Abstract
The films of Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/ Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) aesthetically intervene in photography and cinema’s historical complicities with settler colonialism. This article explores how Hopinka’s filmmaking practice undisciplines vision as it has been constructed and sustained by settler visual regimes. Situating close readings and his broader practice within Indigenous concepts and contexts, this article accounts for the ethical and political dimensions of Hopinka’s poetic approach. In analyzing the significance of Hopinka’s audiovisual methods, Ruíz introduces the architectural concept of “desire lines” to encompass Hopinka’s contributions to undisciplining vision, both on and off-screen. Selected films in this essay include: wawa (2014), Jáaji Approx. (2015), I’ll Remember You as You Were, not as What You’ll Become (2016), Dislocation Blues (2017), and maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (2020). The postscript introduces the COUSIN collective, a collaboration between Hopinka and fellow Indigenous filmmakers Alexandra Lazarowich, Adam Khalil, and Adam Piron.
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