When
Where
The Indigenous Resilience Center (IRes) will co-sponsor a screening of Return of Navajo Boy, an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and PBS, with the Southwest Center, the School of Theater, Film, and Television, and the American Indian Studies Department. This 25th-anniversary screening will take place on Sunday, February 15th at 1 pm, with panels featuring folks from the film and a reception.
Agenda:
1 pm: Opening blessing (Dr. Alberta Arviso), welcome, and screening
2:30 pm Legacy panel discussion with Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, Jeff Spitz (director), John Wayne Cly, Lorenzo Begay (narrator), Cory Begay, and Dilan Erteber
3:30 pm: Uranium mining panel discussion with Dr. Karletta Chief, Dr. Cherie DeVore, Dr. Joe Hoover
4:30 pm: Reception
Parking Information
Closest Option: The Sixth Street Parking Garage is the most convenient choice, located just steps from the ENR2 building - Rate: $2.25/hour (maximum charge: $9)
Free Parking:
Several free off-campus lots are available just south of Sixth Street. We recommend: Lot 7103, Lot 7227, and Lot 7167. These are about a three-minute walk to ENR2. Please read all posted signage before parking. Limited street parking is available in the surrounding area. Please note that many nearby streets require a residential permit; proceed with caution.
The panel discussion will feature the filmmaker Jeff Spitz and Navajo elders who appeared in this landmark documentary about the effects of uranium mining, the film industry, off-reservation adoption, and the legacy of nuclear colonialism on the Navajo Nation.
The Return of Navajo Boy is an intimate Navajo-centered story focused on one family’s incredible history in pictures. Pictures voiced suddenly by the photo subjects break stereotypes and reveal a hidden history of abandoned uranium mines, radioactive contamination, and the haunting mystery of a long-lost child taken by missionaries in the 1950s.
The event is co-sponsored by the Southwest Center, the Indigenous Resilience Center, the Superfund Research Center, the School of Theater, Film, and Television, and the American Indian Studies Department at the University of Arizona.
A Chicago-based Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and Associate Film Professor Emeritus Jeff Spitz leads workshops in storytelling, documentary, film history and social impact media. He has developed innovative media arts programs with funders, non-profits and academic departments ranging from environmental science and Native American studies to dance and fashion.
Film Description:
The Return of Navajo Boy chronicles the extraordinary journey of the Cly family, whose lives are forever altered by the rediscovery of a 1950s film reel. For decades, the Cly family has been captured in photographs and films shot in Monument Valley, including Hollywood Westerns and a rare home-movie by John Ford. But when Bill Kennedy, a white man from Chicago, arrives in 1997 with a silent film titled Navajo Boy, he unknowingly sparks a remarkable chain of events. The film, made by his late father, features the Cly family and reveals the long-lost presence of Elsie Mae Cly Begay’s infant brother, John Wayne Cly, who was adopted by white missionaries in the 1950s and vanished without a trace. As Elsie watches the film, she recognizes her younger self and family members, including her late mother, and begins to share her family’s untold history of the American West, Native representation in film, and the effects of uranium mining in Monument Valley. When John Wayne, now living in New Mexico, learns of the film’s return, he reaches out to the Clys, and the film culminates in an emotional reunion, marking the long-awaited return of a lost brother. This Sundance Film Festival selection offers a poignant exploration of family, identity, and the power of forgotten images to heal old wounds.
Invited Panelists:
John Wayne Cly
While still a baby, John Wayne Cly was taken from his Navajo family in Monument Valley by white missionaries and raised in a Christian home for Native American orphans near the continental divide in Thoreau, New Mexico.
John graduated from Thoreau High School and worked as a uranium miner for several years before starting his career as a certified fire bus driver, transporting Native American fire fighters from their communities to hot spots across the country. John has traveled to many colleges and film festivals to speak about the legacies of The Return of Navajo Boy.
A professional jewelry maker John lives and works in Zuni, New Mexico where he enjoys the company of his children and grandchildren. John’s beloved late wife, Rufina, introduced him to traditional Zuni culture and heritage.
Lorenzo Begay, Narrator
A resident of Monument Valley, Lorenzo served 10 years in the US Army and then went on to work in construction in Phoenix, AZ, jewelry in Monument Valley and uranium remediation at the Mexican Hat uranium disposal site near his home. Along with his mother, Elsie Mae Begay and extended family Lorenzo has helped advocate for the clean up of abandoned uranium mines in Navajo Nation. He enjoys guiding tours in Monument Valley and spending time with his children and grandchildren. Daughter Cory Begay (38) and granddaughter Breauna Atine (12) accompany Lorenzo to screenings.
Elsie Mae Begay
Elsie Mae Begay, (narrator Lorenzo Begay’s mother) is a longtime resident of Monument Valley, Utah, (Navajo Nation). Elsie has worked as a tour guide and housekeeper for Gouldings Lodge, a landmark trading post in Monument Valley. A Great-Great Grandmother, Elsie was raised by her photogenic grandmother, Happy Cly, one of the most photographed of all Native American women. In 1997 while viewing the vintage 16mm film titled Navajo Boy for the first time, Elsie identified family members and explained her family’s involvement with the local trading post, photographers, John Wayne-the actor, and the uranium mine visible on the cliff behind her home. She is the central witness in the documentary, The Return of Navajo Boy.
Elsie has presented The Return of Navajo Boy with Director Spitz at film festivals, universities, museums and on Capitol Hill. Elsie appeared on the front page of the LA Times which featured her in its four-part investigative series titled : Blighted Homeland by Judy Pasternak. Elsie is also featured in Pasternak’s subsequent book titled Yellow Dirt: A Poisoned Land and the Betrayal of the Navajos. The Associated Press credited Elsie and The Return of Navajo Boy for prompting the cleanup of the abandoned uranium mine in her community - the Skyline Mine in Oljato, Utah.
Cory Begay
At 13 years of age, Cory witnessed the first day of filming for The Return of Navajo Boy. She has witnessed the generational story unfolding for more than 25 years and participated in east coast and Midwest screenings of the film. She is still learning about her family’s history and wants to continue the legacy with her daughter Breauna.
Jeff Spitz
Jeff is a Chicago-based Emmy Award-winner and associate professor emeritus from Columbia College Chicago. He has taught documentary, film history and civic engagement for 25 years.
Co-founder of Groundswell Educational Films, a non-profit documentary production and events organization, Jeff creates original documentaries, live storytelling events and advocacy campaigns in association with sponsors and educational institutions.
Jeff’s best known work, The Return of Navajo Boy, is an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and PBS. Jeff received international film festival awards and honors from US EPA for helping catalyze a federal response to uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation. Jeff’s other documentary credits include From the Bottom Up, a one-hour, national PBS public affairs special about community-based development; The Roosevelt Experiment, an ABC-TV special telling the story of an integrated college in a segregated city; and America’s Libraries Change Lives, celebrating the immigrant experience in America’s public libraries, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. Jeff personal feature-length documentary, Food Patriots, is available on Amazon. The first-person voiced story chronicles his family’s struggle to raise backyard chickens, battle antibiotic resistant superbugs and learn from health advocates, community gardeners and college athletes who are improving their relationship with food.
A California native and graduate of UCLA, Jeff holds a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Chicago. As “The Story Coach” Jeff consults on environmental science projects for Northwestern University and University of Wisconsin, training scientists how to translate their data and experience into compelling stories.