Skip to main content

About

The Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity by showcasing films and filmmakers from around the world, highlighting the crucial role languages play in our daily lives.

Where and how do we find balance? To create balance is to connect the many branches of our existence, and to connect is to reach an enduring harmony. In 2024, the Mother Tongue Film Festival showcased films that record personal journeys and explore the drive to find balance and harmony within our world, communities, families, and selves.

Thank you to the visitors, filmmakers, and volunteers who helped make our ninth annual festival a success! Want to share your feedback? Please take our audience survey.

Films marked with below are available to stream in full on our website after the festival.

Our Mission

Through digital storytelling, the festival amplifies the work of diverse practitioners who explore the power of language to connect the past, present, and future.

Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge with respect the Piscataway people on whose traditional territory the Smithsonian stands and whose relationship with the land west of the Chesapeake Bay continues today.

Frybread Face and Me

Wednesday, February 21, 7–9 pm
Rasmuson Theater, National Museum of the American Indian

For our opening night, we are pleased to present Billy Luther’s first narrative feature, followed by a Q&A with one of the film’s protagonists, Charley Hogan (Navajo).

Regeneration

Thursday, February 22, 7–9:15 pm
Ring Auditorium, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Stories of loss, revelation, and recovery can lead us on the path to restoring a sense of wholeness. In this program, youth confront generational trauma and seek to break through for a brighter future. Following the screening, stay for a Q&A with director Xun Sero.

This program is presented with support from the Embassy of Mexico in the United States and the Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington, DC.

Reclaiming Knowledge

Friday, February 23, 12–1:30 pm
Q?rius, National Museum of Natural History

As a result of colonization, much Indigenous knowledge was destroyed or extracted, with many sacred objects finding their way to museums overseas. How can Indigenous scholars and communities reclaim their patrimony and reconnect with the knowledges embedded in their objects? We’ll explore questions of return and reclamation in this film and the Q&A that follows with the director and Ñuu Savi cultural experts.

Redrawing the Lines

Friday, February 23, 2–3:45 pm
Q?rius, National Museum of Natural History

How can we find balance when on opposing sides? Can we build spaces for listening and leveling the playing field? A discussion with director Francisco Huichaqueo will follow the screening.

Memory and Renewal

Friday, February 23, 4–6:15 pm
Friedman Family Auditorium, Planet Word

We invite you on a poignant journey through identity and cultural revival. These films paint a vivid portrait of the struggles and triumphs in reclaiming Indigenous languages. Grape Soda in the Parking Lot and ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak) each uniquely testify to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of erasure, highlighting the vital role language plays in connecting us to our past, present, and future. Join us for an evening screening that reflects on and celebrates the power of memory and words to create change.

This program is presented in collaboration with Planet Word.

Bridging Worlds

Friday, February 23, 7–9:15 pm
Friedman Family Auditorium, Planet Word

In this program, two films intersect at the crossroads of love and resistance. Aikāne and Y SŴN illustrate the spiritual connections that can be formed and the cultural ties that can be broken in the fight against political repression. Though artistically varied, both display the transformative power of commitment, be it to a person or a cause, iterating the fight for identity as a universal narrative. Join this evening screening, followed by a Q&A, and celebrate the indomitable spirit of humanity in its many facets.

This program is presented in collaboration with Planet Word and with support from the Welsh Government in DC.

Sustenance

Saturday, February 24, 11 am–1:45 pm
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History

These collected shorts from around the world explore different dimensions of finding sustenance—whether through connecting to place and kin, cooking and eating food, or different forms of artistic expression. Evoking the many dimensions and transformations in these ongoing practices, these films reveal the various ways humans connect to their world. Stay after the films for a Q&A with attending directors.

Hidden Letters

Saturday, February 24, 1–3 pm
Meyer Auditorium, National Museum of Asian Art

Nüshu, a clandestine language created and used solely by Yao women in Hunan Province, offers a unique legacy that unites its practitioners. Delving into the lives of women in modern China bound by the once-secret script, Hidden Letters is a poignant exploration of female bonds and the generational echoes of gendered oppression in China. The documentary artfully portrays two women’s journeys as they grapple with the complexities of independence and traditional expectations that both define and confine them. Join us for this inspiring screening followed by a Q&A with director Violet Du Feng, diving deeper into Nüshu’s enduring legacy.

The Wind & the Reckoning

Saturday, February 24, 3–5:15 pm
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History

What lengths would you go to keep your family together? Inspired by real-life events, The Wind & the Reckoning explores Native Hawaiians’ stand against government-mandated exile due to leprosy. This film is a powerful statement about the dynamics of resistance and is a point of reflection on the dislocation caused by disease and settler-colonialism in Hawai‘i. Stay after the film for a discussion with Smithsonian curator Halena Kapuni-Reynolds.

We Are Still Here

Saturday, February 24, 7–9:45 pm
Ring Auditorium, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Join us for a ceremonial drum blessing closing out our festival, leading into our final film screenings. How does one find balance in the wake of disruptive events? We explore this process through two films that use humor and empathy to make sense of the experience of colonialism and survivance. Each film is a multilayered exploration of the power of telling and retelling stories as a way of finding balance.


Venue Map


Accessibility

Open Captioning icon.

All films are fully open captioned or subtitled in English.

American Sign Language icon.

American Sign Language interpretation will be provided for Q&As and discussions.

Wheelchair Accessible icon.

All venues are wheelchair accessible.

We strive to maintain an accessible and inclusive environment for all attendees, visiting filmmakers, and staff. For questions about access services, please email folklife@si.edu.


Partners

The Mother Tongue Film Festival is a public program of Recovering Voices, a collaboration between Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and the Asian Pacific American Center. Find related resources through Folklife’s Mother Tongue Media and Language Vitality Initiative.

Recovering Voices logo.
National Museum of Natural History logo.
National Museum of the American Indian logo.
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage logo.
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center logo.

This program received federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the National Museum of the American Latino.

This program also received support from Arenet, the Embassy of Australia in Washington DC, the Embassy of Mexico in the United States, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, the Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington DC, New Zealand Embassy to the United States of America, Planet Word, the Welsh Government in DC, and The Elizabeth and Whitney MacMillan Endowment.

The Americas Research Network logo
Australian Embassy logo
Embassy of Mexico logo
Ferring Pharmaceuticals logo
Mexican Cultural Institute logo
New Zealand Embassy logo
Planet Word Museum logo
Welsh Government logo
TOP
NEXT Close

Frybread Face and Me

Wednesday, February 21, 7 pm
Rasmuson Theater, National Museum of the American Indian


Director

Billy Luther (Navajo, Hopi, Laguna Pueblo)

Region

United States

Languages

English, Navajo

Year

2023

Runtime

83 min.

Category

Drama

Content warning: For mature audiences. Contains coarse language.

Two adolescent Navajo cousins from different worlds bond during a summer herding sheep on their grandmother’s ranch in Arizona, learning more about their family’s past and themselves.

Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Mother’s Tongue

Thursday, February 22, 7 pm
Ring Auditorium, Hirshhorn Museum


Director

D. Wilmos Paul

Region

United States

Language

English, French

Year

2022

Runtime

16 min.

Category

Drama

Junior, an African teenager ashamed of his accent, enrolls in a creative writing club hoping he can make it through the semester without speaking… until he’s faced with his worst fear.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Mamá
Mom

Thursday, February 22, 7 pm
Ring Auditorium, Hirshhorn Museum


Director

Xun Sero (Maya Tzotzil)

Region

Mexico

Language

Spanish, Tzotzil

Year

2022

Runtime

80 min.

Category

Documentary

Content warning: For mature audiences.

In this deeply moving dialogue between a mother and son, Tzotzil director Xun Sero confronts his past with honesty, understanding, and forgiveness.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Ñii Ñu’u
Sacred Skin

Friday, February 23, 12 pm
Q?rius, National Museum of Natural History


Director

Omar Aguilar Sánchez

Region

Mixteca (Oaxaca, Mexico)

Languages

Sa’an Savi / Tu’un Savi (Language of the Rain or Mixtec), Spanish

Year

2022

Runtime

45 min.

Category

Documentary

The Ñii Ñu’u, or sacred books, are codices that contain the history and worldview of the Ñuu Savi (People of the Rain, or Mixtec people). Today, none of the surviving Mixtec codices are in the hands of the community. After 500 years, director and scholar Omar Aguilar Sánchez has interpreted the codices based on the knowledge of his own language and culture, teaching communities how to read the codices, offering workshops, and recreating the pictorial writing to support their identity, with practical implications for the community in the creation of an official logo.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

I Am Home

Friday, February 23, 2 pm
Q?rius, National Museum of Natural History


Director

Kymon Greyhorse (Diné, Tongan)

Region

United States

Languages

English, Diné

Year

2022

Runtime

3 min.

Category

Experimental

This poetic memoir is a love letter that speaks of introspection and what it means to rediscover who you are and cherish where you come from.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Künü

Friday, February 23, 2 pm
Q?rius, National Museum of Natural History


Director

Francisco Huichaqueo (Mapuche)

Region

Wallmapu (Chile)

Languages

Mapuzungún, Spanish

Year

2022

Runtime

62 min.

Category

Documentary

Mapuche and Chileans have always been in conflict. So how will they live together? First, by getting to know each other. Once the field is leveled, a conversation can begin. This film presents a crisp portrait of the process behind an architectural structure that aims to start a conversation.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Grape Soda in the Parking Lot

Friday, February 23, 4 pm
Friedman Family Auditorium, Planet Word


Directors

Megan Kyak-Monteith (Inuk), Taqralik Partridge (Inuk)

Region

Canada

Languages

English, French, Inuktitut

Year

2023

Runtime

8 min.

Category

Animation

What if every language that had been lost to English—every word, every syllable—grew up out of the ground in flowers? The Scottish Gaelic of Taqralik Partridge’s grandmother and the Inuktitut of her father unfold in memories of her family, of pain, and of love.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak)

Friday, February 23, 4 pm
Friedman Family Auditorium, Planet Word


Directors

ᎤᎶᎩᎳ/Schon Duncan (United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee), Michael McDermit

Regions

Oklahoma and North Carolina, United States

Languages

Cherokee, English

Year

2023

Runtime

94 min.

Category

Documentary

The Cherokee language is deeply tied to Cherokee identity, yet generations of assimilation efforts by the U.S. government and anti-Indigenous stigmas have forced the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a state of emergency for the language in 2019. While there are 430,000 Cherokee citizens in the three federally recognized tribes, fewer than an estimated 1,500 fluent speakers remain—the majority of whom are elderly. The COVID pandemic has unfortunately hastened the course. Language activists, artists, and youth now lead efforts to use and hear Cherokee again in daily life.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Aikāne

Friday, February 23, 7 pm
Friedman Family Auditorium, Planet Word


Directors

Daniel Sousa, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson

Region

Hawai‘i

Language

None (silent)

Year

2023

Runtime

14 min.

Category

Animation

A valiant island warrior, wounded in battle against foreign invaders, falls into a mysterious underwater world. Everything changes when the octopus who rescues him transforms into a handsome young man.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Y SŴN

Friday, February 23, 7 pm
Friedman Family Auditorium, Planet Word


Director

Lee Haven Jones

Region

Swansea and Penarth, Wales

Languages

Welsh, English

Year

2023

Runtime

89 min.

Category

Drama

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher swept to power in 1979 with a manifesto that promised to establish a Welsh-language television channel. Months into her premiership, she reneged on her promise and sparked protests in Wales. Against a backdrop of civil disobedience, the iconic politician Gwynfor Evans vows to starve to death unless the government changes course. In Y SŴN, one of the most colorful chapters of modern Welsh history is told in an imaginative and unique style.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Imalirijit

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Directors

Vincent L’Herault, Time Anaviapik Soucie (Inuit)

Region

Canada

Language

Inuktitut

Year

2021

Runtime

28 min.

Category

Documentary

Tim is a young father living in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. As his grandfather did before, he wants to start his own study of water quality to benefit his community. Tim embarks on an inspiring research journey that will lead to empowerment and cultural revitalization. The experience becomes an awakening for Tim and his team, harboring a wind of change and adaptation for this community of the Canadian Arctic.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Bhaskar Chitrakar:
Painting Kalighat Moderns

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Painting of a woman with a black cat.
Directors

Matthew Raj Webb, Ihaab Syed, Rohan Sengupta

Region

India

Languages

Bengali, Hindi

Year

2024

Runtime

11 min.

Category

Documentary

This audiovisual portrait of hereditary artist and urban chronicler Bhaskar Chitrakar explores his painting style that reimagines a centuries-old, mixed-media tradition of religious idol representation at Kolkata’s Kalighat temple.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

wA’yûnA

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Director

Serena Mosquito (Euchee)

Region

United States

Language

Euchee (Yuchi)

Year

2023

Runtime

2 min.

Category

Documentary

Bring your appetite for learning and get ready to blend up some fun! Serena Mosquito whips up a smoothie while speaking in Euchee, a linguistically distinct language spoken in Oklahoma. Equal parts humor and culinary delight, this student film is as charming as it is educational, yielding a heartwarming cultural tribute.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Ekbeh

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


A pot on a stove, with text: Step 2, Heat up the pot (sute'). Put oil (huile/bela') in.
Director

Mariah Hernandez-Fitch (Houma)

Region

United States

Languages

Houma, English, French

Year

2023

Runtime

9 min.

Category

Drama

While learning to make gumbo from her grandparents, Mariah Fernandez-Fitch draws out their personal stories as a way to honor and preserve their Indigenous history and life.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Mutsoóngo Malaávu

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Director

Rosa Vieira

Region

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Languages

Kiyombe, Kongo, Lingala

Year

2023

Runtime

19 min.

Category

Documentary

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, palm wine tapsters play a key role in Yoómbe village life. Palm wine is an alcoholic beverage, drawn from the top of the oil palm, associated with the ancestors. Limber climbers extract this ancient drink to share among family, friends, and guests.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Burros

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Director

Jefferson Stein

Region

United States

Languages

English, Spanish

Year

2021

Runtime

15 min.

Category

Drama

Set in southern Arizona, twenty miles from the Mexico border in the Tohono O’odham Nation, a six-year-old Indigenous girl (Amaya Juan) discovers a Hispanic migrant her age who has lost her father while traveling through the tribal lands into the United States.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Silt

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Director

Emilie Upczak

Region

United States

Languages

English, Navajo

Year

2022

Runtime

10 min.

Category

Drama

A botanist grieving the death of a beloved aunt travels alone to northern Mexico, where she is nourished by images of the last trip they took together, traversing the Colorado River.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

A Bata do Milho
Corn Beat

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Directors

Eduardo Liron, Renata Mattar

Region

Brazil

Language

Brazilian Portuguese

Year

2023

Runtime

16 min.

Category

Documentary

In Serra Preta of Bahia, a region of northeast Brazil with a distinctive dialect, the families of rural workers keep the tradition of work songs alive. They cultivate corn in traditional ways and come together in a joint effort throughout all stages of cultivation, including pounding the corn. Each step in the process has songs, rhythms, and festivities that emerge to manage and brighten the work process.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Nhakpoti
Star Girl

Saturday, February 24, 11 am
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Directors

Pat-i Kayapó (Mêbêngôkre-Kayapó), Paul Chilsen

Region

Brazil

Language

Mêbêngôkre

Year

2023

Runtime

15 min.

Category

Drama

Mêbêngôkre-Kayapó youth and elders reenact the story of how agriculture was brought from the heavens to their community. The Mêbêngôkre-Kayapó people live along the Xingu River in northwest Brazil, amid more than 27 million acres of rainforest. The film is the first narrative video project by the community of A’Ukre, created in collaboration with elders and the Mêbêngôkre filmmaking collective.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

Hidden Letters

Saturday, February 24, 1 pm
Meyer Auditorium, National Museum of Asian Art


Directors

Violet Du Feng, Qing Zhao

Region

China

Language

Mandarin

Year

2022

Runtime

89 min.

Category

Documentary

Watch the bonds of sisterhood—and the parallel struggles among generations of women in China—that are drawn together by the once-secret written language of Nüshu, the only script designed and used exclusively by women. Two millennials try to balance their lives as independent women in modern China while confronting the traditional identity that defines but also oppresses them.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

The Wind & the Reckoning

Saturday, February 24, 3 pm
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History


Director

David L. Cunningham

Region

Hawai‘i

Languages

English, ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i

Year

2022

Runtime

94 min.

Category

Drama

As an outbreak of leprosy engulfs nineteenth-century colonial Hawai‘i, a small group of infected Native Hawaiians resist government-mandated exile, taking a courageous stand against the provisional government.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS NEXT Close

A Bear Named Jesus

Saturday, February 24, 7 pm
Ring Auditorium, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden


Director

Terril Calder (Métis)

Region

Canada

Languages

Cree, English, French

Year

2023

Runtime

6 min.

Category

Animation

At Aunty Gladys’s funeral, Archer Pechawis heard a tap on the window. It was a bear named Jesus, and Jesus had come for Archer’s mom. Now she’s no longer recognizable—while Jesus hangs out in the shed.

PREVIOUS Close NEXT
PREVIOUS Close

We Are Still Here

Saturday, February 24, 7 pm
Ring Auditorium, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden


Directors

Beck Cole (Luritja), Dena Curtis (Warrumungu/Warlpiri), Tracey Rigney (Wotjobaluk/Ngarrindjeri), Danielle MacLean (Warumungu/Luritja), Tim Worrall (Ngai Tuhoe), Renae Maihi (Ngati Whakaue/Ngapuhi), Miki Magasiva (Samoan), Mario Gaoa (Samoan), Richard Curtis (Ngati Rongomai/Ngati Pikiao), Chantelle Burgoyne (Samoan)

Regions

Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Languages

Arrente, English, Māori, Samoan, Turkish

Year

2022

Runtime

90 min.

Category

Drama

Ten leading Indigenous filmmakers from Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and the South Pacific craft a compellingly original and insightful anthology film in response to the 250th anniversary of a historically celebrated colonizer’s invasion of their lands.

PREVIOUS Close