"You must be from the North…you’re all in black…" Yup, this Seattle gal found herself in the sun and my all black wardrobe and fur coat gave me away immediately, I wasn't from Palm Springs. Steeped in my anxiety about no wifi and a heavy workload, I gradually became able to let go and slowly I decided to get with the spirit of the place and actually rest, sleep, laugh by the pool, consider the benefits of breast implants and watch films. (Eventually I even stepped out in a non-black bikini in the middle of the 101-degree desert…yah, I got burned!)

This year, I was lucky enough to be welcomed back by festival director Thomas Ethan Harris for my second year at the Palm Springs Native American Film Festival hosted by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. A relatively new festival, but definitely on the radar of some very interesting folks, this Native film fest aims to bring exposure to rising artists and wants to also provide an educational opportunity for the public.

Our Native Lens film showed before a great documentary called When Your Hands Are Tied  by Mia Boccella Hartle and Marley Shabala. I found Mia and her entire family to be sweet and supportive…role models for kind generous people. As the director of this film Mia wanted to present multiple facets of contemporary Native teen views while also creating a vehicle for adults to be moved to think about their own heritage and identity journey. The producer Marley is a regular riot. (She had me laughing so hard doin her Tina Turner moves!) Marley is smart, talented and to the point. She brings to the project her candid approach to investigative reporting but she also is very rooted in her commitment to proper cultural conduct and thoughtful prayer.

When Your Hands Are Tied  shows that there are teens in the Southwest on the cutting edge of combining culture and modern lifestyle influences. They rap, are in punk bands, skate, are b-boys, artists, practice rights of passage, run, sing and are healers. Mia and Marley's film shows that there are many ways that youth living on the rez can be very creative with in the context of their environments. These youth can at once be proud of their Native heritage and also express their own unique ways of how they walk through, as one speaker in the film puts it, "two worlds".

The film makers and the communities they worked with have created an important piece of work for our Native youth that hopefully helps us adults understand the complexities of being a teen in today’s fast paced world. Personally, I hope that the film helps teachers, counselors, parents understand that our kids don't have to be perfect but that what's important is that they are trying to reach for and are open to becoming aware of their own potential. www.whenyourhandsaretied.org

In attendance Sherman Alexie, Chris Eyre, Evan Adams, Nanobah, Andrea Menard, Mia Boccella Hartle, Marley Shabala, Yellow Thunder Woman and Robin Davey, Pamela Matthews, Carlos DeMenezes and other fun folks who appeared in the showcased films.