Switzerland / Germany / USA,
1991, 104 min
Shown in 1992
CREDITS
- dir
-
James Danaqyumtewa, Agnes Barmettler, Anka Schmid
- scr
-
James Danaqyumtewa, Agnes Barmettler, Anka Schmid
- cam
-
Anka Schmid, Jurg V. Walther
- editor
-
Anka Schmid, Inge Schneider
- source
-
Mano Production
-
COMMENTS
James Danaqyumtewa in person.
OTHER
Realizing that their culture is on the brink of disappearing, partly as a result of assimilation, partly because of the death of those who have sustained the tribe's oral tradition, the elders from the Hopi village of Hotevilla decided to make a record of their life that could be passed on to their children and to the world. The film is a collaboration between a 74-year-old Hopi filmmaker, a Swiss artist and a young Swiss filmmaker. It chronicles the quasi-genocidal impact that the interference of the American government has had on the Hopis. By documenting their suffering, including eviction from their homeland, starvation, imprisonment and exile, Techqua Ikachi paints a picture of incredible endurance and resistance against overwhelming odds on the part of a people who have steadfastly refused to give up their land and way of life. Today the pervasive intrusion of American mass culture makes the continued existence of the Hopi lifestyle problematic. It will be a tremendous tragedy if it disappears, but the filmmakers have provided an inestimable service by cinematically preserving an entire people's life and history.
—Geoffrey Gilmore, Sundance Film Festival
FACTOID #300
When she attended the 1980 San Francisco International Film Festival for a tribute, Federico Fellini’s wife and muse Giulietta Masina, admitted that she accepted a bit part in the American film The Madwoman of Chaillot (despite the fact that she could not speak English) just so she could get costar Katherine Hepburn’s autograph.
