Honey Moccasin
1998, Canada, 47 min, Beta SP
Director: Shelley Niro
Presented as part of:
A Decade in Retrospect
10 Years of Dramatic Programming at imagineNATIVE
Oct 16 2009, 3:00PM
Al Green Theatre
This all-Native production by director Shelley Niro (Mohawk), is part of the Smoke Signals new wave of films that examined Native identity in the 1990s. Set on the Grand Pine Indian Reservation, aka “Reservation X,” Honey Moccasin combines elements of melodrama, performance art, cable access and “whodunit” elements to question conventions of ethnic and sexual identity as well as film narrative. A comedy/thriller complete with a fashion show and torchy musical numbers, this witty film employs a surreal pastiche of styles to depict the rivalry between bars The Smokin’ Moccasin and The Inukshuk Cafe, the saga of closeted drag queen/powwow clothing thief Zachary John and the travails of crusading investigator Honey Moccasin. This irreverent re-appropriation of familiar narrative strategies serves as a provocative spring-board for an investigation of authenticity, cultural identity, and the articulation of modern Native American experience in cinematic language and pop culture.
Shelley Niro is a member of the Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte Mohawk from the Six Nations Reserve. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art, Niro received her MFA from the University of Western Ontario. Often humorous and playful, her works address the challenges faced in contemporary Native North American society. Niro’s work has been broadly exhibited in galleries across Canada and can be found in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Her award-winning films, which include Honey Moccasin, have been screened in festivals worldwide. Most recently, her short film The Shirt, which she wrote, directed and produced, was presented at the 2003 Venice Biennale.
