‘WARRIOR WOMEN’
‘UNADOPTED’ A layperson would probably acknowledge the complexities of the fostercare system, placing into account their interactions with government, the size of the bureaucracy, and the carefulness (or negligence) associated with human lives. “Unadopted” casts light on those possible assumptions, as the main figure and narrator discusses his own hardships and confusion living within the foster system, interviewing several teenagers who have had their own experiences. Noel was 7 years old when he became a child in the California state foster system, separated from his older sister who was assigned to a foster family in Idaho. As the years passed, he, like many individuals before and after him, began to wonder what his life would have been like if the people biologically related to him were all in one place and things operated as they should in a dreamscape. However, as he recounts in the film, foster children know that reality can act as rebuttal to fantasy. He seeks to understand the peculiarities of his case. He is no longer a foster child curious about the reason or reasons he was never adopted. Instead, he contends that the failure to adopt reflects as a failure of the system as a whole. Seeking to uncover details of his background, he aims to reconnect with his mother, who expresses re-
The opening credits of “Paper Boats” showcase the laurels that the short film has garnered in other film festivals, and it’s apparent from the outset that the film deserved each of them, as the subtle opening score matches the almost melancholic ambiance of a young artist at work on a set of paper-making creations. The artist’s mentor visits and reminds her of the sufferings she endured in her past, triggering a series of flashbacks. The film then takes a dark turn and addresses how the artist and her mentor forged their relationship—the former revealing her own assault at the hands of her father. The mentor, a guidance counselor, advocates for the young
COURTESY CROSSROADS FILM FEST
‘PAPER BOATS’
woman and removes her from her dangerous situation. While the bond between the artist and her mentor is undeniable, it is also complicated. The artist failed to remove her sister from the clutches of their father, and that sister is now missing. The narrator is left bound to a past
morse and contrition that she was not able to care for him. Later, he finds comparative understanding with teenagers who have also undergone their own journeys as foster children: one who was offered adoption but declined, one who was legally adopted and has no desire to meet her biological mother, and another who left the bureaucratic environment entirely to fend for herself on the streets of Oakland. Each person has their own path of self-discovery and must reconcile their desire to know with the harsh reality of what they may find. COURTESY CROSSROADS FILM FEST
COURTESY CROSSROADS FILM FEST
Over this last year, many of us have become more aware of the plights that certain demographics face in this country—as we witnessed a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, with protesters organizing across the nation to speak out against racial injustice. Interestingly, the documentary film “Warrior Women” addresses a similar movement by taking a close look at the American Indian Movement of the 1970s, which fought for Native American liberation and for survival as a community of extended family. Mother-daughter duo Madonna Thunder Hawk and Marcella Gilbert—both enrolled members of the Lakota tribe living in South Dakota—narrate the film. The film first contextualizes the historic oppression incurred against Indigenous populations that resulted in decades of inequality and subjugation from the United States. government. Afterward, a scene depicts Gilbert teaching children that the tribe is still living through consequences of a government that reneged on its responsibilities contained in an 1868 treaty. Once the narrators finished establishing context, the film weaves in the significance of continuous activism, hammer-
ing home the message that change occurs when people work together to proclaim the power of collective action. Years ago, for example, Thunder Hawk, an AIM leader, helped shape a group of activists’ children in the “We Will Remember” Survivor School, which served as a Native alternative to government-run education. Scenes show Thunder Hawk reminiscing about what she learned from her involvement in AIM, “Indian Power” messaging, occupation of Alcatraz Island and the Wounded Knee uprising. These experiences taught her about mobilization and committing to a cause, which guided her during the North Dakota protests opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Like many founding members of Black Lives Matter, the central characters in the documentary are women. In addition to the two narrators, the community of Lakota and Native women are shown to generally spearhead the grassroots initiatives to fight for environmental preservation, cultural education and relationshipbuilding among tribes. “Warrior Women” reminds viewers that the Native struggle for sovereignty and cultural reclamation is far from over, but that many movement leaders remain steadfast in their activism efforts. —Mike McDonald
This year’s Crossroads Film Festival allows participants to stream any of the event’s 18 films on their own time through the festival’s end on Dec. 15. Films cover a variety of genres and themes and last anywhere from seven to 108 minutes. Read our writers’ reviews of select films below.
“Unadopted” presents viewers with a human portrait of the people who share experiences many of us outside the foster system cannot fully understand. Someone who may be considered a typical teenager at first glance may be engaging in issues of identity and emotional development, yet the foster child must contend with normality atop instability and uncertainty, trying to discover where they came from with each passing glance in the mirror. —Mike McDonald
she would rather forget, but she must retain her identity to remain accessible to her sister, whom she hopes will return and absolve her from her regret. The mentor, too, ties the narrator to her adolescence, and the artistry of the movie pivots around this tension. The mentor forces the artist to confront her past, reminding her that she formed her true identity through what she overcame, not what she suffered. The narrator attempts to make a tenuous peace with this, and the movie suggests that because her discovered joy and triumph exist on the same spectrum as her loss and perceived failure, she cannot have one without the other, and she must find a way to reconcile her dark past with her bright future. —Taylor McKay Hathorn more CROSSROADS p 16
November 11 - 24, 2020 • jfp.ms
Crossroads 2020 Film Reviews
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