Intrepid Shadows (1962) by Al Clah
Sunday, October 21, 1984, 8:00 pm
The Navajo Film Themselves
John Adair in person
Films: Intrepid Shadows (Al Clah), The Navajo Silversmith (Johnny Nelson), A Navajo Weaver (Susie Benally), Old Antelope Lake (Mike Anderson), and The Spirit of the Navajos (Maxine and Mary J. Tsosie).
Noted anthropologist John Adair will introduce this evening’s program, a selection of films made by Navajo Indians about their own culture. In 1966, Adair and Sol Worth taught filmmaking to eight Navajos to test the hypothesis that films made by members of a culture could, through formal structure and content, reveal things that outsiders’ films could not. From documentation of the “old ways” in The Spirit of the Navajo to the myth-like tale of Intrepid Shadows, the results of this unusual experiment provide a unique view of Navajo sensibility and life.