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$15 General Admission, $12 Member, $10 child (age 14 or younger)

Doors open for admissions 30 minutes prior to screening. Buy tickets at The Film Center or online now

Followed by a discussion with Co-Director and Co-Producer Aviva Kempner and Durwood Vanderhoop in person!
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Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting is a comprehensive examination of the movement to eradicate the words, images, and gestures that many Native Americans and their allies find harmful, demeaning, and offensive. The film takes a deep-dive into the issues through archival footage and interviews with those involved in the fight. The psychological research is clear, the use of Native American mascots is detrimental, not only to Native people, but to marginalized groups everywhere.
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Los Angeles Times

“…a pulsatingly argued, wide-ranging, and occasionally seething documentary.”

The Guardian

“It dissects myths and stereotypes… ‘It’s a public health issue for Native people’.”

Washington Post

“ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF 2023!”

Santa Fe Reporter

“A plethora of articulate Native scholars and activists deliver powerful narratives … A moving, succinct and powerful narrative — should be mandatory viewing for every American.”

Washington, D.C.-based filmmaker Aviva Kempner creates successful and critically acclaimed documentaries about under-known Jewish heroes and social justice for the past 45 years. A Pocketful of Miracles: A Tale of Two Siblings chronicles her family’s survival during the Holocaust. The Spy Behind Home Plate is about catcher and OSS spy Moe Berg. Rosenwald is about philanthropist Julius Rosenwald who established 5,000 African American schools in the Jim Crow South. She also made Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, about Gertrude Berg who created the first television sitcom and the Peabody winning The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, which was remastered in 4K for the film’s 25th anniversary, and is about the Hall Famer slugger who faced anti-Semitism. Kempner produced Partisans of Vilna, about Jews fighting the Nazis.

Kempner also co-directed and co-produced Imagining the Indians, a documentary about the movement to remove Native American names, logos and mascots from the world of sports. She is finishing a documentary about Hollywood screenwriter and activist Ben Hecht, who tried to save European Jewry, and a short film entitled Pissed Off, which explores the struggles faced by female lawmakers in Congress who advocated for “potty parity” in the United States Capitol.

A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Kempner is an activist for statehood for the District of Columbia.

Durwood Vanderhoop was born and raised in Aquinnah and is the son of the late Roxane Ackerman and William Vanderhoop, Sr. He’s husband to Jamie and n8hshee (father) to their four sons. He’s a lead singer & drum keeper for Black Brook Singers, and an Aquinnah clay artist. He’s the current Council Treasurer for the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe, as well as a Board Member of the Aquinnah Cultural Center. He’s served on many tribe, town, and regional boards related to economic development, land use, & affordable housing, and is a devoted advocate for Wampanoag language, culture & sovereign rights.