November 2
NDNZ in the City: Multi-media Narratives of American Indian Culture in the Heart of Los Angeles, California
Join us for an evening of talk, short films, photographs, and personal stories from Indigenous multimedia documentarian, Pamela Peters (Navajo). The evening’s event will showcase Peter’s newest film Legacy of Exiled NDNZ and multimedia presentation Real NDNZ re-take Hollywood. Pamela’s work stands against prevalent stereotypes of American Indians in popular culture by pushing viewers to critically analyze the psychological and historical structures of Native American in mass media.
Legacy of Exiled NDNZ discusses the historical US policies of relocation of Indians to urban establishment and the legacy it has created to today. It provides a narrative of seven native adults currently living in Los Angeles. Shot in a neorealist visual aesthetic reminiscent of Kent Mackenzie’s 1961 film, The Exiles, we catch a glimpse of the group of urban Indians living their hopes and dreams in the city.
Real NDNZ re-take Hollywood showcases native adults in photographs to disrupt and decolonize clichéd portrayals of Native actors. The series “re-takes” and creates classic, iconic portraits of 
movies stars of yesteryears by replacing those past film icons with contemporary Native American actors. The project shows real Indian actors in the elegant clothes and iconic poses of James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, Tony Curtis and others from the classic period of Hollywood films – rather than in the buckskin, feathers, and painted faces featured in most Hollywood films of Indians.
Pamela J. Peters 