Also in residence was Sonia Fritz, a Puerto Rican filmmaker, who introduced three of her films and spoke about the state of Puerto Rican women in film. Continued support from the U.S. Department of Education and the Mellon Foundation for this annual event has made it possible for the Duke-UNC Program to share aspects of Latin American everyday life and popular culture with hundreds of people across our state. In addition, the Outreach Office purchased thirteen of the videos used in the festival with Title VI funds. Indigenous Cultural Preservation and Political Action through Film This year marked the beginning of the second decade of the festival. And for such an occasion the festival celebrated indigenous cultural preservation and political action as the main focus of the presentations.
Indigenous communities are in a constant struggle against the forces of so-called modern powers.
In this year's festival we commemorated these cultures by presenting various films and videos by Indigenous mediamakers of today. One such mediamaker, Caimi Waiass from the Brazilian Amazon attended the presentations the first three nights of the festival. You have to be curious from 1996 deals specifically with the introduction of video documentation and the effects it has had on his village. The first three nights of the Festival comprised entirely of documentaries by Indigenous mediamakers from Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and Brazil. These documentaries came directly from New York where they were premiered at the Tenth Annual Native American Film and Video Festival held at the National Museum of the American Indian.