Historic Indigenous Media Collection

Material Description

VMM will digitize and make available over 3,000 individual films that focus on the history, culture, arts, language and heritage of a diversity of Northern American Indigenous peoples, some of which were made for public broadcast and distribution. The materials to be digitized include the works of Native American documentary filmmakers and journalists and audiovisual recordings of interviews and events -- such as honorings, forums and trainings -- at the institutions and Native communities. All of the materials were produced by the collaborating institutions, given to the partners’ archives by the filmmakers themselves, or purchased for distribution by one of the partners. The films reveal many different aspects and stories of the Native experience and will be important to Tribes and education. Some films also show the history of Native American filmmaking in the 20th and 21st centuries. Most of the films are unique and inaccessible in their archived form.