- Description:
- DVD - Region 1. viewing copy. 2 videodiscs of 2.
- Notes:
- This set of films was created in 1966 on the Navajo Reservation in Pine Springs, Arizona by Navajo students of Sol Worth and Richard Chalfren, working together with John Adair, an anthropologist who had worked in Pine Springs since the 1930s. Worth and Adair were interested to see if a distinct visual language would emerge when people from a particular culture were taught to use cameras.
Titles
+ Intrepid Shadows
- Director:
- Clah, Al
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 18 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1966
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- Alfred Clah was an artist from a community outside of Pine Springs. As Sol Worth and John Adair never did a formal life history interview with Clah, we don’t know as much about his early life as we know about the other students. Similarly, there are no images of or by Clah included in the Worth Papers. We do know that at the time of the project, he was a 19 year old student at the Institute of American Indian Art at Santa Fe. There, he studied painting and sculpting, and he had watched around a hundred documentary films.
This film focuses on the trees, rocks, and signature images of the hoop and Yeibechai mask.
+ Navajo Silversmith
- Director:
- Nelson, John
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 21 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1966
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- Nelson was born in Indian Wells, a community seventy miles from Pine Springs. At the time of the project, he was 33 years old and married to Ruby Burnsides. Vice-chairman of the local chapter, Nelson was heavily involved with community politics. When Sol Worth met him, he was working for The Griswolds’ Pine Springs trading post.
When Johnny asked Worth if he himself could be a student, it was clear that he was interested in the many possibilities that filmmaking could afford him. It seems that this enthusiasm only increased as the project went on; in one interview with Worth, he said “What I really want to see is something that can move in front of my eyes and that I took myself.”. He was also the only student to make two films. This documentary focuses on the location, refinement, and craftsmanship of silver art.
+ Navajo Weaver, A
- Director:
- Benally, Susie
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 22 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1966
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary, Female Directors
- Notes:
- Benally was born and raised in Pine Springs, where she attended the same elementary school that Sol Worth and John Adair used for their filmmaking classes. Of all of the students, Benally was perhaps the most connected with Navajo traditions. She was a skilled weaver, and began to help her mother, the weaver Alta Kahn, at the age of eight. By the age of eleven, she was weaving sashes with her mother, and at fifteen she was able to weave rugs. During the summer of 1966, Benally was living with one or more of her children at her mother’s house, while her husband served in the military. Worth and Adair emphasized that while Benally was one of their shyest students, she was also, by their standards, one of the most talented filmmakers in the group.
An experimental film by Susie Benally which depicts the creation process of a Navajo Weaver.
+ Old Antelope Lake
- Director:
- Anderson, Mike
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 13 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1966
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- Anderson was born in Pine Springs, and was educated in Gallup and Phoenix. He also spent three years working in San Francisco. At twenty-four, Anderson joined the Navajo project, most likely as a way to earn money in order to attend barber’s school.
This film documents a boy drawing and using water from Old Antelope Lake.
+ Second Weaver
- Director:
- Kahn, Alta
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 9 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1966
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- The Worth papers contain little information about Kahn, and no journal. She was a renowned weaver, and she raised eight children, including Susie Benally. Her youngest son, Alfred Kahn Sr., appeared in Benally’s film. Kahn spoke only Navajo and lived with her husband, Jack, in a traditional hogan with no electricity or running water.
This film focuses on Navajo weaving.
+ Shallow Well Project, The
- Director:
- Nelson, John
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 15 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1966
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- Nelson was born in Indian Wells, a community seventy miles from Pine Springs. At the time of the project, he was 33 years old and married to Ruby Burnsides. Vice-chairman of the local chapter, Nelson was heavily involved with community politics. When Sol Worth met him, he was working for The Griswolds’ Pine Springs trading post.
When Johnny asked Worth if he himself could be a student, it was clear that he was interested in the many possibilities that filmmaking could afford him. It seems that this enthusiasm only increased as the project went on; in one interview with Worth, he said “What I really want to see is something that can move in front of my eyes and that I took myself.”. He was also the only student to make two films. This short follows a group of Indians as they survey, excavate, and install a water well and pump on a Navajo Reservation.
+ Spirit of Navajos, The
- Director:
- Tosie, Maxine; Tsosie, Mary Jane
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 17 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1966
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary, Female Directors
- Notes:
- Mary Jane and Maxine were sisters born in Pine Springs, but they spent little time there. They were the daughters of Juan Tsosie, the chapter chairman, and the granddaughters of Sam Yazzie, a celebrated medicine man. They wanted to make a film about traditional Navajo culture in the hopes of learning more about it themselves. Mary Jane was 21 at the time of the project, and Maxine was 17.
Their work is an experimental film from directors Mary J. Tsosie and Maxine Tsosie which focuses on the role of the Medicine Man in the Navajo culture.
+ Behind the Scenes
- Director:
- Chalfen, Richard
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 11 minutes
- Sound:
- silent - no soundtrack
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1966
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- A short clip that shows some footage of the making of Navajo Film Themselves, including advertising for the world premiere.
+ Pine Springs Then and Now
- Director:
- uncredited
- Production Co:
- Penn Museum
- Running Time:
- Short. 18 minutes
- Sound:
- sound - stereo 2.0
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 2011
- Language:
- English language
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Notes:
- This short documentary gives a sense of the lives of the films and filmmakers after the project. The filmmakers even visit some of the filming locations.