The American Indian Film Institute is the premier Native American media and cultural arts exposition in the West Coast and its annual film festival is the world’s oldest forum dedicated to Native American cinema. Each year the American Indian Film Festival® aims to provide a diverse audience of people from all nations, multi-generational, and local community with a passion for film and interest in Native people and life, and opportunity to meet, explore, experience and honor all those involved in the contemporary Native film industry.

OUR FOUNDER

Michael Smith, the Relocation-era Sioux man who founded the American Indian Film Institute and the American Indian Film Festival, passed away on Wed., Feb. 14, 2018 in San Francisco. He was 66.