Frybread: In Film, Art, Architecture, And Beyond

Photograph by Visible Narrative, from RPM’s Frybread Stand flickr gallery

Revolutions Per Minute: Indigenous Music Culture is a relatively new site that’s offering a wealth of news on contemporary music and arts. One of the recurring features on RPM is #frybreadfriday; a multimedia series that explores the centrality of this delicacy across Native American culture. From playwrights to rappers, interpretive dance to comic book art, RPM has opened up a vibrant discussion on this relationship between food culture and the arts. The photograph above is included within RPM’s Frybread Stand gallery, a collection that demonstrates how this food is also influencing vernacular art and architecture.

One project that’s appeared across a few #frybreadfridays has been Holt Hamilton’s More Than Frybread, a hilarious mockumentary currently set to be released in early 2012. Here’s an introduction to the film:

The First Annual State of Arizona Frybread Championship, sponsored by the World Wide Frybread Association, will be holding the first ever state frybread competition. All twenty-two federally recognized Arizona tribes will be sending their best frybread maker to represent their nation and to compete for the coveted frybread title. The winner will receive $10,000 cash, the official WWFA frybread trophy and a spot to compete for the National Title, which could possibly then lead to a shot at the World Wide Frybread Championships later in the year.

Five contestants; Buddy Begaye (Navajo), Sharmayne Cruz (Tohono O’odham), Betti Muchvo (Hopi), Sunshine Smith (Yavapai-Apache), and Sammy Powsky (Hualapai) allow a small documentary team to follow them as they travel the frybread road to the state finals. You won’t want to miss this exciting, never before seen, frybread event of the year!

The folks behind this film have made the World Wide Frybread Association a reality — follow the link for videos, maps and further information.

Again, there’s much more to explore on RPM – it has become one of our favorite sites, and we highly recommend a visit.