There’s a story in Tulalip culture about a young girl making her first cedar basket. The story tells how the cedar tree has her remake the basket four times, until finally the boughs are woven tightly enough for the basket to hold water.
That story is being brought to life by participants in the Tulalip Filmmaking Institute. The film will be shown at the 2nd Annual Tulalip Film Festival on Friday.
The film was shot entirely in Lushootseed, the native language, but has English subtitles.
The script was created by experienced filmmakers for participants to follow as they learned the ins and outs of editing film and audio.
Film and audio clips for the story were pre-recorded for participants, making the focus on arranging the material to tell the story as they envisioned it.
Even still, the process of creating a film challenged the people going through the institute.
“Oh, my brain hurts,” Ginny Ramos said of what she’d learned in the class.
Ramos works for the Tulalip Boys &Girls Club. She took the workshop to educate herself on film, something she can use with the multimedia club at the Boys &Girls Club.
Having Tulalip youth involved in positive projects, such as the multimedia club, keeps them off the streets and out of trouble, Ramos said.
Participants were split into two groups, each responsible for creating its own version of the story. Each group considered each idea for choosing a clip or arranging film sequences.
Charles Sneatlum took time off from his job at the Tulalip Casino to attend the workshop. Sneatlum learned about the class last year, but didn’t sign up in time to take it. His interest in learning about filmmaking is personal, he said.
“I want to make a documentary on fishing rights,” he said.
Sneatlum already has DVD recordings of his father talking about the Tulalip tribes and their history. Preserving the history and the language of his people is important, Sneatlum said.
Robin Carneen, coordinator for the institute, said that storytelling is second nature in the American Indian culture. Though participants weren’t experienced using film editing software, they had little trouble in making their films.
“We teach through storytelling,” Carneen said. “If we don’t preserve these stories they’re going to be lost forever.”
There are two benefits to sharing American Indian culture with the general public, Careen said. One, it gives American Indians an opportunity to show their people through their own eyes. Two, it reeducates the public about the culture and people.
“It’s been too much John Wayne, and not enough ‘Smoke Signals,’” Carneen said, referring to the 1998 movie written by Spokane/Coeur d’Aelene Indian author Sherman Alexie.
Movies such as “Smoke Signals” really opened a door for American Indian artists, she said. Films now have bravado in telling the truth about everything from alcoholism to traditional culture, Carneen continued.
Holding workshops such as Tulalip’s gets Carneen excited about the future of American Indian storytellers.
“We really need to light a passion inside of them,” she said. “There’s just not enough of us out there.”
Reporter Jasa Santos: 425-339-3465 or jsantos@heraldnet.com.
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