Co-presented with the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum

Friday & Saturday, November 4-5, 8pm
A Good Day to Die
A Good Day to Die chronicles a movement that started a revolution and inspired a nation. By recounting the life story of Dennis Banks, the Native American who co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 to advocate and protect the rights of American Indians, the film provides an in-depth look at the history and issues surrounding AIM’s formation. From the forced assimilation of Native Americans within boarding schools, to discrimination by law enforcement authorities, to neglect by government officials responsible for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, AIM sought redress for the many grievances that its people harbored. Banks’ personal struggle culminated in major armed confrontations at Custer, South Dakota and Wounded Knee — climactic flash points which saw him standing steadfast as a leader for his cause. Bittersweet and compelling, A Good Day to Die charts the rise and fall of a movement that fought for the civil rights of American Indians.

Directors: David Mueller & Lynn Salt 2010 USA 92min. NR digital

 Website

Screens with

Red Earth Rising (work-in-progress trailer)
Red Earth Rising is a feature-length documentary about Native resistance to revisionist history. Set in Oklahoma during its100th year of statehood, cannons fire, drum rolls sound, and the clacking of hooves and wooden wagon wheels clamor through towns and cities in a theatrical display of Oklahoma’s colonial past. As this giant centennial birthday party overtakes streets and public school yards with heroic tales of settler conquest, an intertribal coalition of American Indians–fed up with white-washed history–bands together to find a collective voice, a spirit of resistance and power in numbers. Along their journey, they encounter deep-seated racism, public ignorance and historical trauma from the not-so-distant past. But through it all, a new Native movement emerges that embraces red history as it “stakes its claim” on the Oklahoma landscape.

Director: Erin McCarley
Producer: Juan Diaz
Trailer running time: 9min.