DABF23 Screening: Sky Hopinka, maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore

Sky Hopinka's video, photo and text work considers personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape. A Ho-Chunk Nation national and descendent of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, Hopinka is a teacher of chinuk wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin in which much of maɬni is spoken. Hopinka’s interest in language as a container of culture is much in evidence in this ethereal feature debut, a film which follows two young parents – Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier – as they hike across the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and reflect upon the environment around them, the spirit world and the Chinookan origin-of-death myth. Described by the New York Times as ‘an essential portrait of contemporary Indigenous life’, maɬni lends poetic expression to the urgent need to preserve as well as lament what has already been lost of Indigenous culture.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Sky Hopinka, whose new book The Island Weights, published by Stereo Editions, will be launched at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios as part of Dublin Art Book Fair 2023: Polyphonic on Sunday December 10th 2023, 6pm.

This event takes place as part of Dublin Art Book Fair 2023: Polyphonic, sponsored by Henry J Lyons and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.