Visual artist Shelley Niro, a Mohawk woman and member of the Six Nations Reserve, Turtle Clan, showed several of her films on October 17 in the Science Center Auditorium. Niro, whose photography is now on display in the "Native Perspectives" exhibit in the Emerson Gallery, presented two short experimental films and clips from two longer films. Her films presented Native people in a variety of ways, sometimes humorously and other times very seriously, and her style encompassed both experimental and more conventional narrative-style films.
Niro introduced her films saying that when she was growing up in the 1950s there was very little representation of Native people on television or in films, so when she began filmmaking in her 40s after already becoming a successful photographer, she wanted to present more Native people on screen. She has since produced eight films and videos and is currently working on several film projects including a feature length film and a television pilot. Her films have been shown at numerous places including the Museum of Modern Art, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Red Earth Festival where she won many prizes, including best director, for her film, "Honey Moccasin." The first film clip Niro showed was a 12-minute clip from "Honey Moccasin" (1997), a film that she described as a depiction of the many subgroups within the larger Native group.
Many of the subgroups are stereotyped within the community, Niro said, so in her humorous film she tried to be inclusive of all the groups and to "fight stereotyping the [already] stereotyped" Native community. In the film, the Native community's powwow gear is missing so the community must decide what to do without it. Niro commented that she used this idea as a metaphor to present the issue of cultural loss in the Native community: although the Native community has lost many cultural traditions, she believes that the community members still have powerful minds and imaginations. She described her film as an attempt to be playful.
The second film presented was "The Shirt" (2003), which Niro made for the Indian Arts Alliance. This serious yet ironic experimental film addresses the sad history of the Native populations since the European colonization of North America. Niro said that she was inspired to create "The Shirt" by flying over land that was all compartmentalized and divided by fences and property lines. Niro said that the film, in which a brief, grim summary of the tragic Native history is projected on a Native woman's t-shirt, is also a criticism of the Canadian government's decision to sign a treaty giving free health care and other benefits to Native people. She explained that these benefits are not real benefits since the Canadian government provides them to all Canadian citizens anyway.
Next, Niro presented her film "Tree," another experimental film, depicting a Native woman in traditional dress with images of both the natural and urban world. Finally, she showed a humorous clip from "Sweet Indian," a narrative film. The clip from "Sweet Indian" included two comical dance numbers with Native people dancing to unlikely song choices with war paint, fake tomahawks and canoe props.
After presenting these clips and films, Niro answered the audience's questions, explaining that she intends her films to speak particularly to Native people, but also to resonate with non-Natives. In response to whether she felt her work addressed issues related to her status as a woman, Niro explained that her work has a particularly feminist point-of-view, but that she has been working recently to include more Native men.
A reception followed Niro's talk in the Emerson Gallery, where her photography will be displayed through December 30.
-- by Laura Oman '07
