Environmental Film Festival!
National Museum of the American Indian Hosts Environmental Film Festival —
[Mar. 13]
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is one of the most interesting museums in downtown Washington, DC — and a pioneer cultural center that works to emphasize a lifestyle that is green. The museum staff will be hosting filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro for the U.S. première of Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change—the world’s first Inuktitut-language documentary on the topic— Sunday, March 27, at 2 p.m. in the circular museum’s Rasmuson Theater.
According to museum workers, “this groundbreaking documentary captures the voices of those who are often overlooked in the discussion on climate change: the indigenous communities that are disproportionately affected by it. Inuit elders recall observations and customs passed down through centuries of storytelling and how their traditional ways of life are threatened by a warming Arctic. Their insight challenges mainstream accounts and reveals why climate change has become a human-rights issue for Native people.”
The new movie screening will be broadcast simultaneously online at www.isuma.tv, an independent network of Native and Inuit media, and at AmericanIndian.si.edu/webcasts. Film makes will be online and available to answer viewers questions.
The Smithsonian museum press release shared the following details about the upcoming eco friendly special event:
Inuit Knowledge will also open the 15th annual Native American Film + Video Festival at the museum’s Manhattan branch, the George Gustav Heye Center.
The festival, which runs from Thursday, March 31, to Sunday, April 3, celebrates the creative energy of Native American directors, producers, writers, actors, musicians, cultural activists and all the others who support their endeavors.
This year’s festival will focus on the theme of “Mother Earth in Crisis,” and will feature more than 100 participants from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Suriname and the United States.
For more infromation on the festival, e-mail FVC@si.edu.
For more infromation on any of the American Indian Museum’s spring programs, visit www.AmericanIndian.si.edu. While you are there visiting on any other day of the year, plan to visit their cafeteria restaurant for lunch. It is one of the best kept Washingtonian secrets in Washington DC that foodies who like ethnic cuisine frequent.
The chefs at the American Indian Museum offer a wide variety of specialty dishes unique to various American Indian tribes, all prepared with fresh local foods. Whether you enjoy fry bread, buffalo tacos, or any other wonderful side dish featuring all organic veggies like fresh sweet corn, vine ripened tomatoes, or ripe summer melons, you are sure to enjoy the ambiance of gazing out through expansive windows at the flowing river that surrounds the museum while enjoying a green lunch that is also a tasty treat.