MALNI - TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE
A film by Sky Hopinka
2020, 82 minutes
2020, 82 minutes
No. 299
Documentary
Documentary
Description
A poetic documentary circling the origin of the death myth from the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, małni – towards the ocean, towards the shore follows two people as they wander through their surrounding nature, the spirit world, and something much deeper inside.
Hopinka takes us on a journey through language and belief. We follow Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier on their separate paths, contemplating their afterlife, rebirth, and death. A beautiful lesson subtly arises about humanity’s place on this and other worlds, deceptively small and profoundly deep.
Hopinka takes us on a journey through language and belief. We follow Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier on their separate paths, contemplating their afterlife, rebirth, and death. A beautiful lesson subtly arises about humanity’s place on this and other worlds, deceptively small and profoundly deep.
Festivals
Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival
Reviews
“Critic’s Pick! An essential portrait of contemporary Indigenous life. Refreshingly centers the Native perspective, and beckons audiences onto its wavelength by tapping into something more intuitive, the stuff of dreams.” – Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times
“Stunning. Hopinka’s use of color in Malni is nothing short of astonishing. One of the most awe-inspiring films I saw.” - Vikram Murthi, Rogerebert.com
"Mr. Hopinka is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and descended from the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. His work, which he aptly calls “ethnopoetic,” is built on that biographical data, but expands outward from it. It’s steeped in Native American history but rejects the idea that history is confined to the past. Present tense and personal, it rivals in visual and linguistic beauty any new art I’ve seen in some time." The New York Times
"Hopinka subtly inverts the tropes of the ethnographic documentary to depict indigenous life from an indigenous perspective.” - Cayley James, Cinema Scope
"Three and-a-half stars (out of four)! A stunning, refreshing experience. Discusses life, death, rebirth, the afterlife, and much more in a profound film." - Video Librarian
