18th Annual LA SKINS FEST

Tuesday, November 19

  • Opening Night Industry Mixer November 19 @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm The LA SKINS FEST launches the 18th year with the Opening Night Industry Mixer! Invited festival guests enjoy music, food and drinks amongst our community of filmmakers, NAMA fellows and artists. We use this opportunity to acknowledge the festival’s friends, family and greatest supporters. We will also celebrate another incredible year of developing a new... Read more » See Details

Wednesday, November 20

11/20: Shorts Program 1

Thursday, November 21

  • NBCUniversal – Native Youth Studio Tour November 21 @ 11:00 am NBC UNIVERSAL 10 Universal City Plaza
    Los Angeles, CA 91608 United States     Participating Native youth will be invited to tour a Hollywood studio. Native youth participants will learn about film and television history, walk on sets, sound stages and meet with studio personnel. The purpose of tour is to inspired the next generation to explore film and television as a viable career and educational option. The ages will... Read more » See Details

11/21: Shorts Program 2

  • Screening Second Sunrise November 21 @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Constable agent Francis has spent years enforcing evictions, each day another family out on the streets. His personal life is in shambles especially with his daughter that he hasn’t seen. since he ran off on her when she was just a baby. He is a broken man trying to fix himself, he has been trying... Read more » See Details
  • Screening Red Hand November 21 @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     A young Navajo girl named Dakota lives her everyday life on a reservation but experiences one of her most challenging losses she’s ever had. After coming back home from school, Dakota’s older sister has gone missing without any sign of communication. Months pass while Dakota and her family are still struggling to find her older... Read more » See Details
  • Screening Pretendian November 21 @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     retendian is a provocatively glamorous yet disturbingly bitter tale that explores the question: How far would you go for fame? See Details
  • Screening Mary Margaret Road-Grader November 21 @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     In writer/director Steven Paul Judd’s adaptation of Howard Waldrop’s 1976 sci-fi short story, Mary Margaret Road-Grader transports us to a post-apocalyptic Indigenous world. Stakes are high for a new and controversial contender as she fights for her place amidst changing traditions. See Details
  • Screening Kalli Nepantla November 21 @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Kalli Nepantla (The House of In-Between) is based on the real life experiences of an Indigenous woman and her family. In Kalli Nepantla, our family consists of Tlalli (older sister), Xochipilli (younger sister), and Marialena (mom).  Each member of the family lives with their own mental health realities and fights to maintain a sense of... Read more » See Details
  • Screening KWADDU (To Return) November 21 @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     When Chenoas mother falls ill to tuberculosis her father wants to abandon the reservation and take her to the city. Confused as to why her mother wants to die on the land. She inquires of her ancestor and is shown the story of her survival which brought them to the land on which they now... Read more » See Details

Friday, November 22

11/22: Youth Films

11/22: Animation Program

  • Screening Cut Knife Creek November 22 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Seven Tsuut’ina men refuse to turn back despite 3 dark omens urging them to, they come upon a Cree camp which leads to battle and death in a supernatural way. See Details
  • Screening Chums November 22 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     A rag tag group of furry friends on Turtle Island are discovering their relationship with the animals and their environment on Mother Earth See Details
  • Screening Baah The Perfect Bread November 22 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     A young trans-Navajo man named Tristan tries to make the perfect bread for an upcoming family reunion. However, he listens to a gatekeep podcast host that makes him question his abilities. Will he succeed in creating the perfect bread or will his bread not live up to his nali’s expectations? See Details
  • Screening Tule November 22 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Tule is a poetic 2D animated mixed media short film championing awareness and hope. A young Pomo girl serves as the narrator of our project. Her poetic contemplations ring true with convictions shared by her Pomo community at Clear Lake, California. She revels in the local nature’s glory, but dread strikes when she faces today’s... Read more » See Details
  • Screening Grow With Me November 22 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     An old hound dog who likes to invent things, and an old cat who likes to garden, are happily married and live together. But when the cat goes blind and can’t garden, the hound dog tries to invent things to help her garden again. See Details
  • Screening The Band Shandiin “Stadium Walk” November 22 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Small time Indigenous band “The Band Shandiin” prepare for their first and biggest stadium concert. Sundance ponders on the bands difficult journey and how they got there. See Details

11/22: Shorts Program 3

  • Screening Tales From the Rez November 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Come listen as The Rez Keeper Uncle Randolf brings forth the terribly twisted and delightfully creepy Tales From The Rez.  See Details
  • Screening Hell Throne – King of Death November 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     In the shadows of his pulpit, Pastor Leyton Thompson leads a double life, using his charm and title to seduce vulnerable women. His next target is Grace, a seemingly innocent parishioner. But as Leyton’s dark obsession grows, Grace reveals a hidden agenda, threatening to destroy his carefully crafted facade. As their twisted game of cat... Read more » See Details
  • Screening Forest Echoes November 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     A love story set against the backdrop of the climate crisis and the opioid epidemic, Forest Echoe follows Echo and Wild, two urban Indigenous land defenders. On the one-year anniversary of their arrest on the front lines, a death in their community opens old wounds but also offers them a chance to heal. See Details
  • Screening Pendleton Man November 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm In ‘Pendleton Man,’ three young Blackfoot cousins, left home alone, encounter the spooky Pendleton Man, in a night of terror. See Details
  • Screening The Inherited November 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     A grieving young woman returns to her childhood home to settle her parents’ affairs, only to encounter her long-forgotten imaginary friend lurking in the shadows. See Details
  • Screening Uncommon Ground November 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Set in the Coast Salish region of the Pacific Northwest, 150 years in the future, the true history of North America has been swept under the rug, the stories of Indigenous peoples have been silenced, and religion and culture are criminalized. Indigenous people, like Tawni and her aunt, were driven out of the cities, living... Read more » See Details

Saturday, November 23

11/23: Short Docs 1

11/23: Shorts Program 4

  • Screening Cleaning’s a Cakewalk November 23 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     (Navajo Language Short) An imaginative and independent young boy, Albert, learns the value of hard work and finds his place in his community after having to clean the Chapter House which he finds out is no cake-walk in the park. See Details
  • Screening NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind) November 23 @ 12:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Having left Nunavut with her mother Kumaa’naaq (koo-MAT-na) in 1938, young Marguerite must negotiate the unspoken pressures of being Inuk in her new life in the South. When an extraordinary letter arrives from home, Marguerite discovers what’s really expected of her. Based on a true story. See Details
  • Screening Anishinaabemowin November 23 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Thea is an 8-year-old Ojibwe girl who is in the process of learning how to speak her traditional language from her mother, Rose. Once a fluent speaker of Anishinaabemowin, the Ojibwe language, Rose’s language skills have become rusty now that she and her daughter live in Vancouver, far away from their family. But through flashcards,... Read more » See Details
  • Screening Anywhere (Nooj Goji) November 23 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     George lives a quiet life with his Gokmis on reserve. His girlfriend, Eileen, lives alone in the big citydown south. Facing alienation, isolation, and a society of lovelessness, George chooses instead to love radically – at times through impossible means. See Details
  • Screening Plaansh a Roo November 23 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Jonny’s a Métis kid with big hopes for the summer — right until he breaks his skateboard. When he meets some buskers who know his grandpa’s fiddle tunes, he realizes he could play fiddle to buy a new board. But is that really what Jonny wants? See Details
  • Screening Shacktown November 23 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Nevin, a teenager on the Rez, is convinced to start selling weed. When the Rez dealer tries to recruit his little cousin, Nevin steps up to protect him. Now he has to get the money or deal with the consequences. See Details

11/23: Short & Feature Film Program

  • Screening Kenji November 23 @ 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     The life and work of Japanese photographer, Kenji Kawano, explored through his extraordinary five decade long journey documenting the WWII Navajo Code Talkers through his lens.  See Details
  • Screening Angela’s Shadow November 23 @ 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     When a socialite visits her nanny’s remote reserve, she discovers her Cree ancestry and delves into her new-found spiritual traditions to save herself and her newborn baby from her husband’s psychotic, and purity-obsessed racism. See Details

11/23: Short Docs 2

11/23: Shorts Program 5

  • Screening Mother’s Day November 23 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     While searching for love and connection, Ashleigh (Natalie Benally) works through her own challenges between parenthood vs adulthood, while discovering what’s truly important to her. See Details
  • Screening Safe Place November 23 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     A young man has chosen to help a young woman take shelter at his place of work but will see that getting involved means more than he thought. See Details
  • Screening Skylar’s Comet   November 23 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     “Skylar’s world is a desolate place, devoid of purpose and hope. However, everything changes when he receives a letter from his grandfather. Within the pages of his grandfather’s stories lies a glimmer of hope, a lifeline amidst the darkness. As Skylar unravels his grandfather’s tales of pain and adversity, he finds himself on a profound... Read more » See Details
  • Screening Babe November 23 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     A young man forms an inseparable bond with his car. Over a decade of adventures and pivotal life events, he faces the bittersweet moment of parting ways with his cherished “friend,” reflecting on the memories that defined an era. See Details
  • Screening This Means Forever November 23 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     The aftermath of loss causes a toxic fallout between aunt and nephew, and a turbulent grieving process soon follows. This Means Forever follows Lloyd, a young man who has lost both of his parents in such a short amount of time. Being their only child, the stress of handling everything following their passing is solely... Read more » See Details
  • Screening One of Our Own November 23 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm TCL Chinese Theatre #6 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
    Hollywood, 90028     + Google Map     Nome, Alaska has the highest Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women per capita in the nation. This short narrative is based on true events on what has happened to one of our own. See Details

Sunday, November 24

11/24: Shorts Program 6

11/24: Short Docs 3

11/24: Short Program 7