The Cascadia International Women's Film Festival is April 11-14 in Bellingham. The event highlights the work of women directors and producers, and also features several films focused on indigenous cultures.
Lyn Dennis is a board member for the festival, as well as a member of the Lummi Nation and the Tahltan Band. She spoke with KNKX Morning Edition producer Ariel Van Cleave ahead of the event and says it's important to have stories from indigenous cultures told through an indigenous lens to prevent things from being lost in translation.
"As you know, in the media, we the Native Americans, the indigenous peoples, we are always stereotyped," Dennis said. "And through film festivals such as this, such as Cascadia, this is a great opportunity for our indigenous peoples to be able to really tell their own stories, from their own perspective, their own view. And I believe that it creates a better understanding about who we are as a people."
Dennis is a filmmaker herself and had her film, "Muckleshoot Sla-Hal Bone Game Tournament," was shown at the first Cascadia festival three years ago. She says showcasing the work of women directors has value.
"I think that women have this intuitive sense. And we women have not been given the opportunities in the past, and of course, it's still happening today, to be able to be in a director position, or be behind the camera producing and operating the camera," Dennis said. "So Cascadia really promotes women directors. And I feel it's very important that we as women step forward and take our power and be able to do something very positive through the venue of film and be able to tell our stories."
A full schedule of events is available here.
