Elsewhere on the two-day schedule, there are films of all genres that "highlight the different experiences of Native people," MacDonald said.

Since the first year, the festival, put on by Missoula Urban Indian Health Center, emphasized resiliency in indigenous communities, he said, since "the most exposure or awareness or education that non-Natives have about Native people is through media."

That can often mean "poverty porn," said co-organizer Leeta Running Crane. MacDonald said that "as a Native person, I know that's there and I live with that, but that's not my whole life" and so they hand-pick movies with broad ranges of styles and subjects.

This year, there's an emphasis on women Native filmmakers telling their own stories.

And beyond the films, it's a means of connecting with communities.

"We were looking for a way to reach the broader community," Running Crane said, "and to build bridges between our local Native community and our non-Native community, and build a safe space to have some of the conversations that we normally don't have in our daily lives. So really the films are just the catalyst to get us to the conversations that we have afterwards in our panel discussions that are so open and engaged with the audience."