A 50-year-old audio recording of a disappearing language
The director Sky Hopinka is given a 50-year-old audio recording of his grandmother’s voice, in which she is learning the Pechanga language from her own mother. He decides to delve into his family's history on a road trip across his chosen home in Whatcom County, Washington, where his family still lives, far from their homelands in Southern California, yet a home nonetheless.
Kicking the Clouds by Sky Hopinka – US, 16 min
Contender of the official Jury Award at BBC Reel’s third annual LongShots film festival.
Here is the jury statement by the esteemed LongShots 2022 Jury Committee, including Sara Dosa, Courtney Stephens, Alejandro Loayza Grisi and Jourdain Searles.
'The LongShots Jury Award goes to a deeply felt, cinematic journey woven from memory, absence, relatives, earth, sky and language. A transcendent poem of intergenerational transmission, both of knowledge and suffering. With unique sensitivity and cinematographic exquisiteness, Sky Hopinka transports you to the skin and feelings of the other, without great pretensions and only pure feelings, making a private history an immersive cinematic experience.'
