The Ziibiwing Center and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan were selected as one of the six U.S. screening locations of Film Forward, an initiative of the nonprofit Sundance Institute and The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Ziibiwing Center will showcase six films for the Mt. Pleasant and surrounding communities including: Amreeka by Cherien Dabis, Boy by Taika Waititi, Freedom Riders by Stanley Nelson, La Mission by Peter Bratt, A Small Act by Jennifer Arnold, and Winter's Bone by Debra Granik. Peter Bratt (Quechua) will provide a film discussion on Monday following the screening of La Mission and Taika Waititi (Te Whanau Apanui) will be on hand Tuesday to discuss his film Boy. Please visit the Ziibiwing Center website (www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing) for complete event information and details.

Sundance Institute's commitment to supporting Native American artists is woven throughout the history of the Institute. Following President and Founder Robert Redford's original vision, the Institute has remained committed to supporting Native American artists. From Sundance Institute's first support of Greg Sarris' (Coast Miwok) Grand Avenue at the June Screenwriters Lab in 1992 to Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Iñupiaq) winning the 2008 Sundance Film Festival's Short Filmmaking Jury Prize for his film Sikumi, the Native Program has built and sustained an Indigenous film circle.

Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover, support, and inspire independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. www.sundance.org

The Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways in Mount Pleasant, Mich. is the Midwest's Premier American Indian Museum. Established in 2004, the Ziibiwing Center is a distinctive treasure created to provide an enriched, diversified, and culturally relevant educational experience through its award-winning Diba Jimooyung (Telling Our Story) permanent exhibit, changing exhibits, research center, Ojibwe language immersion room, gift shop, and meeting rooms. The Ziibiwing Center is a non-profit cultural center and museum belonging to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan who also own Michigan's only four diamond casino resort, the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, and the Saganing Eagles Landing Casino located in Standish, Mich. www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing

# # # #