Native filmmaker launches the alterNative Film Festival in Wichita next weekend

After attending Native American film festivals throughout North America for the past few years, Wichita filmmaker Rodrick Pocowatchit wondered why there couldn’t be one in his hometown.

“Wichita has such a history with Native people, and the Keeper of the Plains is its iconic image,” said Pocowatchit, who also is a movie columnist for The Wichita Eagle. “We should have another venue for these films to be seen that might not be out there.”

A year and a half ago, he approached the Mid-America All-Indian Museum in Wichita about hosting a festival, and Pocowatchit said they loved the idea, but “then the world collapsed” and the fest was delayed until this fall.

The initial alterNative Film Festival is scheduled for next weekend at the museum, 650 N. Seneca. There is no charge for admission.

The festival will open with “Blood Quantum,” which takes place on the isolated Mi’kmaq reserve of Red Crow in Canada, where a plague has erupted, turning everyone into zombies except its Indigenous inhabitants, who are strangely immune to the zombie virus.

“I really fought to get that,” Pocowatchit said. “It shows movies you might not think you’d see — like a zombie film and a couple of comedies and a vigilante tale. I just want to be another venue for these artists to show their work.”

Closing the festival will be “Red Hand,” written and directed by Pocowatchit, with an all-Wichita cast and crew, about a man with the power to heal who time-travels from the future to save the Native American race from an ill fate.

Several of the filmmakers will be in attendance, including LaRonn Katchia, a Portland, Oregon, creator; and Mark W. Williams of the Choctaw nation in Oklahoma, whose film “Violet” includes Wichita actor Delno Ebie.

Pocowatchit said the film festival is meant to appeal to all audiences, no matter their ethnic heritage.

“What’s cool about it for Native people is that they’re going to see themselves represented on screen,” he said. “They’re going to have a connection to a story or an element of the film that speaks to them. But it doesn’t exclude non-Native people.

“These are universal stories,” he added. “It’s a way for non-Native people to learn about our people, our tribes, and where they come from.”

Pocowatchit estimates that about 20 different tribes are represented in the festival.

“There’s a lot of us working in the trenches just to make film,” he said.

Tribes in the Northwest are working with youth to teach them how to make films, Pocowatchit added.

“The cool thing about today’s technology is that anybody can make a movie,” he said. “They’re teaching kids filmmaking not only so they can express themselves, but also so they can preserve their culture, preserve their stories.”

Pocowatchit continues to work making his own films. “Apocalypse … Then” debuted recently at the Tallgrass Film Festival, and he shoots the next installment of his trilogy “The Incredible Brown NDN” in the spring.

AlterNative Film Festival

When: Friday-Sunday, Nov. 12-14

Where: Mid-America All-Indian Museum, 650 N. Seneca

Tickets: Admission is free; for more information, go to alterNativeFilmFestival.org

This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 4:17 AM with the headline "Native filmmaker launches the alterNative Film Festival in Wichita next weekend."