Through a collaboration between KSUT Tribal Radio and the Durango Independent Film Festival, KSUT was able to bring a special screening of two native films, “Shiloh” and “Power Lines”, to the Ignacio Community free of charge.
Ignacio residents took advantage of the free screening on Tuesday, Feb. 28 watching both the Documentary Short and feature length film before they screen this weekend at the Durango Film Festival. Both directors were also in attendance and held Q & A sessions with the public.
The first film shown was “Shiloh”. A documentary short directed by Mark D. Williams about a Native female boxer Shiloh “Shy” LeBeau as she competes for the 2016 Ringside World Championship. The audience is taken on a journey through LeBeau’s life in Lawrence, Kansas where she trains at the Haskell Boxing Club. LeBeau, Diné and Sans Arc Lakota Sioux of the Cheyenne River Tribe, shows us how she trains and stays motivated even as she faces adversities in her day-to-day life as a working mother pursuing her dream. LeBeau’s story serves as an inspiration to all Natives showing them that having a strong work ethic, discipline and belief in oneself can take them places they had never before imagined.
Director, Williams said he got the idea for the documentary from being friends with LeBeau on Facebook and following her boxing matches.
“I seen on Facebook that she just won a title … it was a story I wanted to tell,” he said, “It’s important we have inspiration in the native community.”
You can catch “Shiloh” screening again this weekend on Saturday, March 4 at noon at the Gaslight Twin Cinema.
Next up, was “Power Lines”, directed by Klee Benally. The full-length feature takes us on a journey with a teenage poet Halee, a Diné relocation refugee, who runs away from home to escape her abusive father. The young poet shares her stories and views through a number of poems she writes and performs that address social and environmental injustices. Halee is joined by her friend on a suspenseful journey that leads them to Halee’s homeland where she finds out a secret her father has been hiding from her.
Director, Klee Benally said “Power Lines” took him eight years to write and that he made the film to tell a story about the relocation of Natives that is still happening today as well as telling the story of environmental and social injustices.
You can catch “Power Lines” screening again this weekend on Saturday, March 4 at 5:30 p.m. at Stadium 9.