New York Times Op-Docs Premieres Award-Winning Short ‘Long Line Of Ladies,’ On Ritual Welcoming Indigenous American Girl Into Womanhood

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: The award-winning documentary Long Line of Ladies, about a 13-year-old Native American girl’s coming of age ceremony in the Karuk tradition, will premiere on the New York Times Op-Docs channels Tuesday, the first day of Indigenous Peoples Day.

The film directed by Shaandiin Tome and Oscar winner Rayka Zehtabchi offers an intimate look at the experience of Ahtyirahm “Ahty” Allen, a member of the Karuk Tribe of Northern California, as she prepares for her “Ihuk” or Flower Dance – a once-dormant ritual that “takes place after young women in her community have their first period.” As part of the ceremony, Ahty will fast for three and a half days and wear a taáv, a kind of feathered veil obscuring her sight, for four days.

The 22-minute long film doesn’t show the actual ceremony itself – “the filmmakers refrained from filming the event out of respect for the traditions of the community and the privacy of the participants,” according to a release about the film.

But it shows the steps taken by Ahty, her family and community members leading up the moment she embarks on her journey, symbolically marking her entrance into womanhood. “You’re blinded for four days and you’re reflecting on your inner self,” Ahty’s father explains to her about the ceremony, as he hand crafts the feathered blinder. “Then we remove your taáv and you’re reborn as a woman.” “The ceremony was held for generations without interruption,” text on screen at the beginning of the film states, “until the violence and destruction brought on by the Gold Rush, where Native American girls and women were victims of sexual violence.” A group of Karuk people revived the tradition in the early 1990s “to once again honor their girls as they transition into