Honey Moccasin

This allNative production by director Shelley Niro Mohawk is part of the Smoke Signals new wave of films that examine Native identity in the 1990s Set on the Grand Pine Indian Reservation aka Reservation X HONEY MOCCASIN combines elements of melodrama performance art cable access and whodunit to question conventions of ethnic and sexual identity as well as film narrative A comedythriller complete with a fashion show and torchy musical numbers this witty film employs a surreal pastiche of styles to depict the rivalry between bars The Smokin Moccasin and The Inukshuk Cafe the saga of closeted drag queenpowwow clothing thief Zachary John and the travails of crusading investigator Honey Moccasin This irreverent reappropriation of familiar narrative strategies serves as a provocative springboard for an investigation of authenticity cultural identity and the articulation of modern Native American experience in cinematic language and pop culture