Minnesota film festival highlights Indigenous stories [Video]

MINNEAPOLIS — “You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

That’s one of the things filmmaker Rita Davern said she learned as she worked on her documentary Stories I Didn’t Know. The film delves into her family’s history of settling on land that belonged to the Dakota people.

Davern’s documentary was one of six productions featured in the MNmicro Film Festival in St. Louis Park on Sunday. Hosted by Twin Cities Film Fest, the free event took place in honor of Native American Heritage Month.

“Pike Island has a really amazing Indigenous history that I didn’t know,” Davern said ahead of her documentary’s screening. “And I knew I had no right to tell that story.”

That’s why Stories I Didn’t Know features Ramona Kitto Stately and her son Reuben, who share their family’s history in the film.

“We have 12,000 …