Um, I guess give me a little bit of the background of what was sort of the inspiration for starting this event, uh, 11 years ago.

Okay.

Well, the c- uh, at the Chickasaw Cultural Center, we have special events all throughout the year, and it's very important to be able to share our history and culture in diverse ways, um, through many outlets such as exhibits or tours or live music, food, books by Chickasaw Press, or through media such as the Inoli Theatre, where the film festival will take place.

The Hoba Pasachi Native Film Festival was a chance to promote First American cinema through cultural awareness using mass media, and I've always been, uh, a big fan and admirer of Chris Eyre, the director and producer of, uh, Smoke Signals and Currently the executive producer of the AMC series, Dark Winds.

Um, would you recommend for maybe some, uh, young filmmakers to come out and maybe speak to the, uh, people working in the industry and get some, uh, knowledge there?

Oh, yes.

This is a time for that type of networking, not just for film fans, but for people in the industry.

And we have been, uh, blessed with, um, in past festivals with, uh, guests coming up, other actors, other filmmakers in the industry coming up from the Dallas area, from the Tulsa area, all the metro metropolitan places.