Renowned experimental filmmaker Sky Hopinka joins us for a screening of his short films followed by a discussion with the artist and Dr. Ryan Conrath, Salisbury University professor and film programmer. Conceived in connection to Diné artist Will Wilson’s portraits of Native American people on view in the exhibition In Praise of Shadows, the program examines representations of Indigenous people and worldviews in art and film.
Generously supported by Art Bridges
Schedule:
- Wawa (2014, 6 min.): Featuring speakers of Chinuk Wawa, an Indigenous language from the Pacific Northwest, this film explores issues of cultural identity, language, and history.
- Kunįkága Remembers Red Banks, Kunįkága Remembers the Welcome Song (2014, 9 min.): Recollections of Hopinka’s grandmother narrate this atmospheric exploration of Red Banks, a pre-contact Hočąk village site near present day Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the site of Jean Nicolet’s landing, who in 1634 was the first European in present day Wisconsin.
- Jáaji Approx. (2015, 7.5 min.): This film examines the generational divide between Hopinka and his father through their ancestral language, Hočąk, which father still knows better than son.
- When you’re lost in the rain (2018, 5 min.): Bob Dylan’s song about listlessness and exhaustion, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” acts as a soundtrack to this film that reflects on the peculiar impulses that drive the American pioneer spirit.
- Mnemonics of Shape and Reason (2021, 4 min.): Images of real and imagined landscapes set to layers of recorded audio, poetic text, and music, evoke the spiritual implications of colonial plunder and a deep connection to the land.
Sky Hopinka is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. He received a BA from Portland State University and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Film and Electronic Arts Program at Bard College. His work has been shown at many film festivals and exhibited at the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester, Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hopinka is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and a descendent of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.