Maɬni – Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore

Warum er sich sein Haar habe wachsen lassen, fragt der Filmemacher einen seiner Protagonisten, Jordan Mercier, der nicht wie ein Native American aussieht. Um die Heranwachsenden zu ermutigen, das ihrige nicht aus Konformismus abzuschneiden, antwortet dieser. Sie reden in Chinuk Wawa, der Sprache der an der Nordwestküste des Pazifiks beheimateten Stämme, der Sprache der Vorfahren. Hopinka, selbst indigener Abstammung, kümmert sich um Bild, Ton und Schnitt und führt mit großer Einfühlung in die spirituelle Welt der "canoe people" ein, die durch die Wiederaneignung ihres kulturellen Erbes zu einer Art Versöhnung mit der Gegenwart gefunden haben. (Ferdinand Keller)

In keeping with its title, MAŁNI—TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE is constantly moving from the small-scale to the vast. The backbone of this first feature-length work by Sky Hopinka, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, are the conversations he conducts with two of his friends, Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier, who live in the Pacific Northwest of the US. She visits a waterfall and later sits at home, talking in English of the child she will soon bear and of the death of her grandmother; he drives through the landscape and walks through the forest, talking in Chinook Wawa of ghosts and growing his hair. Hopinka’s own Chinook Wawa voiceover is ever on hand to augment and extrapolate from their accounts, broadening the focus to creation myths and legends of the afterlife. The camerawork and the soundtrack take a similar tack, ever straying from the main flow to take in canoe rides, ravishingly slowed down ceremonies, meteorites, natural textures, and tall cliffs bisected by sunlight, listening out for drum rhythms, rushing waves, and trickling streams that intermingle with the great washes of music, as sound and image keep separating and reuniting with graceful fluidity. Like in these traditions, like in this film, let the current take you. (James Lattimer)

Sky Hopinka: WAWA (2014, K), VENITE ET LOQUAMUR (2015), VISIONS OF AN ISLAND (2016, K), DISLOCATION BLUES (2017, K), FAINTING SPELLS (2018, K), CLOUDLESS BLUE EGRESS OF SUMMER (2019, K), LORE (2019, K)