This all-Native production is part of the Smoke Signals new wave of
films that examine Native identity in the 1990’s. 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
comedy/thriller 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
queen/powwow clothing thief Zachary John, and the travails of crusading
investigator Honey Moccasin. This irreverent reappropriation of familiar
narrative strategies serves as a provocative spring-board for an investigation
of authenticity, cultural identity, and the articulation of modern Native
American experience in cinematic language and pop culture.