In his second documentary feature, Love and Fury, Sterlin Harjo captures the versatility and passion in the world of contemporary Indigenous art.
For over a year of filming, Harjo followed Indigenous musicians, poets, dancers, painters, writers and activists to share their creativity and stories of grappling with various issues of identity, the past and the future.
Through Harjo’s skillful editing, narratives overlap, and the location shifts from New York to Oklahoma City to Paris and more. Somehow it all manages to feel like an ongoing conversation about art and self.
Chickasaw musician Micah P. Hinson is weaved throughout the film, appearing on stages in Europe and waxing philosophical about patriarchal society and the struggles he’s faced.
On another day, as Diné artist and activist Demian DinéYazhi’ receives a home haircut, they discuss the organization they helped found, R.I.S.E. (Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment), and the importance of creating spaces for Native voices.
Later, it’s at a R.I.S.E. panel that Cannupa Hanska Luger (who is of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota and European descent) speaks about the history that fuels Indigenous creatives.
“I’m an optimist because we survived horrible, horrible shit,” he says. “And I think we have the capacity because we can convert fury into love. Because that’s what we do. Because the milk that’s drawn from converting fury into love is something that got us through lean times.”
Then, in Tulsa, Yatika Starr Fields (who is of Osage, Cherokee and Muscogee Creek descent) muses on the incredible variety of art within Indigenous communities as he works on a large, abstract piece.
He says many people might expect the kind of homogenous art style that is “specifically made for majority-white clients, or clients in the Southwest looking to fill that niche of Southwestern art, which kind of puts us in a box almost.”
Harjo helps shatter that box.
He shows the audience people like Fields and Luger, along with Albuquerque-based artist Haley Greenfeather English (who is of Red Lake and Turtle Mountain Chippewa ancestry), the punk band Weedrat, sound artist Tick-sucK and many more. Those featured have raw, honest discussions about their work and themselves.
Love and Fury had its U.S. premiere at this year’s deadCenter Film Festival.
