Flax Art

Temple of My Familiar is the name of a mural painted in Belfast by Canadian artist Nhan Duc Nguyen. This documentary situates Nguyen’s art within the political context of war-torn Northern Ireland, and explores the artist’s own cross-cultural search for an identity spanning East and West.

Follows the journey of Jamahke, a young Mohave, looking for locations for a film production. Along the way he meets several tribal members and crosses different areas and sites on reservation and aboriginal lands. Transformed by highways, railroads, and industry, these places are threatened by ongoing urban and energy development. Quite rapidly the process of looking for filming locations reveals the need of portraying other realities. Developed in dialog with Mohave people from Colorado River Indian Tribe (in Arizona and California), this project depicts their current struggles with industries, as well as questioning how cinema and visual arts contributed to the colonization and cultural appropriations of these lands.