Sky Hopinka’s Maɬni--Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore

The Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles Filmforum, and Cousin Collective  present

Sky Hopinka’s Maɬni--Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore

Friday November 28, 2025, 7:00 pm

At the Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles CA

Full info: www.lafilmforum.org

In person: Sky Hopinka, Adam Piron

NOTE THE CHANGE IN DAY and LOCATION

Tickets: $10 plus fees, at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sky-hopinkas-malnitowards-the-ocean-towards-the-shore-2020-tickets-1966436305926?aff=oddtdtcreator

"Rapturous. Stunning. At times, Maɬni Feels like a richly woven ghost story." — Ela Bittencourt, Hyperallergic

“Watching Maɬni…I felt a sense of replenishment. A lyrical art film that uses ancestral storytelling techniques to share experiences of Indigenous living and political resistance.” — Cassie Da Costa, Vanity Fair

"Hopinka subtly inverts the tropes of the ethnographic documentary to depict indigenous life from an indigenous perspective.”— Cayley James, Cinema Scope

“Stunning. Hopinka’s use of color in Maɬni is nothing short of astonishing. One of the most awe-inspiring films I saw.”— Vikram Murthi, RoberEbert.com

7th House and Los Angeles Filmforum are proud to present the mesmerizing and poetic experimental debut feature by filmmaker Sky Hopinka: MALNI—TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE (2020). An acclaimed artist of Ho-Chunk and Pechanga heritage, Hopinka’s work – which spans video, photo, and text – centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape, designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal, documentary, and non fiction forms of media. Best known for his singular short films, his feature debut has been lauded by The New York Times as “an essential portrait of contemporary Indigenous life…(that) beckons audiences onto its wavelength by tapping into something more intuitive, the stuff of dreams.”

Circling the origin of the death myth from the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, Maɬni (pronounced “moth-nee) follows two people as they wander through their surrounding nature, the spirit world, and something much deeper inside. At its center are Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier who take separate paths contemplating their afterlife, rebirth, and the place in-between.

Spoken mostly in the chinuk wawa language, their stories are departures from the Chinookan origin of death myth, with its distant beginning and circular shape. Probing questions about humanity’s place on earth and other worlds, Hopinka’s film will have audiences thinking (and dreaming) about it long after.

Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) was born and raised in Ferndale, Washington and Palm Springs, California. In Portland, Oregon he studied and taught chinuk wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin. His video, photo, and text work centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape, designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal, documentary, and non fiction forms of media. 

His work has played at various festivals including Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. His work was a part of the 2017 Whitney Biennial, the 2018 FRONT Triennial, the 2021 edition of Prospect.5, and the 14th Gwangju Biennial in South Korea and the Göteborg International Biennial in Switzerland in 2023. 

He was a guest curator at the 2019 Whitney Biennial and has had solo exhibitions at the Center for Curatorial Studies–Bard College in 2020, at LUMA in Arles, France in 2022, and in 2024 at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, WA and Kunsthalle Friart in Switzerland.

https://www.skyhopinka.com/