Location: Graham Auditorium
Registration required.

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we invite you to join us for a special evening featuring a screening of Without Arrows, a film that chronicles the vibrancy and struggle of a Lakȟóta family and the ways long-held traditions live on today.

The film focuses on Delwin Elk Bear Fiddler, a champion grass dancer from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, who left his reservation as a young man to escape a trauma that splintered his family and to build a new life in Philadelphia. A decade later, he abandons his new life and returns home to his reservation to fulfill his mother’s ambition and carry on the legacy of their thiyóšpaye (extended family). Following the screening, enjoy a traditional dance performed by Delwin Elk Bear Fiddler and a Q&A with Delwin and Jonathan Olshefski, one of the film’s directors.

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About the Artists

Delwin Elk Bear Fiddler is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Sans Arc band, and a world-renowned Native American performing artist. Fiddler’s accolades include performing for two U.S. presidents and England’s royal family. His traditional Grass Dance is displayed in a continual loop at the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Fiddler created the nonprofit PAZA Tree of Life to fulfill his mother’s dream of returning the people to the roots of their culture. PAZA’s goal is to promote cultural awareness with cultural exchange so that all people might learn the medicine ways of his ancestors who have walked the earth for thousands of years. Fiddler believes that through empowerment and reconciliation, healing can occur. Like his ancestor Crazy Horse, he sees the future with all people working together in harmony for the greater good of humankind.

Jonathan Olshefski is an artist and documentary filmmaker whose debut feature documentary Quest premiered at Sundance in 2017. He was named as one of 25 New Faces in Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine and mentioned in The New York Times as one of “The 9 New Directors You Need to Watch.” In 2018, he received the “Truer Than Fiction Award” at the Independent Spirit Awards and was selected for a Pew Artist Fellowship. Olshefski strives to tell intimate and nuanced stories that honor his protagonists’ complexity by employing a production process that emphasizes collaboration, dialogue, and relationships to amplify their voices and reflect their points of view in an artful way. He is a professor at Rowan University and lives in Philadelphia.

Available resources: Assistive Listening Devices, Seating, Sensory Kits
Accessibility resources and accommodations are available for programs and events. Please email [email protected] with questions and requests. We will make every effort to provide accommodations. Visit our accessibility web page for more information.