Indigenous stories
The films on this page focus heavily on the LGBTQ Native American/Indigenous experiences in America, including stories from members of a number of different nations.
To find these resources through your local library, please use the invaluable Worldcat.org and search by Title or Director or use the search box below!
Author’s note: Sherman Alexie wrote and directed a film entitled The Business of Fancydancing that would have been included were it not for the numerous allegations of and Alexie’s admissions of inappropriate sexual advances. Following the lead of the American Indian Library Association’s decision to rescind its honors formerly bestowed on Alexie, I am rescinding the film’s inclusion on this list, while praising the work of the actors and film crew involved in its production.
Drunktown’s Finest. Dir. Sydney Freeland. 2014. 93 minutes
A rare example of an ensemble drama that gives significant screen time to its QTPOC character, this Sundance Festival hit focuses on the intersecting lives of three Navajo 20-somethings trying their best to achieve their dreams in spite of poverty, transphobia, and alienation. One of the three major plots focuses on Felixia, a Trans woman seeking to be a model. Despite some harrowing scenes, this film is ultimately an uplifting rumination on modern lives of indigenous people.
Honored by the Moon. Dir. Mona Smith. 1990. 15 minutes
This powerfully short documentary of self-discovery and self-affirmation focuses on the experiences of gay, lesbian, and two-spirit Native Americans of various communities (largely Lakota and Ojibwe) and their experiences coming to terms with some negative lessons their communities have taught them about non-heteronormative life. For such a short film, an impressively wide range of topics are discussed including, importantly, how the homophobic cultures of European colonizers poisoned the cultures of Native communities that had no real longstanding history of homophobia. The strength of this film lies in its reliance on first-hand accounts and primary images. No other context is required – the stories speak for themselves. This short is, in many ways, ahead of its time.
Two-Spirit People. Dir. Michel Beauchemin, 1991. 23 minutes
This early, eye-opening documentary short examines the surprisingly widespread traditions of two-spirit people across many different Native cultures, as well as how contemporary Native gays, lesbians, and two-spirits have navigated life and coming-of-age. What’s fascinating about this film is that it makes clear that the recent pushback to ideas of a gender binary in much of mainstream Western culture is nothing remotely new in many cultures. Ways of knowing and ways of thinking from Indian cultures could provide much fuller understanding to modern conversations about the nature of gender.