Smoke Signals

Heavily promoted on the basis of its Native American pedigree — it's written by acclaimed novelist Sherman Alexie — this film won both the Audience Award and the Filmmaker's Trophy at the 1998 year's Sundance Film Festival. July 4, 1976: While mainstream America celebrates its bicentennial, two families, the Josephs and unfortunately named Builds-the-Fire clan, are partying on the Coeur d'Alene Indian reservation. One thing leads to another, and soon the Builds-the-Fire house is engulfed in flames. Joseph-family patriarch Arnold saves little Thomas Builds-the-Fire, but Thomas's parents die in the blaze. He goes to live with his grandmother (Monica Mojica),...