Long Line of Ladies has changed how I see my role as a Diné woman filmmaker and how we can celebrate our way of life from our own perspective, while valuing the lives of communities healing together to create a better future.” Throughout my career, I have questioned why there is a need to frame stories about Indigenous people in detrimental ways for them to be worthy. Our stories have not been written or created by us, demanding conflict and trauma. Historically, Indigenous people in film have been at the whim of our oppressors. “It is a reminder that we are alive, in our fullest purpose, breathing life into the ways that we can be viewed as Native peoples of this land. “This film has served as a vessel of complex and undeniable beauty, defying existing narratives about Indigenous people,” Tome observed. Regarding its Oscar eligibility, a release noted, “If the film were to receive an Academy Award nomination, Tome, who is from the Diné community, would become the first-ever Native American director to be nominated.” It also received the Jenni Berebitsky Legacy Award at the IndyShorts International Film Festival and was recently named to both DOC NYC’s Shorts Shortlist and the Cinema Eye Honors Shorts List for Best Nonfiction Short Film. Long Line of Ladies premiered at Sundance and went on to win top jury prizes at a number of festivals including SXSW, the San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival, qualifying it for Academy Award consideration for Best Documentary Short Film. “The ceremony was held for generations without interruption,” text on screen at the beginning of the film states, “until the violence and destruction brought on by the Gold Rush, where Native American girls and women were victims of sexual violence.” A group of Karuk people revived the tradition in the early 1990s “to once again honor their girls as they transition into womanhood.” “You’re blinded for four days and you’re reflecting on your inner self,” Ahty’s father explains to her about the ceremony, as he hand crafts the feathered blinder. “Then we remove your taáv and you’re reborn as a woman.” But it shows the steps taken by Ahty, her family and community members leading up to the moment she embarks on her journey, symbolically marking her entrance into womanhood. The 22-minute long film doesn’t show the actual ceremony itself – “the filmmakers refrained from filming the event out of respect for the traditions of the community and the privacy of the participants,” according to a release about the film. Warner Bros International Television Production Changes Spain MD Ex-Deluxe Exec Joins AR Platform As CCO For APAC - Global BriefsĪs part of the ceremony, Ahty will fast for three and a half days and wear a taáv, a kind of feathered veil obscuring her sight, for four days.
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