“See us. We are here. This is our land. This is our future. We are going to own it.”

These are the closing words of “Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting,” a blazing documentary showcased by the 17th annual LA Skins Fest at the Norris Cinema Theater Monday night.

“Imagining the Indian” is a searing indictment of Native American representations in media, who often have their stories told by non-Native people.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if [the film] could come out of Indian Country? It’s time that we tell our own stories,” said Ben West, the documentary’s producer, writer and co-director during the post-screening Q&A. Ben is from the Cheyenne tribe and directed the movie with Aviva Kempner.

The documentary addressed Native American representation in media, going beyond mascoting and extending to the realms of history and contemporary politics. The movie itself was made during 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, as the film’s team forged the documentary over Zoom.

“It wasn’t just that we were doing something, but it felt very much like this was in the zeitgeist,” said Zach Sinick, the documentary’s music supervisor and editor. “This was an issue that had been percolating for a long time. There finally was this momentum where maybe we could actually make a significant change.”

In a flaming collage of pain, history and remembrance, contemporary activists like Suzan Shown Harjo appear alongside images of brutalization as the film flits between the testimonies of Native American scholars, lawyers, politicians and artists weaving around the topic of Native American history.

“It’s Native people represented as they actually are, as living beings today and as their culture exists today,” said Amy West, a professor of clinical pediatrics, psychology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Ben’s sister. She was part of the Q&A panel held after the screening with Sinick and Ben, moderated by Maddox Pennington, who is Cherokee and a professor of writing at USC.

The first 25 minutes of “Imagining the Indian” were a flurry of racial caricatures, attempting to give viewers a baseline understanding of the issue at hand, Ben said. There were feathered men screaming incomprehensible chants, reduced to target practice as settlers shot them down. There were “noble savages” who guided colonizers through their lands. Sexist stereotypes and images of Native American women were equally analyzed for their degrading content.

In this blaze, movies like “Pocahontas” (1995), “The Last of the Mohicans” (1920) and “Peter Pan” (1953) failed to escape the documentary’s critical scrutiny. But, as a sign of hope, “Smoke Signals” (1998) and “Reservation Dogs” were given as examples of media that genuinely reflect the Native American communities they represent.

“The main thing is that each community [should] have an opportunity to speak for themselves and convey what their identity is for themselves without having other people coming in from other communities saying, ‘Isn’t this what it is?’” said Ian Skorodin, chief executive officer at the Barcid Foundation, which highlights Native American filmmakers.

Skorodin said film festivals like Skins are important in providing support for filmmakers, such as opportunities to showcase their work and aid in the search for distribution.

“As a Native artist, we didn’t have that. We didn’t have a film festival that was genuine,” Skorodin said. “We didn’t have any sort of creative labs or workshops or any kind of connection to the entertainment industry whatsoever.”

Alessandro Ago, the director of programming and special projects at the School of Cinematic Arts, hosted Skins — which has been coming to USC since 2009 — to address the lack of access and opportunity for Native American filmmakers, but problems remain.

“It’s a little bit difficult, even with the support of Visions and Voices, to get a big student turnout for documentaries,” Ago said. “But we’re trying as much as possible to get students excited to watch documentaries together and be able to talk about the subject matter.”

Ben expressed his gratitude for the space the event provided.

“It’s really fulfilling to screen in a place like the University of Southern California,” he said.

The documentary had a diverse audience that night: Native American students and recruitment officers, professors, parents, alumni and people from all backgrounds dotted the theater.

“We have to get out there and fight for justice for everybody,” said Kathryn Shirley, the chair of recruitment and retention for the Black Alumni Association who attended the Q&A. Shirley noted the parallel struggle that Native American and Black communities experience.

“We’re both cultures that are fighting to get our justice,” Shirley said.

This idea of highlighting the common struggle between various racial and ethnic groups was woven into the movie, which points out how mascoting practices at the Washington Commanders — which formerly used a Native American slur as their team name — only changed after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. The documentary also pushes the message that change can only happen when young people get involved.

“We [need to] continue to figure out ways to have this conversation here and bring more awareness of Native issues and Native representation to this campus,” Amy said.