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Set
in the stunning landscape of Utah's Monument Valley, this unforgettable,
universally acclaimed documentary chronicles the extraordinary
saga of how a rediscovered 1950's silent film reel leads to
the return of a long-lost brother to his Navajo family.
Since the 1930s, members of the Cly family have lived in Monument
Valley and appeared as subjects in countless photographs, postcards,
and Hollywood westerns--even in a home movie by legendary director
John Ford and a propaganda film by a uranium mining company.
In
1997, filmmaker Jeff Spitz resurrected an old 1950s film called
"Navajo Boy" and was able to track down the original
subjects, the Cly family, to show it to them. Family matriarch
Elsie Mae Cly Begay saw on the film, the faces of her later
mother and most heart wrenching of all, her infant brother,
who had been adopted by white missionaries and never heard from
again. The vintage movie prompts Elsie to tell her family's
story for the first time, from their work with filmmakers and
tourists, to the injuries and effects of uranium mining on their
health and culture.
Through
a newspaper story about the rediscovery of the old "Navajo
Boy" film, Elsie's long-lost brother, named John Wayne
Cly, in honor of the late movie star, discovers his own lost
heritage and travels to Utah for an emotional reunion with his
brothers and sisters.
"The
Return of Navajo Boy" weaves the Cly family voices, feelings,
and personal stories into a powerful and revelatory depiction
of one Native American family's experiences over the last century.
The film casts a revealing light on the Native American side
of picture-making and of the human costs of uranium mining in
the Southwest. Perhaps most importantly, the film gives
the Cly family the chance to voice their own story and, while
giving new meaning to old pictures, performs a healing miracle
of its own.
Part
Mystery, part expose, and wholly compelling, "The Return
of Navajo Boy" will engender spirited discussions in a
wide variety of courses in Native American studies, American
history and studies, cultural anthropology, sociology, social
work, media studies, and environmental issues. It was produced
by Jeff Spitz and Bennie Klain, an award winning Navajo radio
reporter.
Download
clips of The Return of Navajo Boy here! (To
download clips you must have RealPlayer installed)
Awards
and Honors for "The Return of Navajo Boy"
(57 minutes, Digital Beta Master)
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Programmer’s
Choice Award, Toronto International Environmental Film Festival
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Sundance
Film Festival Official Selection American Indian Film &
Video Festival (San Francisco
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Society
for Visual Anthropology Award
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Audience
Award, Durango Film Festival
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"Best
Documentary" says Aboriginal Voices Film Festival (Toronto)
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American
Indian Film & Video Festival Honoree ( San Francisco)
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Native
American Film & Video Festival Honoree (New York)
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Selected
to represent the United States at INPUT/2001, the international
public television conference in Cape Town, South Africa
- Also
selected for screening at more than a dozen major festivals
and conferences worldwide
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Reviews
for "The Return of Navajo Boy"
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"Like
a finely made rug, The Return of Navajo Boy contains multiple
layers of color, construction, and meaning. . . . A must see."
---Native Peoples Magazine
"I
used this remarkable documentary in a large U.S. history survey
course comprised mostly of students from Southeast Asian
and Central American immigrant-refugee communities. They
identified--palpably --with the separation anxiety, confused
identity, and ethnographic co- modification felt by the youthful
'protagonist' in this moving historical narrative about the
steep psychosocial costs of being uprooted from one's family,
home, and heritage. Although centered on the experiences
of one Native American family, this film is an instructive text
for all of us living through this era of pervasive social disasters
and profound displacements." ---Art Hansen, Professor
of History and Director, Oral History Program, California State
University in Fullerton.
"When
people talk about the transforming power of filmmaking, they
are usually referring to artistic statements or emotional catharsis,
but The Return of Navajo Boy reminds that there is a different
kind of power to be found in the moving image. . . .Not only
did the film lead to the reunion of the Cly family with the
long-lost John Wayne Cly, but it also brought public and legal
attention to the issue of uranium mining, a former way of life
in Monument Valley that has led to an alarmingly high cancer
rate." ---Chicago Tribune
"...the emotional contact alone seems to transcend
all political issues." -- The Independent, Santa Barbara,
CA.
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