Educational Media Reviews Online

Sun Kissed is a narrative documentary filmed over the span of three-years on the struggles of a Navajo couple whose two children were born with Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), a rare genetic disorder that generates skin cancer with any exposure to sunlight. Additionally, children born with XP also suffer from neurological dysfunction. The Nez’s son died at the age of 11. Their daughter is age 16 at the time of the film’s making. The film is a candid documentation of Dorey and Yolanda Nez’s struggle to find answers to why Navajo children are being plagued by this disorder. The film candidly reveals Nez’s struggle with reconciling the traditional identity and culture of the Navajos with their contemporary identity. Several theories for the disease outbreak are explored, including a) a consequence for having messed with nature at some point in one’s life, b) marrying within one’s clan, c) the association of the disease to the Long Walk – the point at which the U.S. military forced the Navajo’s to walk 500 miles to an internment camp in 1864, and d) the role of White Man’s religion and native spirituality in the Navajo experience.

The film ends with the death of the 16-year old daughter. The viewer watches as the family prepares for that moment, and then deals with the grief of her death.

The directors of the film present a gripping account of a family’s struggle to come to terms with their children’s disease. The inclusion of historical, cultural, and scientific information provides the viewer with the context necessary to frame the issue in a broader perspective. Further, the candid and provocative exploration into the Navajo’s people struggle to both maintain their cultural traditions and values and identify with the 21st century culture in which they find themselves provides the viewer with a greater sense of the struggles undertaken by all cultures that are either forced or voluntarily assimilate into a secondary culture.

The film is a useful resource for courses in genetics, Native American studies, social justice, anthropology, and sociology.