Films

An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero was raised between contrasting settings: the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, CA and the urban sprawl of Houston, TX. Romero’s identity informs her photography, a blend of fine art and editorial photography, shaped by years of study and a visceral approach to representing Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory, collective history, and lived experiences from a Native American female perspective. Exploring Cara’s development as a photographer, the film delves into the Chemehuevi and California Indigenous history that informs her work, including behind-the-scenes footage of Cara’s shoots, and features’ interviews with leading Indigenous artists: Cara herself, husband and famed Pueblo potter Diego Romero, collaborator and place-based artist Leah Mata Fragua (Northern Chumash), National Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (Mvskoke Nation) and multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota).