This Indigenous Peoples’ Month, we invite you to bring powerful Indigenous stories to your community. In recent years, Indigenous filmmakers have created a remarkable wave of documentaries and features that honor resilience, cultural survival, and ecological knowledge. Hosting a screening—whether at your school, workplace, or local gathering space—is a meaningful way to spark dialogue, strengthen connections, and celebrate Indigenous voices.

Here is a list of groundbreaking Indigenous Films you could host in your community, business, or school, or watch on your own.

Sugarcane

Winner of the 2024 Sundance Directing Award and now streaming through National Geographic Documentary Films, Sugarcane is a powerful debut from Julian Brave NoiseCat (Secwepemc/St’at’imc) and Emily Kassie. The film follows the Williams Lake First Nation’s investigation into abuse and deaths at St. Joseph’s Mission residential school, weaving survivors’ testimonies with NoiseCat’s own family history. Both epic and intimate, Sugarcane bears witness to long-buried truths while honoring the resilience and enduring love of Native families and communities.

Host a screening of Sugarcane.

Resident Orca

Resident Orca follows Lummi Nation elder Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris and Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley as they lead a decades-long fight to free Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, an orca taken from the Salish Sea in 1970 and forced to perform at the Miami Seaquarium for over 50 years. Interweaving the struggle to bring her home with reflections on salmon, sovereignty, and survival, the film reveals how the whale’s captivity mirrors the broader story of Indigenous families torn from their communities — and why her return would be an act of justice, healing, and kinship.

Host a screening of Resident Orca.

Salmon People

Salmon People follows the Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum, the “Salmon People” of the Columbia River, whose lives, cultures, and survival have long been tied to the salmon runs. Through stories of families who continue to fish, celebrate, and fight for their rights, the film reveals how dams, pollution, and climate change threaten both the salmon and the people who depend on them. At once a portrait of resilience and a call to action, Salmon People affirms that the fate of the salmon and the future of the tribes are inseparable.

Host a screening of Salmon People.

Herring Protectors

Rooted in Lingít stories and ceremony, Herring Protectors centers Kiks.ádi women who carry forward ancestral teachings of respect for the yaaw (herring). Through song, ceremony, and community organizing, they honor the herring as relatives, practice Indigenous science, and work to ensure abundance for generations to come. This short film is both a cultural teaching and a testament to sovereignty, showing how protecting herring is inseparable from protecting Indigenous lifeways.

Host a screening of Herring Protectors.

Remaining Native

Directed by Haudenosaunee filmmaker Paige Bethmann, Remaining Native follows 17-year-old Ku Stevens as he retraces the 80-kilometer escape route of his great-grandfather, who fled Nevada’s Stewart Indian School as a child. Balancing his dreams of becoming a collegiate runner with the weight of his family’s history, Ku’s story connects past and present, showing how the legacy of boarding schools continues to shape Indigenous youth today. Award-winning on the festival circuit, the film is a moving portrait of survival, resilience, and the power of remembrance.

Host a screening of Remaining Native.

Haguaa

Winner of multiple international festival awards, Haagua is a poetic story of cultural regeneration told through ocean, memory, and movement. Framed by the figure of Great Great Grandmother Ocean and her unborn son, the film traces survival and renewal across generations while following Indigenous surfers who bring ancestral wisdom back to the waves. Blending ceremony, identity, and the rhythm of surfing, Haagua celebrates resilience and the reawakening of Indigenous lifeways along the shorelines of California, Mexico, and beyond.

Host a screening of Haguaa.

Tiger

Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing, Tiger tells the story of Muscogee Creek artist and elder Dana Tiger, her family, and the revival of the iconic Tiger T-shirt company. Weaving together a legacy of art, resilience, and healing after profound family loss, the film highlights how creativity and cultural pride sustain generations — and why the Tiger name continues to inspire and endure today.

Host a screening of Tiger.