Summerhawk Award — Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema
Official Selection — Red Nation International Film Festival
Official Selection — Agua Caliente's Festival of Native Film and Culture
Opening night, Wild Beast Concert Series — Herb Alpert School of Music, CalArts
"Because our stories don't begin at contact".
SYNOPSIS
Cultural Ties...
But what might have been a negative became a unique opportunity in this specialized cultural niche I was in. The fact that I’m a cultural descendent was enough to get me in and allow me to talk with Head Bird singers to ask for their advice and their permissions to even undertake this project. The fact that I was not enrolled at a specific reservation allowed me to talk to singers and dancers from many different reservations, which had not been done before. As it turned out, through my interactions with different families of Singers, we found that I was related to people in Bird Culture that I had already been working with, which was unexpected and has made me feel even more “connected” to the songs, the history, the culture, and the project itself. It would turn out to be an arduous journey that would take years – a journey that I am still on, to be frank – but it allows me to get the story the right way: from MANY people and not just from one source!
Starting from the Top...
Beginning with the Elders, we initially worked with Cahuilla Head Bird Singers Alvino Siva and Ernest Siva. They started me on my path of cultural preservation by sharing their stories and their languages with me so that we may share abroad, Telling the story the Right way.
As time went on, I had a chance to work with Wally Antone (Quechan), Walter Holmes Jr (Morongo), and Ernest Morreo (Torres-Martinez). Each of these elders, who were Head Bird Singers (“Hauniks” in the Cahuilla language), took the time to meet with me and shared their own perspectives on Bird born of history and experience.
Each gave their approval of this project – this was a necessity to me or I would not have proceeded – and essentially gave me “referrals” as to who to talk to next, where to go, and what to do in order to move forward and still live and work within the social protocols of Bird.
To this day, I still maintain relationships with the people and continue to work on a variety of projects with them, apart from my ongoing documentary work. When I began all of this, my aim was to find a way for people to share their OWN stories and this documentary gives them that platform.
With this promise in mind , we proudly present
We Are Birds
A California Indian Story
We Are Birds
A California Indian Story
A feature documentary on Bird Singing, the songs that carry the history of California's tribal nations.
WATCH IT HERE
Bird Songs have been a part of Cahuilla and other Southern California Native cultures for thousands of years, and the migrations of these songs as they were shared over time have created a long history of cultural connectedness between tribes across the region. These songs have also become a linkage between generations, and are at the heart of a growing movement to sustain language and cultural practice.
We Are Birds follows this movement through the people living it: Elders, Bird Singers and Dancers, and Cultural Preservationists. Their accounts go to the heart of what bird singing is, how it has changed, and why it matters that Bird Lives On.
The film is a record of a cultural movement made for the people whose history it is. It also opens that history to people who have never encountered it. Most non-Native people in Southern California live beside these communities without knowing their song and dance traditions exist at all. These traditions are ancient and they are current, and the film sets out to make them visible — in the public, in the education system, and in local communities.
Produced by Albert Chacon
NativeImages Production Group
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AWARDS