Category Archives: feature film

1920 Silent Film “Daughter of Dawn”

During the process of discovery, acquisition, and restoration of Daughter of Dawn, the Oklahoma Historical Society realized it owned one of the tipis from the film.

Daughter of Dawn, a 1920 silent film with an all-Native (Kiowa and Comanche) cast, will be released for home video by Milestone Films in the fall of 2015 with a score by Comanche classical composer David Yeagley. Although there were American Indians cast as leads and actors in early silent film, there are not many existing examples, which makes this film rather unique. This film has also struck a chord because it includes rare footage of ceremonial dances, a buffalo chase/hunt (to make it even more interesting, these were the progeny of an original 15 buffaloes shipped from the Bronx Zoo in New York City!), and it was filmed in Oklahoma rather than, say Monument Valley (the setting for many Westerns). It’s also notable because no costumes were used; the actors brought and wore their own regalia. This is no small detail in Hollywood, where Westerns have been heavily criticized for largely using Plains clothing to depict all types of American Indian nations. Interestingly, some elements of the movie (its love story and and the urgency of hunting for food) are reminiscent of another silent movie from 1930 with a Native cast called The Silent Enemy. Catch a few minutes of Daughter of Dawn below.

Thanks to fellow AILA member Debbie West of Troy University in Montgomery, Alabama for sharing this!

Clip from Daughter of Dawn

Navajo Film Showcase in NYC this Week

The trailer for Drunktown’s Finest, the opening night film at this week’s Diné Spotlight: A Showcase of Navajo Film, looks really good! The showcase is hosted by the National Museum of the American Indian in collaboration with the NYU’s Center for Media, Culture and History, and all films will be shown at the NMAI Auditorium. There will be an opening reception on Thursday at 5pm and several screenings will be followed by discussions with the filmmakers. Admission is free of charge but RSVPs are recommended (fvc@si.edu or 212-514-3737). Take the 4/5 to Bowling Green, R to Whitehall or 1 to South Ferry to the NMAI located at One Bowling Green near Battery Park.

MAY SUMAK: Quichwa Film Showcase in NYC

May Sumak / Quichwa Film Showcase: Indigenous Media from the Andes and Beyond is coming to New York City this week (March 26-28, 2015). It’s really great to see that the screenings and discussions will be hosted not only in three boroughs (Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens), but also by several institutions: the National Museum of the American Indian, New York University, Lehman College of CUNY, and the Queens Museum. Please note that many of the films will be in Kichwa, the Ecuadorean dialect of Quechua, with English subtitles.

Imprint

Imprint Trailer

I just watched Imprint, a 2007 thriller directed by Chris Eyre that is set on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It tells the story of Shayla Stonefeather, a Lakota prosecutor, who, along with her white partner and boyfriend, takes a case against a Lakota teenager who is found guilty of murder. Soon after the case is over, she returns to the reservation and we learn that her father is in a vegetable state which came on soon after the disappearance of her brother, who had problems with meth. The rest of the story involves Shayla trying to understand the meaning behind the strange voices and spirits she sees in her parents’ home, partly with the guidance of a medicine man, and with some help from an old flame named Tom.

I thought the film was suspenseful, had cool effects, and beautiful landscapes. If you are interested in more Native thrillers, you may want to check out two films that are adapted from Tony Hillerman novels. These are Skinwalkers and A Thief of Time, which were incidentally both also directed by Chris Eyre, but are both set on Navajo territory. (I haven’t yet seen Coyote Waits.) Although Shayla is a strong female lead, I hadn’t considered, as does this reviewer, that this is something out of the ordinary for Native films. While some feature films like Smoke Signals or Skins center on men, I think of strong female protagonists in movies like Edge of America, Older than America, or the documentary On the Rez. So, while I think having a strong female lead is great, I had already felt like Indian women are shown as strong, substantial characters or people in quite a few films. I also did not understand what the reviewer meant when she says that this is not a conventionally Indian movie, since the many Native films I’ve seen show that Indian directors, like directors from all over, produce innovative, surprising material that shows they are thinking outside of the box. Which is why I was annoyed to see (spoiler alert) the white boyfriend cast as the villain. I liked that the film countered some stereotypical views, like the  fact that it centers around a middle class family as opposed to a poor Lakota family. Pine Ridge tends to be portrayed as very downtrodden (Skins and Children of the Plains are two examples). And I was glad that although you could see Shayla and Tom getting back together, they didn’t actually have a romantic scene. But why do the parents have to instinctually dislike the white boyfriend? Actually, he turns out to be a jerk, so that’s fine. But why does the jerk have to be white? As the reviewer above points out, why not make him another ethnicity and really surprise us?

The other theme that I think is important but doesn’t get thoughtfully developed is the whole idea of “selling out.” Shayla is depicted as having “sold out” just because she took a case against a Lakota. Her car is vandalized and her mother also equates her cold-heartedness as being an identity issue; of not “knowing who she is.” It seems like the conflicts that I think many Indians must face regarding identity and assimilation and culture deserve to leave the viewer questioning to what degree or in what ways can one can assimilate another culture and still maintain one’s own? In other words, it’s a pretty complex, messy, and controversial topic that deserves more. Rather, in this film, I felt like the issue is too neatly tied up. The story develops in such a way that serving as prosecutor against your own kind seems to be equated with selling out and once Shayla realizes the error of her ways, she seems to be almost cleansed and becomes good again. I should point out that had the racially biased nature of the trial been developed more, I may have felt less strongly about this point. Also, one can’t fault Eyre too much for possibly wanting to make a good thriller and leave it at that. Every movie can’t deal with all societal concerns.

So, it’s a good thriller with an interesting story that is beautifully shot, but the cliche character and the simplistic treatment of the issue of identity left me wanting more. In terms of using this in the classroom, I would think it might be of interest to film students because of the special effects, cinematography, and plot twist. Also, the medicine man speaks in Lakota and this may be of interest to people studying the language. Those teaching about the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation may also be interested in its depiction in this film.

“The Only Good Indian”

 

Trailer for The Only Good Indian

This feature film, like Older than America, revolves around the theme of Indian boarding schools but provides some more nuance since it is played from the perspective of three characters, two of which have troubled pasts. Although the film dragged a little bit at certain parts for me, I liked it because of the complexity brought to these characters as well as the fact that the movie covers a chapter in history that I don’t think is well known by many. Attendance at these boarding schools, which were infamous for adhering to the slogan “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” became compulsory  in 1891, and both Older than America and this film delve into not only the emotional and physical abuse that these children endured, but also the sexual abuse and the issue of mental health. The latter is of particular interest to me because I have started to conduct research in the area of wrongful confinement. Historically, people have been wrongfully held in mental institutions for not confining to society’s version of normality and it seems that Indians who were deemed recalcitrant suffered a similar fate.  (This blog discusses the insane asylum that the U.S. government built for “insane” Indians and an upcoming book by the blogger. I have also read about another asylum built for mentally ill Cherokees in 1873.)

The film’s protagonist is a young Kickappoo boy who is kidnapped into a boarding school and summarily, if superficially, made “white”: he is shorn of his long hair, told he is now a Methodist, given the name “Charlie,” and has his mouth washed out with soap when he refuses to speak English. Charlie soon runs away from the institution but is tracked down by a Cherokee bounty hunter named Sam Franklin (played by Wes Studi). While he doesn’t deny his heritage, Sam, who rides a motorcycle and dreams of becoming a detective a the Pinkerton Agency, believes that success lies in assimilating into white society. And he tries to convince Charlie of this throughout their road trip of sorts. Along the way, Sam  is pitted against his old nemesis, Sheriff Henry McCoy. While on the face of it, McCoy is the most harsh and unfeeling characters, he has one of the most poignant lines in the film when he questions whether his past killing of Indians is any worse than the cultural genocide that is undertaken by the boarding schools. Although the films themes are strong ones, it also manages to be a fun road trip movie.

I think this is a good film to show classes who are studying Indian boarding schools, mental illness and wrongful confinement, assimilation, and the perspectives of Indian fighters (McCoy) and scouts (Franklin). It is also a good segue into a discussion that compares forced cultural assimilation and genocide, too. Definitely a lot to discuss!

AAIA 6th Annual Short Film Showcase

A trailer for the documentary “LaDonna Harris: Indian 101” produced by Julianna Brannum

Last night, I caught the Association on American Indian Affairs Film Showcase at NYU’S Cantor Center where Firelight Media co-founder and CCNY alumnus, Stanley Nelson was honored. He directed Wounded Knee, episode 5 of  the PBS  We Shall Remain series, which I have not had a chance to see yet. After the trailer they showed last night, I can’t wait to check it out.

Shorts in the festival included “Macnpc,” directed by Tvli Jacobs (Choctaw), a one minute parody about native versus Anglo ways and a music video called “Steve’s Special” by Sonya Oberly (Nez Perce) that took place on the Tohono O’odham reservation. Young filmmakers were a big presence last night. Nuweetooun School students created an animation called “How Birds Got Their Song,” which adapts a traditional Narragansett story and which I thought was very pretty both visually and aurally. The Tesuque Pueblo Youth Film Group, Marcella Ernest, and Rachael Nez directed “Bonanza Creek,” a funny non-scripted film about Mohawk and Pueblo ancestors. And, 8th grader Camille Manybeads Tso (Dine-Navajo) directed “In the Footsteps of Yellow Woman,” a documentary/feature about her great great great grandmother and her courage during the Navajo Long Walk (1864-1868). The young people in this film did a very nice acting job.

I enjoyed the whole festival but the three films which were most arresting for me are the ones I only saw clips of. I already mentioned “Wounded Knee.” The second was the documentary “LaDonna Harris: INDIAN 101″ about the Comanche activist who has played a pivotal role in Native self determination and has started an Ambassadors program to teach and train future Native American leaders. A clip of that film heads this post. The third is Billy Luther’s “Grab,” a documentary about the Laguna Pueblo’s “Grab Day” celebration, where the tribe shares food and other things with their community. I smiled watching one of the trailer’s phrases shoot past:”Indian giver redefined.” I’m on Facebook with Billy and didn’t even know about his film, “Miss Navajo,” so as you can see, I have a lot of watching to catch up with! Will post here when I do. Thanks to Amalia Córdova of the NMAI Video and Film Center for letting me know about this festival and to Raquel Chapa for putting the line up together!

‘Til next time…

Older than America

Older Than America trailer

Older Than America is the story of a young teacher who is haunted by dreams and visions about the abuses that went on in Indian boarding schools. Prior to watching it, I had only read about the schools’ assimilationist policies which required Native American children to abandon native dress and language – the violent policy of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” In this regard, the film reminded me of the Australian film Rabbit Proof Fence. I had not realized that in addition to the emotional toil that being stripped of your culture would have on a young child (or anyone, really), and the difficulty of having to spend long periods of time away from their families, the children were also verbally and physically abused, including raped. I think this is one more example of how widespread the increasingly visible pedophilia scandal in the Catholic church really is. In the film, the teacher slowly comes to learn about her mother’s past and the film attempts to bring some kind of closure to a painful chapter in both Native American history but also in the specific lives of the young teacher, played by director Georgina Lightning, and her mother and aunt, played by Tantoo Cardinal. 

I thought the film was powerful and important to make. It sheds light on a painful topic and it has probably served to bring about conversations and healing in communities affected by these violations. Since I have done some research into the history of mental illness, I also appreciated the fact that this was a central part of the story. I also appreciate the title of the film, which refers to native life ways, because I think it calls into question colonial cultural impositions. This is emphasized throughout the film by the romantic partnership between Lightning’s and Adam Beach’s character, which is contested by the indoctrinated aunt and U.S. legal authority but which is validated by Beach’s character’s father, a respected elder who is played by Dennis Banks.

That said, my one gripe with the film is the binary opposition that I saw surface at one point when I felt like native spirituality was conflated with “good” and Christianity with “bad.” I think that in order to break from a western epistemological framework, it’s important to see Native American religion or spirituality being emphasized on equal footing with Christianity. And I am not an apologist for the Catholic church. I think the crimes of the representatives of the Catholic Church are infuriating, that victims deserve  more swift reaction from the Church authorities and to see the perpetrators be held accountable for their crimes. But, the representatives of the Church aren’t the Church in its more  spiritual form. I’m hoping that there were some kind nuns and priests who could have manifested themselves in the film. And I’m willing to bet that there are open minded Native American Catholics, including many people who practice a syncretic form of Catholicism which mixes Christian and native life ways. I would have liked to see a more nuanced treatment of this. I realize we could get into a debate about the fact that Christianity is one of the main colonial cultural impositions. Had it not been for it and the broader colonial project, there would have been no boarding schools and therefore abuses. This is a valid point, of course. But I think nuance is important. It’s part of history. It’s part of life. And I think it’s helpful and necessary to see that. (This all reminds me of an article in the March 2010 AHA Perspectives by Philippa Levine called “The Trouble with Film.”)

Despite the long nature of my gripe, it is a powerful film. I think it would be eye opening for many and could be used in classes that discussed native spirituality, colonization, and the privileging of U.S. over native life ways. And Lightning is certainly a notable and talented artist.

I also wanted to note that as I watched the credits role at the end of the film, I was struck by all that goes into the making of films. In this case, I was especially impressed by credits listing mental health as well as cultural consultants. It made me wonder how many films that portray Native American cultures have cultural consultants. I’ll have to start checking.

Until next time…

2010 “Emerging Artist” Nominee: Georgina Lightning

I just read that Georgina Lightning has been nominated for a 2010 EPIC Award in the “Emerging Artists” category by the White House Project. I actually haven’t checked out her award-winning film, “Older than America” because I was watching “Club Native” at the NMAI Film Festival opening night. But, I did get a chance to hear Lightning speak as a panelist. “Older than America” just became available On Demand on the IFC Channel, so check it out if you can. I will, too. In the meantime, here’s a clip from YouTube. Voting for the “Emerging Artitsts” award closes at closes on March 22, 2010 at 11:59pm. For more information on the award and movie, check out:

Shining Elk, Michelle R. ‘Older than America,’ Georgina Lightning receive nom for emerging artist award. Native American Times. March 21, 2010.