This short essay film is based on Crow/Apsaalooke tribal cosmology in which wind characterizes one of the four cardinal points and when called upon represents for the tribe a powerful blessing in endurance and return. In this film dakaake (Apsaalooke for bird) signifies both wind and child. A non-narrative film, Four Keeps: Dakaake characterizes in an indefinite way the special place children hold in the tribe. The film equates the sacred characteristics of wind with those of children and alludes to the many years children were lost first to intertribal slavery and later to US government intervention into tribal life.
Helen Pease Wolf first transcribed the traditional Crow story accompanying this film, “The Story of Moon and His Bride”. Her great-granddaughter, Ramona Real Bird, reads and discusses the story in the film. The girl, or ‘bird’, in Four Keeps: Dakáake is Ramona’s granddaughter, Walks-to-School.
David Ludwik Rapkievian is a master instrument maker, musician, and folk dancer, who works in the Russian, Polish and Armenian traditions. As an instrument maker, David crafts violins in his Washington Grove, MD workshop. While growing up in Detroit, David discovered a love of music through his P...
An interview in Finnish with English subtitles Sirpa Särkijärvi on the occasion of her exhibition at Joe Nease gallery in Duluth in 2019.
Sirpa Särkijärvi's (b. 1974 in Muonio) paintings are reflections of time. They contemplate human existence and examine relationships of power, gender, behav...
Inspired by Canadian folk singer James Keelaghan's 1988 song of the same name, the film chronicles one woman's sacrifice in the face of rampant prejudice tearing her Japanese-Canadian family apart.
