KICKING THE CLOUDS
Sky Hopinka, Ho-Chunk / Pechanga Band of Luiseño, 16mm > digital, 15 min, 2021 This film is a reflection on descendants and ancestors, guided by a 50-year-old audio recording of my grandmother learning the Pechanga language from her mother. After being given this tape by my mother, I interviewed her and asked about it, and recorded her ruminations on their lives and her own. The footage is of our chosen home in Whatcom County, Washington, where my family still lives, far from our homelands in Southern California, yet a home nonetheless. Sky Hopinka (1984). 20+ films and multi-channel media artworks since 2014; screenings at venues including Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Whitney Biennial (2017). Guest curator at Whitney Biennial (2019). Films in permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art. MCFF Chrysalis Fellowship (2020), Herb Alpert Award (2020), Guggenheim Fellowship (2020), MacArthur Fellowship (2022). Lives in upstate New York.
