its wavelength by tapping into something more intuitive, the stuff of dreams.
âYou donât have to say much,â says one of the filmâs two subjects, Sweetwater Sahme, as she leads the filmmaker on a hike through the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, gesturing at the quivering foliage. âItâs a feeling, an energy. And thereâs so much to look at.â
The documentary, anchored in the Chinookan origin-of-death myth (a dialogue between a wolf and a coyote about the afterlife), separately follows two young parents â pregnant Sahme and Jordan Mercier, both friends of Hopinkaâs â as they grapple with questions of legacy and identity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/movies/malni-towards-the-ocean-towards-the-shore-review.html
This ethereal experimental documentary by Sky Hopinka is an essential portrait of contemporary Indigenous life.