as published in eVent! April 7, 2010 – Kelowna
by Tara Miller
On one end, delicately searching for the most accurate and politically correct address for the aboriginal community and on the other end a skewed and stereotyped Hollywood commodity. Canadian Cree film director Neil Diamond made a film that examines Hollywood’s representation of First Nations people with a balance of education and humour.
Reel Injun: On the trail of the Hollywood Indian, produced in conjunction with the National Film Board of Canada and Rezolution Pictures was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last summer, imagineNATIVE and Sundance Film Festivals. Moving across the country with screenings at film festivals, the Olympic winter games and on CBC, Reel Injun is scheduled for a free screening at the The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art in Kelowna next week.
Greg Younging, UBC Okanagan assistant professor of Indigenous studies consulted on the film. “Reel Injun is about the image of indigenous people created in movies, particularly westerns out of Hollywood and shows the impact these films have had, as detrimental to indigenous people.”
Younging says the film shows how indigenous people are stereotyped in these films, often portrayed as “savages, criminals, bloodthirsty”. Not only barbaric in their representation, but grossly inaccurate.
Indian tribes as part of a story line where that tribe, traditions, and wardrobe was inconsistent with the time and place of tribes actually inhabiting that space. Many prominent native characters were played by caucasian actors made up to appear native. Iron Eyes Cody, one of the most famous early Native American film “icons” was actually of Italian descent from Louisiana.
Clint Eastwood is quoted in the film as saying “I remember once we were on a set, the director said ‘I want a real native, upfront. I want to see the real thing.’ We couldn’t find one!”
Reel Injun includes interviews from prominent actors, filmmakers, activists, and entertainment figures to examine the erroneous images in the history of film of indigenous characters and culture.
Hollywood has made over 4000 films about native people over a century of filmmaking perpetuating an ongoing fascination with indigenous history and culture but often lacking a true representation of that history and culture.
Diamond lists stereotypes that appear in almost every film including the Noble Savage and the Drunken Indian. Predictable figures with cloned wardrobes and native imagery woven together to create familiar scenes of cliched characters that provide a jaded image and a minimized perspective and separation of what the indigenous communities are all about.
Younging affirms the times are changing. “There are new emerging indigenous filmmakers starting to make their own films that are culturally authentic.”
Reel Injun screens at The Alternator Gallery, Friday, April 9 at 7 p.m. with a panel discussion Sat April 10 at 4 p.m.
