Indians and Chiefs

Filmed over the course of a summer in the mid-60s, Judith MacDougall’s documentary observes the happenings of the workers of the Los Angeles Indian Center, a Native-run organization offering social services and a community hub for the city’s Indigenous community. It centers the center’s director, Ernie Stevens, as he navigates and negotiates with city politicians and a plethora of local personalities in his attempt to organize an art fair for the Center. Largely unseen in over 50 years, the film offers a unique and indispensable look at urban Native American life in the 60s that is ripe for rediscovery and reappraisal, thanks to a new scan of the film’s original print by the UCLA Film and Television Archives.

Preceded by

Do Indians Shave (1975)
Dir. Chris Spotted Eagle
10min

Filmed during New York’s 1972 Easter Parade, filmmaker Chris Spotted Eagle crafts a hilarious documentary formed by interviewing a series of colorful locals on the streets of Manhattan, testing their knowledge of Native Americans and testing their cultural perceptions of Indigenous people.

Curios
Dir. Sandra Osawa
1min

As one of the few Native Americans of UCLA’s L.A. Rebellion film movement, Makah filmmaker Sandra Osawa created her first student film juxtaposing the white objectification of Indigenous human remains displayed in a museum with glimpses of Native campus life on campus in 1970.