Writing On Rock

On one level, Writing On Rock is about the relations between orality and literacy, and the ways this dichotomy plays itself out in a major Native American author, N. Scott Momaday. In the film, this dichotomy is viewed as a tension that drives Momaday’s art. On another level, the film also explores Plains Indian Ledger Drawings as a metaphor for the kind of intercultural communication Momaday himself performs. The ledger book—a lined, bound book used primarily for recording details of commerce—was appropriated by Indian artists on the Great Plains who drew large pictographic images of warriors, horses, battles, and village life over existing writing. The film is based on interviews with Momaday and scholars of Native American literature, various public readings, and Kiowa ledger drawings. 53 minutes