The Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma announces the first annual film festival and symposium titled "Native Crossroads" for the spring of 2013. This exciting event will showcase several short and full-length films introduced by their directors, along with roundtable discussions intended to inspire conversations among filmmakers, scholars, students, community and tribal organization representatives, writers, and performers. We want to include everyone who has an interest in these topics and in Native film.

For our inauguration, Native Crossroads will take up the theme of Native children’s issues by featuring First Circle, a new documentary about the foster care system from producer Randy Redroad and director Heather Rae, both Cherokee. Other films and discussions will explore challenges facing Native teens in urban environments and the historical legacies of Indian education. Each year, the program will be guided by a different theme on socially relevant issues in the contemporary American Indian world, as explored in indigenous feature, short, and documentary films.

The two days of the event promise something for everyone, from animated shorts to literary readings, from hard-hitting documentaries to uplifting comedies, from feature-length thrillers to film-making workshops. We'll be joined by first-class directors, writers, and scholars, along with elementary, high school, and university students, and members of local and tribal communities. We hope you'll join us, too.

This program is made possible through the support of the Norman Arts Council, the Zarrow School of Social Work, the Office of the Vice President for Research, the departments of Film and Media Studies, Anthropology, English, Native American Studies, the School of Art and Art History, World Literature Today, the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, and the Fred Jones Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma and Jeanne Hoffman Smith.