The fourth season of the show, "Native Shorts" Presented by Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Films program, which airs on FNX T-V is now in production.
The show focuses on short Indigenous films from around the world.
Bird Runningwater, who is Mescalero Apache and Northern Cheyenne is film curator and host.
He has also worked with Sundance’s Native American and Indigenous Program for more than 20 years.
Host Ariel Tweto is Inupiaq. She connects with the everyday viewer asking questions that the audience might have about the film.
Tweto says they have a lengthy process to choose which episodes air on the show.
“I mean we wanted an array of films or genres, and so they’ll find a horror, a romance, comedy, something very abstract and so we want to get films from all over the place.”
From New Zealand, to Australia, to the Aleutian chains of Alaska, Indigenous filmmakers share stories of their cultures, and ways of life. Tweto says she notices a lot of differences from one continent to the next.
“Just to see how other people live is I think really special. I’ve learned a lot just about different cultures from around the world. I think that’s really cool. Different ways of storytelling, how someone in New Zealand tells a story a lot different than someone say from Finland, and it’s cool to see the diversity.”
But she also says there are similarities there as well.
“There’s a lot of cultural similarities. At the end of the day, human beings, we want love, it seems like a sense of purpose, and then to feel connected to your community or your family, and I feel like that’s just across the spectrum in any culture.”
Tweto says Native Shorts is a great platform to showcase short films, when in the past, it was only shown at film festivals
“It’s so cool that we get to showcase the short films because there’s not really a -platform for short films after festivals. Usually if it’s not in a festival, it’s just, I don’t even know where it goes, so this is just a really cool opportunity for us to showcase all these amazing indigenous filmmakers and actors and actresses. I’ve learned about different cultures from around the world.”
One thing Tweto noticed through the progression of the seasons, is the use of more Indigenous fashion, and jewelry.
“This season is a lot more film and fashion. And so, we hired a lot of more indigenous artists and designers. So our jewelry is all made by indigenous people, our outfits, but it’s so fun. It’s just a big playground for Bird and I to get dolled up for a while.”
Production of this season will wrap up on November 14th, with the series premier on November 30th at 8pm on FNX.
