In the post-Standing Rock era of increased Native visibility, Indigenous artists influenced by personal backgrounds and intergenerational experiences are creating an explosive awakening. Bursting with thought-provoking and genre-defying explorations, Imagining Indigenous Cinema: New Voices, New Visions spotlights a generation of innovative, Indigenous filmmakers working with the moving image today.

In recent years, a shift in on-screen narratives has moved beyond the need to prove Indigenous survival and existence to films that challenge prior rhetoric. This new era of filmmakers shifts the needle from a reactionary storytelling practice towards proactive methods of world-building. Themes of post-colonial resilience, re-matriation of cultures and traditions, explorations of land-based relationships, criticism of the institutional and socio-political settler state and celebrations of Indigenous queer joy are exhibited in vibrant embodiments of time-based art. By crafting narratives that center their own stories and culture, these filmmakers establish new forms of Indigenous cinematic expression and envision Indigenous futures. Their work offers inspiring new possibilities that resist dominant representations and actively Indigenize the medium.

Imagining Indigenous Cinema features over 40 films showcasing short and feature-length film and video work made by Indigenous artists creating on and with the land base currently known as the United States and the Indigenous Nations within.