2017 Conference Speakers

Amalia Córdova

is a filmmaker, curator, and scholar specializing in indigenous film. She is the Latino Curator for Digital and Emerging Media at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. For over a decade, she was a Latin American program specialist for the Film + Video Center of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. She has served as Assistant Director of New York University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and teaches at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She has juried at indigenous film festivals, has co-directed three documentary shorts, and co-produces Urban Indians, a web-series. Her publications include essays in New Documentaries in Latin America (2014), Film Festival Yearbook 4: Film Festivals and Activism (2012) and Global Indigenous Media (2008). She holds a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies and an M.A. in Performance Studies from NYU. She is from Santiago, Chile.

Conference Discussant:

Elizabeth Weatherford is the founder and former director of the Film and Video Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and of its Native American Film + Video Festival (which was produced in New York City from 1979-2011). In 2000 she launched an innovative bilingual website, Native Networks/Redes Indigenas, for which she was the executive editor. Materials developed include a catalog of nearly 800 productions screened at NMAI, profiles of filmmakers and actors, articles about indigenous media, and a guide to indigenous media organizations and film festivals. Many of these features are now available at nmai.si.edu/explore/film-media. Her new organization, Indigenous Media Initiatives, provides support services for film and media productions, archives, and programming. Among her major interests are works by indigenous women and works in Native languages. She is part of the team that has developed an international partnership for promoting indigenous film at the European Film Marketplace of the Berlin International Film Festival. She is on the board of the PBS affiliate Vision Maker Media, and is an active member of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums (ATALM). Ms. Weatherford is currently writing about the practice and impact of indigenous film and film festivals on community members and non-indigenous audiences.

Featured Artists

Pykatire Kayapó is a Kayapó musician, living in Pará, Brazil, and a pioneer in Kayapó engagement with digital and social media. He writes and performs in both Kayapó and Portuguese. Here is a recent interview, as well as one of his early Youtube videos, and one of his early interviews.

 

 

 

Jennifer Aguilera Silva (a.k.a. Jaas Newen) was brought up (in a commune south of Santiago, Chile) outside her Mapuche heritage, then widely considered in large cities as a setback and source of shame. Despite this, she combined her interest in her native heritage and hip-hop to produce the song Newen (among others). Jennifer Aguilera (a.k.a. Jaas Newen) taught herself Mapuzungún (the Mapuche language) in part by listening to local bilingual radio programs. She also collaborated closely with Mapuche community leaders to ultimately produce the music video for Newen, with its themes of “invocation, life-force, origin, oppression, struggle, and resistance, (published on her Youtube channel). Newen was presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) for screening at the 2006 Smithsonian Institution’s Native American Film + Video Festival (NAFVF), where it was subtitled for Anglophone audiences, international film festivals, programmers, and scholars alike. Newen has screened in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Chile (though only after screening in New York). (Gleaned from Newen/Calling on the Power of the Land, Córdova, Forthcoming, Vanderbilt University Press)

Balam Ajpu. Tzutu Kan, Dr. Nativo, and M.C.H.E. are a Mayan hip hop group whose latest album Tributo a los 20 Nawales [Tribute to the 20 Nahuales] showcases a contemporary cosmovision in their characteristic style. Their performances incorporate continuity with traditional face paint, indigenous clothing, and instruments. Balam Ajpu also often collaborates in public art pieces such as murals and performances in public urban spaces. Here is an interview including a “rapid-fire education on their rich and ancient philosophy.”

 

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InDigital Latin America Conference II Schedule.pdf

Related Events

Tue. Mar. 14th, MTSU, 1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN., 12:300 pm there will be a concert featuring Balam Ajpu, Jaas Newen & Pykatyre Kayapó

Wed. Mar. 15th, MTSU, 1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN., 7:00 pm Weatherford will give the talk: Seeing Native: An Eyewitness Report Standing Rock

Sun. Mar. 19th, Carpenter’s Square, 3016 Nolensville Pike, Nashville Tn., 2:00 pm, Balam Ajpu will give a public concert.

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Thursday, March 16^th

Vanderbilt BCC	Registration
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm	The BCC (Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center) is one of our generous sponsors and is located directly behind Buttrick Hall. The registration table will remain open during the Reception 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm.

 

Vanderbilt BCC	Reception
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm	We welcome you to kick off our conference with a spirited reception and Vanderbilt Catering; courtesy of the InDigital conference co-sponsored by MTSU’s Center for Popular Music.
Vanderbilt BCC	Performances
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm	Pykatire Kayapó is a Kayapó musician from Brazil who writes and performs in both Kayapó and Portuguese. His songs are inspired by traditional Kayapó music fused with Brazilian ‘country’ music and Brazilian popular music. Jennifer Aguilera Silva (a.k.a. JAAS Newen) is a Chilean filmmaker and hip-hop artist of Mapuche heritage. Her music emphasizes themes of invocation, life-force, origin, oppression, struggle, and resistance. Her music video Newen was screened at the Smithsonian Institution’s Native American Film + Video Festival (NAFVF) Balam Ajpu (Jaguar Warrior) is a Mayan hip hop group from Guatemala. Balam Ajpu often collaborates in public art pieces, such as murals and performances in public urban spaces. Their latest album Tributo a los 20 Nahuales [Tribute to the 20 Nauales] showcases many elements continuous with traditional Mayan cosmovision.

Friday, March 17^th

Central Library	Registration, Coffee & Bagels
Community Room 8:00 am – 12:00 pm	The Registration table will remain open through the first two speaker blocks, which conclude at 12:00 pm for the Lunch Break.

 

Central Library	Speaker Block I
Community Room 9:00 am – 10:35 am	9:00 am, Richard Pace, From Embedded Aesthetics to Media Sovereignty – Situating Indigenous Media in Media Studies 9:25 am, Elizabeth Weatherford, How Does it Work?: A Brief Look at Indigenous and Indigenist Film and Media in Mexico and Guatemala 9:50 am, Mario Murillo, Walking the World in Indigenous Media – Reflections on the Participatory Communication Process of Northern Cauca 10:15 am, 20-minute discussion 10:35 am, 10-minute break
Central Library	Speaker Block II
Community Room 10:45 am – 12:00 pm	10:45 am, Ingrid Parra, Women’s Way Isn’t Weak!: Mẽnire Filmmaking in a Kayapó Village 11:10 am, Rodrigo Lacerda, Cinema and the Mbya Guarani Way of Life 11:35 am, Paul Worley, Show Don’t Tell: Digital Indigenous Storytelling in Mileidy Orozco Domicó’s Mu Drua ‘My Land’ 11:45 am, 20-minute discussion

 

Central Library	Lunch
Community Room 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm	Please join us for a catered lunch break in the central Library’s Community Room.

 

Central Library	Kayapó Film Screening, Songs, and Roundtable Discussion
Community Room 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm	1:30 pm, Kayapó filmmakers will be screening selections of their work 2:00 pm, Songs by Pykatrie Kayapó. 2:30 pm, Roundtable discussion about Kayapó media making. 3:00 pm, 10-minute break

 

Central Library

Speaker Block IV

Community Room 3:10 pm – 5:15 pm

3:10 pm, Laura Zanotti, Making Kin, Making Media: Collaborative Anthropology and Indigenous Self-determination 3:35 pm, Emily Colon, Kayapó Film, Alliance, and the Struggle for Self-Determination 4:00 pm, Diego Soares, The Translation-Transformation of Audio-Visual Technology by the Kayapó of Pará: Is a “Mebêngôkre Cinema” Possible? 4:20 pm, 10-minute break 4:30 pm, Rafael Galvão and Glenn H. Shepard Jr., The Kayapó Media Project, the Association for Protected Forests, and the Struggle for Media Sovereignty 4:50 pm, 20-minute Discussion 5:15 pm, 45-minute break with refreshments

 

Central Library

Keynote: Amalia Córdova

Community Room 6:00 pm – 7:00pm

Amalia is a filmmaker, curator, and scholar specializing in indigenous film. She is the Latino Curator for Digital and Emerging Media at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. For over a decade, she was a Latin American program specialist for the Film + Video Center of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. She has served as Assistant Director of New York University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and teaches at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She has juried at indigenous film festivals, co-directed three documentary shorts, and co-produces Urban Indians, a web-series. Her publications include essays in New Documentaries in Latin America (2014), Film Festival Yearbook 4: Film Festivals and Activism (2012) and Global Indigenous Media (2008). She holds a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies and an M.A. in Performance Studies from NYU. She is from Santiago, Chile.

 

Buttrick Hall	Dinner
Atrium 7:10 pm	Please join us in the first floor atrium of Buttrick Hall for a catered dinner. Buttrick Hall is directly across the lawn from the Central Library.

Saturday, March 18^th

Central Library	Coffee & Bagels
Community Room 10:00 am – 11:00 am	Will be available at the start of the day’s sessions just outside the Library’s Community Room.

 

Central Library	Speaker Block V
Community Room 10:30 am – 11:30 am	10:30 am, Christine Janney, From Wititi to the Jardín del Colca: Visual Media and the Politics of Inclusion in the Arequipeñan Social Imaginary 10:55 am, Philippe Erikson and Valentina Vapnarsky, “SAWA”: a collaborative digital documentation project in French Guyana 11:15 am, 20-minute roundtable discussion 11:30 am, 10-minute break

Central Library	Balam Ajpu & Mayan Hip-Hop
Community Room 11:45 am – 12:40 pm	11:45 am, Balam Ajpu, Presentation on Mayan hip-hop and cosmovision 12:15 pm, 25-minute round table discussion

Central Library	Lunch
Community Room 12:40 pm – 1:30 pm	Please join us for a 50-minute catered lunch break.

 

Central Library	Speaker Block VII
Community Room 1:30 pm – 2:35 pm	1:30 pm, Jamie Shenton, The thin ideal and the kin ideal: foreign media influence and emerging body image dilemmas among Amazonian Kichwa women in Ecuador 1:55 pm, Paul Chilsen & Christine Wells, Inside Out: Exploring Amazon Cultures with Film, Music and Responsive Pedagogy 2:15 pm, 20-minute discussion 2:35 pm, 10-minute break

 

Central Library	Mapuche Film and Song
Community Room 2:45 pm – 3:35 pm	2:45 pm, JAAS Newen & Amalia Córdova, performance, film excerpts, and presentation 3:15 pm, 25-minute roundtable discussion

 

Central Library	Concluding Remarks & Discussion
Community Room 3:45 pm – 4:45 pm	Elizabeth Weatherford is the founder and former director of the Film and Video Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and of its Native American Film + Video Festival (which was produced in New York City from 1979-2011). In 2000 she launched an innovative bilingual website, Native Networks/Redes Indigenas, for which she was the executive editor. Materials developed include a catalog of nearly 800 productions screened at NMAI, profiles of filmmakers and actors, articles about indigenous media, and a guide to indigenous media organizations and film festivals. Many of these features are now available at nmai.si.edu/explore/film-media. Her new organization, Indigenous Media Initiatives, provides support services for film and media productions, archives, and programming. Among her major interests are works by indigenous women and works in Native languages. She is part of the team that has developed an international partnership for promoting indigenous film at the European Film Marketplace of the Berlin International Film Festival. She is on the board of the PBS affiliate Vision Maker Media, and is an active member of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums (ATALM). Ms. Weatherford is currently writing about the practice and impact of indigenous film and film festivals on community members and non-indigenous audiences. 3:45 pm, Elizabeth Weatherford will provide closing comments for the conference and lead discussions about the future of Indigenous Media in Latin America. 4:15 pm, Concluding 30-minute discussion

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