The Library opens a month-long series of film screenings in conjunction with Big Read 2022 with Smoke Signals (1998, PG-13, 89 min.), the first feature-length movie written, directed, co-produced, and performed by Native Americans.

Adapted by screenwriter Sherman Alexie from his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, it’s the story of an emotionally closed young man on Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation who travels with a nerdy, irritating friend to Arizona to settle the affairs of his recently deceased, alcoholic father. The road trip becomes a voyage of self-discovery.

The film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Big Read 2022 revolves around the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, Joy Harjo, and her acclaimed book An American Sunrise. The nearly two-month initiative is a celebration of poetry and reading, as well as Native American literature and culture.

Explore Big Read 2022 at kclibrary.org/bigread.