TULSA, Okla. – The Indian Territory Film Festival held a screening of writer/director/star Kanhetiio Horn’s (Mohawk) Indigenous horror-comedy film “Seeds” on February 22, 2025, at Circle Cinema with a special virtual appearance by Horn and an in person Q&A with co-star Dallas Goldtooth (Dakota/Navajo).
“Seeds” follows rising social media influencer Ziggy (2024 Director’s Guild of Canada DGC Discovery Award Winner Horn), who has recently accepted her first sponsorship from a seed company, Nature’s Own, as she travels back to her Mohawk Reservation to house sit for her cousin (Goldtooth). Exciting as it is, Ziggy learns the opportunity for social media fame comes at a price. What follows is a dark examination of Native food sovereignty, protecting traditional lifeways, and bloody good laughs.
“The one that we have chosen for this year is by Tio Horn. And it’s about food sovereignty and big seed and big farm and all of the genetically modified foods that we’re fed every day,” said ITFF cofounder Angela Pruner Startz (Inupiaq).
“This is her attempt to show that Natives, we have these heritage farms, we have heritage seeds and we want to be involved in the conversation about clean eating and defending our right to be healthy.”
The Indian Territory Film Festival, co-founded by Alicia Nevaquaya (Choctaw), Tvli Jacob (Choctaw), and Startz, started as an effort to bring alternative Indigenous programming to Tulsa.
“It is the second year and we’re so excited to share it with Tulsa and our Indigenous community,” said Nevaquaya.
“It started with a discussion with Alicia who said that we needed more films being presented here at Tulsa, Oklahoma and in all of Oklahoma itself, Indian Territory, right?” continued Jacob. “And so (Alicia’s) like, ‘We need to have movies shown. We need to let them know that our Native stories need to be shown.’”
“Seeds” was the only offering this year but after the film’s success, which necessitated a second theater to handle the overflow of viewers, Indian Territory Film Festival is looking to a brighter future.
“We want to expand what we offer, you know last year we were able to offer a workshop. We’re working on some things for next year, but as we move forward we want to be able to make sure that we lift up our next generation of storytellers so that they can learn that they can do this too,” said Startz.
The Festival kicked off with a reception catered by Kim and Annette Arkeketa (Otoe-Missouria) and live painting by Dana Tiger (Mvskoke) with a flute performance by Timothy Nevaquaya (Comanche) after the screening.
The Indian Territory Film Festival was sponsored by Tulsa Film Collective, NYU Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies, Center for Poets and Writers at OSU-Tulsa, Cherokee Film, the Choctaw Nation, and Nevaquaya Fine Arts.
