In this week’s featured Vision Maker Media film, filmmaker Lena Carr documents her niece’s Kinaaldá — a Navajo celebration of the transition from childhood to womanhood that the filmmaker herself was unable to experience.
In documenting the four-day coming-of-age ceremony, Carr provides a rare insider’s look at Navajo culture and the complexities of growing up Navajo in contemporary times, while telling a deeply personal story about herself and her family.
Watch “Kinaaldá: a Navajo Rite of Passage” on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website.
Check back here every Tuesday, or follow us at @amarchivepub on Twitter to keep up with featured streaming films over the 40 weeks of the celebration. You can find the complete schedule here.
About Vision Maker Media
Vision Maker Media is the premier source for quality American Indian and Alaska Native educational and home videos. All aspects of Vision Maker Media programs encourage the involvement of young people to learn more about careers in the media – to be the next generation of storytellers. Vision Maker Media envisions a world changed and healed by understanding Native stories and the public conversations they generate.
With funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Vision Maker Media’s Public Media Content Fund awards support to projects with a Native American theme and significant Native involvement that ultimately benefits the entire public media community. Vision Maker Media, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) empowers and engages Native People to tell stories. For more information, www.visionmakermedia.org
Each week for the next forty weeks, a different film featuring Native voices from Native producers will be available to stream free online, in celebration of Vision Maker Media’s 40 years supporting American Indian and Alaska Native film projects.
Follow Vision Maker Media on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Pinterest, or Google+.
blog.americanarchive.org 
I am having trouble viewing this weeks movie: Kinaalda: Navajo Rite of Passage. I follow the links but it and I search for it and it says it can not find my request.
Hi idella – thank you for letting us know about the problem! Here is a direct link to the video on our site: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_508-db7vm43j94
Before you can view it, you will be asked to confirm an agreement indicating that you accept our access policies for use of the material. After you agree, you’ll be taken to a page where you can watch the film. Please let me know if you continue to have difficulty viewing it!
Best,
Rebecca