INTO THE CIRCLE
One Native American Family's Path to Home
The short film Into the Circle tells the multi-generational story of a Native American family who finds its home through a nearby school called NACA. Situated in Albuquerque in the same building as an Indigenous Boarding School from the 20s built to suppress American native identity, NACA provides a community for the Hollow Horns.
The film from Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris follows the Lakota Hollow Horn family. Through intimate interviews and a look inside their home, they tell us how they always felt like outsiders. Because of where they grew up and the horrible history of “kill the Indian, save the man,” the Hollow Horns never felt like they belonged on the Lakota reservation at Pine Ridge. Then, they were separated from their people when they moved to Albuquerque. They tell of the white man’s plan: kill the buffalo off and in effect kill the Lakota man leaving him with no purpose. It was a systematic genocide and murder of so much culture that white people practiced on most all the American tribes……..take the land ( the native American’s home for hundreds if not thousands of years) the food source, destroy the pride of the native American male as the provider, make the customs and the languages disappear. So the Hollow Horn family feels great anger and grief.
That was until they found the oldest son Andrew’s school in 6th grade, NACA. Andrew did not understand why public school would not educate him about other tribes history and their customs but here at NACA, people knew his Lakota name. Education in the customs and language of the Lakota was his key to a new life. They did not question his lineage or make judgments about his appearance. The school is run by Indigenous people and creates a strong sense of individual identity and community. The school serves thousands of children from many tribes. The Hollow Horn family now feels strength, unity and the ability, like the buffalo, to face the storm.
The film’s thematic layers run deep. They tackle stereotypes and assumptions about Native Americans and show the significance of mentorship. It also highlights the importance of connecting to tradition. The filmmakers were able to pull a lot from their subjects in an unobtrusive way.
“Due to our previous experience both working with and living in Indigenous communities in South Dakota, we knew from the onset that building a genuine and trusting relationship with our key subjects was paramount to the project’s success,” Griffiths and Faris said. “We made several pre-production visits in the years leading up to the start of filming to secure buy-in from both NACA leadership and the Hollow Horn family. Creating a production environment that felt casual and minimally invasive was a key creative consideration in the film’s aesthetic, which relies heavily on natural light and verité photography.”
The film is beautifully shot and told in a non-linear fashion. The storytelling is poignant and will stay with you beyond the Thanksgiving season. It will make you sickened by the role the U.S. has played in stifling the history of Native American culture and how many families are now reclaiming their stories. Watch it here, PROVOKRs.
