Hearing Radmilla documents the turbulent reign of Radmilla Cody, Miss Navajo Nation 1997-1998, the Navajo Nation's first biracial Miss Navajo Nation. The film follows Ms. Cody's development as the goodwill and cultural ambassador of Navajo Nation to her success as an award winning vocal artist. She shocked her nation when she was sentenced to 21 months in a federal corrections facility. Upon her release, in 2004, she created the campaign "Strong Spirit - Life is Beautiful Not Abusive'' revealing her passionate activism against domestic violence. NPR selected her one of the 50 GreatVoices in Recorded History. (82 Minutes, in English and Navajo with English Subtitles)
From Leo W. Banks, of High Country News: "First-time filmmaker Webb had started out to do a documentary about beauty queens. Her determination to portray all the characters as authentically as possible took the film in unexpected directions. 'Nobody is all good or all bad, and I wanted to show those complications,' says Webb. 'It was a challenge to keep the focus on Radmilla because everyone in the film – Marcus, the dad, Margaret – could have a documentary about them.'"
From Dr. Leonie Pihama, Te Atiawa, Ngā Māhanga a Tairi, Ngati Māhanga (BA, MA Hons, PhD Auck) is a leading Māori academic and filmmaker: "There is something
particularly powerful about Indigenous women who are willing to share
incredible depths of pain with the world in the hope that it will bring change
for others. Hearing Radmilla is one of those stories. It is one of many that we
know in our own lives and so it resonates with even more power for those that
have been at the receiving end of, or watched within their own homes, violence
perpetuated. Radmilla's story is multilevelled. Domestic violence is one level,
living as an Navajo/African American woman is another, maintaining her Navajo
language and culture is another. That is the power of this story. its
incredible honesty about the many ways in which our communities have
internalised the hegemony of violence on many levels and the journey it took
for this Indigenous woman to not only survive but to recover. At the centre of
recovery is her family, her people, her language, her culture, and her strength
to find the healing within herself and those powers of the creator and of love
of family.
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