Recovering Voices

02/21/2024

Today is and to celebrate we are hosting a 4-day Mother Tongue Film Festival from Feb 21-24 across the Smithsonian and Washington DC, featuring 26 languages in 23 films from around the world as well as several film makers, actors and directors. Many events are filling up, so get your tickets reserved today! All events are free and open to the public.

We start tonight at 7pm at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, seats are first come first serve. Charley Hogan from the feature film, Frybread Face and Me, will be joining us for Q&A and autographs after the film. Check out the full schedule: https://mothertongue.si.edu

02/14/2024

Do you know your love language?? Or, like us, do you simply LOVE languages? Join us next week for the ninth Annual Mother Tongue Film Festival to experience 27 languages in 23 films from February 21-24, 2024 across the National Mall. Check out the full schedule and get your tickets now! ❤️🩷💜🩵

The Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity by showcasing films and filmmakers from around the world.

02/12/2024

In the DC area and still looking for plans? Join us for the 9th Annual Mother Tongue Film Festival February 21-24, 2024 across the National Mall featuring 23 films in 27 languages from 12 regions. This year's theme is "Finding Balance". Full program: mothertongue.si.edu

All events are free and open to the public, although some require advance registration. All films are fully open captioned or subtitled in English, and American Sign Language interpretation will be provided for all Q&As and discussions. All venues are wheelchair accessible. We hope to see you there!

The Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity by showcasing films and filmmakers from around the world.

01/11/2024

Application Deadline Extended! Applications are now accepted until January 31, 2024! Please email us at [email protected] with any questions.

Our Community Research Program Call for Proposals is now open. Submissions accepted November 15, 2023 - January 15, 2024. Application materials and more information available at Recoveringvoices.si.edu

12/21/2023

📹 We invite you to explore personal journeys of harmony during the Smithsonian’s next Mother Tongue Film Festival! From Wednesday, February 21, to Saturday, February 24, Mother Tongue 2024 returns with the theme of finding balance and harmony.

The ninth annual festival is a collaboration between the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Folklife, and Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. It includes in-person screenings on the National Mall. Events are free, and all are welcome.

The Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity by showcasing films and filmmakers from around the world.

11/16/2023

Our Community Research Program Call for Proposals is now open. Submissions accepted November 15, 2023 - January 15, 2024. Application materials and more information available at Recoveringvoices.si.edu

11/09/2023

Exciting opportunity starting 2024 from the Endangered Languages Project, check it out!

06/27/2023

The newest exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is curated by Recovering Voices Curator of Globalization and Anthropologist Joshua A. Bell and is now open! "Cellphone: Unseen Connections" features global stories and natural histories of cellphones, and explores the material, social, and linguistic dimensions of human lives at the local and global scale. Don't miss it! 📱

03/09/2023

In partnership with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, we are pleased to present the U.S. premiere of "AbdzÉ Wede´Õ: Is there a cure for the virus?" directed by Divino Tserewahú.

Narrated in the first person by Divino Tserewahú, the film highlights the desperate struggle of his village, Sangradouro, in the east of Mato Grosso, to survive the most tragic epidemic known to the Xavante nation. Through archival materials and images captured by Divino during the pandemic, the film seeks to relate a traumatic past with the reality of Covid-19 in the Xavante villages.

Register to screen the film virtually beginning March 17: https://bit.ly/MT23DCEFF

03/01/2023

Happy Women's History Month! Each year, Mother Tongue celebrates the role of women in language transmission. Our 2022 Women Directors Panel discussed the courage required to portray difficult realities for a more balanced future.

Looking for more content? Head over to the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum page to make sure women's history is part of your social media feeds.

Every year, Mother Tongue presents a roundtable with women directors to honor the role of women in language transmission. This year, we bring together women ...

02/28/2023

And that's a wrap! A special thank you to everyone—from our attendees to partners to volunteers—who came out to support the eighth annual Mother Tongue Film Festival. It was a joy to host you all back in person, and we can't wait for next year's festival.

Miss one of our screenings? Don't worry. A selection of films from the festival are available on our website—just look for the eye symbol: mothertongue.si.edu

02/25/2023

Before our Sunday evening program, join us and the Mexican Cultural Institute DC for our closing ceremony at 5:30 pm in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden lobby!

The closing ceremony will feature a performance from the Uptown Singerz, a DC-based intertribal drum group. In addition, light refreshments will be available from Dolcezza Coffee & Gelato. We look forward to seeing you there!

02/25/2023

Keep warm on this chilly day with the Mother Tongue Film Festival! Free films are screening all day at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium. Stop by!

Explore our schedule: mothertongue.si.edu

02/24/2023

Thanks to all who attended the opening night of the 2023 Mother Tongue Film Festival! We've added more tickets to our Friday and Sunday programs, so be sure to snag one before they sell out again.

Hope to see you there!
🎟️: http://mothertongue.si.edu

02/23/2023

Our eighth annual Mother Tongue Film Festival opens tonight! We hope to see you throughout the weekend as our events pop up across the National Mall.

And in case you haven't already—be sure to register for our Saturday and Sunday programs: mothertongue.si.edu

02/22/2023

Shaped through ancestral, historical, and contemporary migration, home within Oceania is rooted in place and defined by these routes. The three films within this program explore the ways communities in Papua New Guinea, Hawai‘i, and Aotearoa New Zealand are calling out the injustices of settler colonialism and resource extraction, and asserting their sovereignty.

Join us Saturday night for "Routes of, and Routes to, Home" presented with the New Zealand Embassy - Washington, D.C..

Tickets 🎟️: http://bit.ly/MT23Roots

02/21/2023

In celebration of International Mother Language Day, Mother Tongue intern Katya Yegorov-Crate dives into the world of "Sakhawood."

Want to learn more? Attend our program "Youth & Language Revitalization: Sakha Media School in Russia" this Friday! Register: bit.ly/MT23Sakha

The Sakha Republic in Russia is often known for its wealth of natural resources and extreme climatic conditions.

02/16/2023

When the tide of first contact and “modernism” hits cultures, there is often a period of adopting new skills and technologies by the host culture. When the churning of waves subsides, there is a focus on going back to the tangible heritage from generations past.

On Saturday, February 25th, our noon shorts program examines going back to the source and returning to the traditions of ancestors. Register: bit.ly/MT23Traditions

02/15/2023

On Friday, February 24th, join us as we take a deep dive into Sakha, an Indigenous language of the Subarctic Sakha Republic, Russia and ongoing youth-focused revitalization efforts.
The screening features three youth-directed shorts made in the Sakha Media School, organized in partnership with Smithsonian Folklife's Language Vitality Initiative.

Want to learn more? Attend: http://bit.ly/MT23Sakha

02/13/2023

From our friends at Folklife Magazine, an exploration into "Coming Home," the theme of this year's Mother Tongue Film Festival.

After two years of online programming, the Mother Tongue Film Festival is Coming Home.

02/11/2023

“Lost birds” – a term for Native children adopted out of their tribal communities. Soon after the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was enacted, Kendra Mylnechuk Potter was adopted into a white family and raised without knowledge of her Native parentage. “Daughter of a Lost Bird” follows Kendra on her journey to find her birth mother April, also a Native adoptee, and return to her Lummi homelands in Washington State.

On Thursday, February 23, join us for a conversation with Kendra and director Brooke Swaney about the film: bit.ly/MT23Opening

02/09/2023

27 Films. 23 Languages. 12 Regions.

For the 2023 Mother Tongue Film Festival, we celebrate the warmth of home and acknowledge the treacherous journey that often accompanies the return after a long time away.

In celebration of the theme Coming Home, the festival returns to in-person programming on the National Mall, Thursday, February 23- Sunday, February 26.

After two years online, we are thrilled to return home. View our schedule and register to attend: https://mothertongue.si.edu/

During the festival, the National Museum of the American Indian will be the host venue for a screening of "Night Raiders" on Sunday, February 26, 2 pm ET (https://bit.ly/3DSw7ve). "Night Raiders" along with a few of the other films were also part of our 2022 Native Cinema Showcase. Catch those selections this month if you missed them, or watch again and tell a friend!

02/07/2023

27 Films. 23 Languages. 12 Regions.

For the 2023 Mother Tongue Film Festival, we celebrate the warmth of home and acknowledge the treacherous journey that often accompanies the return after a long time away.

In celebration of the theme Coming Home, the festival returns to in-person programming on the National Mall, February 23 to 26. After two years online, we are thrilled to return home!

View our schedule and register to attend: https://mothertongue.si.edu

02/03/2023

The Mother Tongue Film Festival returns in person, February 23–26! Looking forward to attending and want to lend a hand? We are seeking volunteers to help with screenings in DC: taking tickets, preparing venues for panel discussions, and conducting evaluations.

Sign up: https://s.si.edu/3HOV5hn

02/01/2023

The Harar region of Eastern Ethiopia once grew a number of lucrative crops for export. Now, the economy is entirely dependent on the cultivation of khat, a psychoactive plant that is deeply woven into the lives of its cultivators. In a dream-like unfolding, "Faya Dayi" explores the complicated nature of this crop in Harar, from the physical to the spiritual.

This is the first feature documentary by Mexican Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir and a documented return to her hometown, from which she and her family fled to avoid political strife when she was a teenager.

On Saturday, February 25 at 3 pm, the Mother Tongue Film Festival will host Beshir for a deeper exploration of the film in a Q&A following the screening. Registration for this event and more goes live on mothertongue.si.edu, on February 7th.

01/19/2023

Looking for a sneak peek of this year’s Mother Tongue Film Festival lineup? Our director Amalia Córdova shared some highlights with the Washington Post—including a selection of shorts from the Sakha Republic and an experimental Ethiopian film spanning three languages: Harari, Amharic, and Oromo.

“After two years of virtual lineups, the Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival is back in person this spring, with dozens of features and short films highlighting Indigenous cultures and languages shown at Smithsonian museums and other venues.”

The long-running Mother Tongue Film Festival and Festival of Films From Iran return for in-person screenings.