Native Eyes Film Showcase

Native Eyes Film Showcase

October 24, 2009, 4:00–10:00 p.m. FREE

Native Eyes on the Reservation!


Join us in Topawa, Arizona at the Tohono O'odham Nation Museum and Cultural Center for a fun-filled evening of museum tours, film screening and discussion with the filmmaker, live waila dance concert and food!

4:00 and 5:00 Staff-lead tours of the Tohono O’odham Nation Museum

6:00 outdoor screening: Waila! Making the People Happy

7:15 discussion with filmmaker Daniel Golding (Quechan) and Angelo Joaquin (Tohono O’odham) of the Arizona State Museum

8:00 Waila dance concert with Sound of the Desert, led by Alex Gomez

Food by Ha:san Preparatory and Leadership School available for purchase

What’s Waila? (pronounced y-la)
Waila is an O’odham form of music that embodies polka and Mexican tejano, cumbias and Norteño. It blends European instruments infused with modern-day electric keyboards and guitars with O’odham language and culture. “Waila” is derived from the Spanish word for dance, baila, and sometimes is called chicken scratch.

Waila! Making the People Happy - Director Dan Golding (Quechan) 2009, (58 min)
The film brings viewers on a journey of musical evolution, introducing the famous Joaquin Brothers, who performed waila across the reservation and took it all the way to Carnegie Hall, as well as some of the younger waila musicians, and explores where the traditions are headed next.

Sound of the Desert
This waila band, led by Alex Gomez, performs in the older style of waila music featuring a dual saxophone combination, in the style of the Joaquin Brothers.

Dan Golding
Dan Golding (Quechan) graduated Cum Laude from San Francisco State University receiving a BA in Film Production and a minor in American Indian Studies. He started Hokan Media Productions in 1997 as a means to produce social issue documentary and narrative films. His films have screened both nationally and internationally. He also teaches hands-on digital filmmaking workshops to at-risk tribal youth, through Hokan Media Digital Filmmaking Academy. Mr. Golding is a traditional singer and is involved in a master apprentice language program with his uncle. His latest film Waila! Making the People Happy, a 30 minute documentary on Chicken Scratch, the contemporary dance music of the southern Arizona Indian tribes, has aired on PBS. He will lead a discussion about the documentary on Sunday at Native Eyes, and will be a presenter for the youth media Saturday program.

Angelo Joaquin Jr.
Angelo Joaquin Jr. (Tohono O'odham) is a program coordinator at the Arizona
State Museum specializing in Native American culture programs. He is a co-founder and director of the annual Waila Festival celebrating this traditional O'odham musical expression. He has organized five Young Waila Musicians Workshops which brought youngsters and elder O'odham together for a day-long immersion session in the music and the culture. He will help plan the music-themed presentations of Native Eyes. He will serve as a discussant for the films and waila dance concert that demonstrates the tradition presented in the film. He will discuss the evolution of this tradition and the role of waila music in the lives of O'odham today.

Native Eyes Film Showcase is presented by Arizona State Museum and the UA's Hanson Film Institute in collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Native Eyes was made possible in part by a grant from the Arizona Humanities Council and with additional support from the Law College Association and the Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program at the James E. Rogers College of Law.

Information about Native Eyes Film Showcase programs in Tucson from November 12–14, 2009, coming.....