BY KAREN BOSSICK

Watch Sherman Alexie’s “Smoke Signals.” Then see the author behind the film this week at The Community Library.

“Smoke Signals,” the first feature film written directed and produced by Native Americans, is set on a Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, reservation where nothing ever changes until the estranged father of Victor Joseph bites the dust in Arizona and Victor must collect the cremated remains. Thomas Builds-the-Fire offer to float Victor a loan if he can tag along.

Suffice to say, their journey is not a match made in heaven but it becomes a journey of self discovery—one which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.

The free 90-minute screening, which features actor Tom Skerritt, Irene Bedard, Gary Farmer and others, will be held at 6 p.m. tonight—Wednesday, Sept. 6—at the Ketchum library. Reserve your seat at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/11030544

Follow that up on Thursday night by listening to Sherman Alexie in person as he speaks on “Fathers and Son” at 6 p.m.

Alexie is the kick-off speaker at the 2023 Ernest Hemingway Seminar, which runs through Saturday at the library. But there are a limited number of seats available for $20 at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/11052359 for those who cannot attend the seminar in its entirety.

Alexie is the author of “The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian,” a coming-of-age story that follows a Native American teenager who tries to find his place in two very different worlds. He is the winner of the PEN/Faulkner and National Book Award. His most recent book is a memoir titled  “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”

An enrolled member of the Spokane Tribe, he was raised in Wellpinit, Wash on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives with his family in Seattle.

To learn more about the Ernest Hemingway Seminar, go to https://comlib.org/programs-and-exhibits/hemingway-seminar/.