| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is an ethnographic documentation of the Native Crossroads Film Festival, an annual multi-day cultural event in Norman, Oklahoma that features a selection of indigenous films. I argue throughout this thesis that The Native Crossroads Film Festival creates an interrelated and complex arena for the engagement with and enactment of visual sovereignty. Through its component parts – the organization of the festival, the films featured, the audience members, and the panel discussions the Native Crossroads Film Festival expands the scope of visual sovereignty beyond what Indigenous filmmakers themselves create. In conducting my research, I used several interconnected methods, including participant observation during two of the festivals, data analysis on four student interviews, and coded data analysis on the 2017 footage taken of the series of panel discussions attended by the Indigenous directors, producers, actors, University of Oklahoma professors and visiting professors. Two overarching themes I identified include Increasing Awareness and Encouraging Activism and Advocacy. I argue that these themes are methods of enacting a type of interdependent sovereignty by engaging the audience and broader communities with the vision of the filmmakers and the festival committee. | en_US |
