Duwawisioma

Victor Masayesva Jr. (born 1951) is a Hopi filmmaker, video artist, and photographer. Masayesva's artistic career promotes Hopi culture. The majority of his films are in the Hopi language.

Early life and education Masayesva was born on the Hopi Reservation of Arizona and grew up in Hotevilla, Arizona. As a teenager, Masayesva was recruited to attend the Horace Mann School in New York. He later studied Hopi ceremonies and English at Princeton University and pursued graduate studies in English and photography at the University of Arizona.

Career Following his studies, Masayesva became the director of Hotevilla's Ethnic Heritage Program, where, in 1980, he created a program to teach Hopi language.

In 1988, Ritual Clowns is a film that uses computer animation. Pott Starr (1990), which also incorporates animation, and Siskyavi: The Place of Chasms (1991). It is considered one of Masayesva's "best-known and most critically debated films."

His video work has appeared in the Native American Film and Video Festival, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the World Wide Video Festival, the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the American Indian Contemporary Arts Festival 2000.

Filmography