2009, video, color, sound, 63min.
As a child, filmmaker Minda Martin's life was one of poverty, constant relocation and even homelessness. Mixing found footage, historical documents, and personal interviews, she traces her family's history to the forced Cherokee relocation in the 1800s. What emerges is a challenging, heartbreaking and visually-arresting documentary that draws unsettling parallels between land, history, Cherokee culture and American identity. Martin creates a unique cinematic landscape that conveys the trauma of displacement and the reality of poverty. MINDA MARTIN Minda Martin writes and directs personal experimental documentary and narrative films that explore the underpinnings and disparities of social class in America. Her films and videos have won many festival awards and screened internationally at venues that include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, RedCat, Viennale, Punto de Vista, BAFICI, New York Video Festival, Frameline, Northwest Film Forum, Creteil Films de Femmes, and Mostra/OMNI Video Art Tour. Along with her collection of short films and videos, her features include FREE LAND (2009) and AKA KATHE (2000). Her most recent work, THE LONG DISTANCE OPERATOR, an experimental video made for the omnibus feature film FAR FROM AFGHANISTAN, set to premiere this year.
She received an M.F.A. in film and video from California Institute of the Arts, and a B.A. from University of Arizona. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Visual and Performing Arts department at California State University, San Marcos.
