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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

One Heart Festival will feature Sherman Alexie

Dan Webster

In January of 1998, I attended my first Sundance Film Festival. I ended up seeing a number of good movies, mingling with the Park City crowds and seeing the occasional star, but my best experience was the very reason I was there in the first place: to see "Smoke Signals."

You know the movie, right? Directed by Chris Eyre, it was written by Sherman Alexie, who adapted the screenplay from a story in his collection "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."

Certainly, you know Alexie. The Seatle-based poet/novelist/ranconteur was born and raised in Wellpinit, attended and graduated from Reardan High School, attended both Gonzaga and Washington State Universities, earned early fame as a poet, then as a stage presence (his readings were always entertaining and surprising), then as a novelist and, in 2007, winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

If you don't know of "Smoke Signals" or of Alexie, you'll have a chance to get acquainted with both on Sept. 30 when the film will screen at The Bing Crosby Theater as part of the One Heart Native Arts and Film Festival.

Sponsored by a consortium of groups, from the Kalispell Tribe of Indians and Northern Quest Casino to the Spokane International Film Festival, the two-day One Heart Festival aims "to share and showcase innovative, compelling, and empowering stories from Native perspectives through film, art, and music, celebrating the diversity and vitality of contemporary Native culture in our community today."

And along with the two days of film, which will be held Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, the event will feature a 7:30 p.m. screening of "Smoke Signals" and a panel discussion with some of the cast and crew, including Alexie himself. For ticket information, click here.

If you go, remember: Thomas Builds-the-Fire says hello.