I am a little behind on this but I just learned today that the Arizona State Museum and the University of Arizona’s Hanson Film Institute, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, are hosting the Native Eyes Film Showcase November 30–December 4, 2011. Thanks to American Indian Library Association colleague Susan Hanks for the tip!
“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!
Grab
Grab trailer
A few weeks (June 16, 2011 to be exact) ago I had the pleasure to not only see Grab, a documentary I have had my eye on for a few months, but also to experience a first: I actually met the film’s director, Billy Luther. I was somehow already Facebook friends with Billy for a while before I knew about either Grab or his other documentary, Miss Navajo, but it was pretty cool to meet him in person. He was funny, courteous and down to earth – all things that made me feel right at home.
Grab deals with the Laguna Pueblo tradition of throwing gifts – every thing from Ramen noodles to beach balls and handmade pottery – off of traditional homes on one’s saint’s day. People who throw gifts spend a good amount of money and many months purchasing items. And then there is also the food that is prepared for that day. A real celebration which involves what seems like the entire community. The film follows a few families and their different grab day experiences. A few of my favorite parts were the whimsical miniature town made out of grab day materials and also, perhaps surprisingly, one of the families’ reaction to the death of Michael Jackson. It was one of those moments that captures how connected we are, no matter our race or ethnicity or the many other labels that seemingly should (or so they tell us) divide us. And of course, as one audience member so aptly noted, the obvious bond that the Seymour family shared was also very touching.
After watching the film, which I enjoyed, I did have the sense I feel after watching some documentaries, to wit: I wanted more statistics and other information on the people and communities involved (this was mostly prompted by the story of the mother and daughter who grew crops to give away fresh products during their grab day celebration). But then I remembered that during the cocktail party, and unprompted by questions from me, Billy remarked that he didn’t want his film to be didactic; he wanted to focus on making it enjoyable. (This interview with Luther captures some more of his outlook and includes information on the Grab photographic exhibit now on display at the NMAI in New York City through July 31, 2011.) So, I didn’t focus so much on the other details I wanted to know and focused on the feelings I came away with. It was a feel good film about tradition and family and generosity.
After the Q&A was over, Billy announced that audience members would receive grab bags of our own on our way out. As I grabbed the train back home, I noticed another commuter with a grab bag so I smiled and said, “You got one, too!” “Way to bring home a point,” she said, smiling back. She hit the nail on the head. Watching the film and having the opportunity to hear (and meet) Billy and the protagonists alone would have been cool enough. But when Josie Seymour (one of the films protagonists who attended the screening along with her husband) gave away the beautiful piece of pottery she handmade, something she apparently does at all the screenings she attends, and attendees got the grab bag (promotional material inside or not), it really was a multi-sensory way to bring home the importance of giving. And of recycling – I’ve been carrying it around in my purse for weeks and have used it on at least 3 occasions already!
So, try and catch the film – it’s a sweet one and as Billy notes in that interview, very serene. And next time you’re grabbing something, don’t forget a bag for recyling as a way to give back … to Earth. ; )
Smiling and Howling
Smiling Indians
I just watched a short called Smiling Indians, made by directors Sterlin Harjo (who I’ve written about before) and Ryan Red Corn, who collaborated with Harjo in Barking Water. Here’s a short interview with Red Corn describing the impetus behind this short, which is dedicated to Edward Curtis, the famous photographer whose images of 19th century Native Americans occupies a stronghold in the popular imagination on Native peoples. Many if not most of these photographs show serious, and probably broadly perceived as stoic, faces of a people who were thought to be vanishing. In this sense, Smiling Indians demonstrates how the palimpsest of Native American history is being partly rewritten by Native filmmakers.
Red Corn is part of a video production group called the 1491s, which presently counts the following people among its members: Sterlin Harjo, Dallas Goldtooth, Migizi Pensoneau, Bobby Wilson, Garrett Drapeau, Elizabeth Day, and Sedelta Oosawhee. You can watch the 1491s’s videos here. Besides comedies and shorts, such as their first group project New Moon Wolf Pack Auditions, they have worked on more educational documentary style shorts and plan on working on features in the future. (Although the New Moon Wolf Pack Auditions were funny, I really cracked up after watching outtakes of “cultural adviser” Garret Drapeau.) Among the shorts with more political messages are Geronimo E-KIA and Bad Indians and among the more comedic ones are Singing Lessons by the 1491s and Slapping Medicine Man. I like the fact that the collective is using both serious poetry and comedy as expressions of Native culture (or cultures) and to effect changes in the ways Indians are perceived by the general public.
Singing Lessons by the 1491s
Theeere she is!
Whenever she sees me, a co-worker of mine greets me with a great big smile and a “Theeere she is!” She’s disarmed many a fellow co-worker with these words because it’s becoming part of our vocabularies. Exhibit A: The other day I heard another co-worker pass by her and beat her to it. So I chuckled as I was leaving the opening night screening of the Native American Film and Video Festival and realized it had become part of mine as well.
As I was leaving the opening night screening, I passed by a table and saw a familiar face staring back at me. It was Zulay Saravino, the protagonist of a documentary made in 1989 entitled “Zulay Facing the 21st Century.” I remember this film well because Roselly Torres Rojas, who then worked at the Latin American Video Archives (LAVA), the only distributor at the time, helped me edit clips from it (and other films) when I presented a paper on Latin American indigenous film back in 2004 and I also analyzed it in some papers in grad school. I liked it so much that I bought a VHS copy for Lehman College’s Leonard Lief Library when I was the Latin American Studies librarian there. I was saddened when LAVA closed in part because, without a distributor, I knew many would miss out on seeing this treasure. But, that night, as I passed by the table, I smiled and said to myself, “Theeeere she is!” – right on the cover of the Documentary Educational Resources (DER) catalog! As I leafed through it, I noticed the DER also distributes a few other titles from Latin America, including one that screened at the Margaret Mead Festival last year: “Secrets of the Tribe” (which I hope to check out on Netflix soon). So, if you are interested in building your library’s collection, check DER out.
#NAFVF11 Opening Night
Thursday, March 31st was the opening night of the 2011 Native American Film and Video Festival at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. This was my third time at the Festival and while I have always enjoyed myself in the past, this year, the organizers took it up a notch. So, I’d like to congratulate everyone involved with putting the Festival together. First off, while the Native Networks website remains an invaluable resource, I love this year’s festival website. Second, it was pretty cool that on opening night, the film screened online and the Q&A included questions from around the world via Twitter (the Festival hashtag is #NAFVF11, which I’ve been using to tweet about the festival). Finally, the director of the opening night film, Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, Zacharias Kunuk, skyped in from the Arctic! Oh, and the Festival trailer was a nice touch, too. So, an all around great job of making use of technology to bring these films to the world and back.
And now, on to the show… The opening night film, Qapirangajuq, was directed by Zacharias Zunuk, who also directed the well known film Atanarjuaat/The Fast Runner. This documentary was a huge undertaking involving interviews with 60 elders from 4 communities who speak 5 different Innuit dialects and live in different parts of the Arctic. The elders discussed environmental concerns such as changing wind patterns which make it impossible to accurately predict the weather,* changes in the location of the setting of the sun, and the drastic melting of ice in the Arctic. The documentary presaged the festival’s focus on the environment (Friday, April 1 was largely devoted to films on the environment and ended with a panel discussion called “Protecting our Rivers”).
One of the highlights of the screening came during the Q&A, when an audience member asked co-director Ian Mauro about the correlation which the film made between the positioning of celestial bodies and the environmental crisis. Mauro, who has a doctorate in Environmental Studies, gave a great explanation, but in my effort to jot it down, I only caught interesting pieces. Elders from all over were commenting about the shift in the earth’s axis but Mauro could find nothing about it in the scholarly literature. However, scientists did stand up and take notice when Mauro described a process that is known to them as “refraction.” Due to the collision of hot and cold air in the Arctic, the sun creates an optical illusion which makes it appear at times of the year when it would not normally appear. Mauro noted that this oscillation process is the same that can sort of help you tell the future: if a walrus is oscillating in the horizon, it is a few hours away. Qapirangajuq is the Inuktitut word that comes closest to the English word “refraction” (I believe Mauro translated the word into English as “a pencil that looks bent in the water”). Hearing all this was a highlight to me because it was an instance of native people observing what scientists had not. (In that Russell Means video I referenced earlier, he also noted that scientists still had not come to understand that hair carries memory.)
One of the eloquent voices in the film was Innuit leader named Mary Simon. One of her simple yet powerful statements was that many who debate the environmental crisis focus on national boundaries, which is misguided because the environmental crisis affects us all, regardless of boundaries. Finding cross-cultural common ground in order to help solve the environmental crisis was a theme during the conference and highlighted in movies like River of Renewal. While refraction was a complicated idea to relay, it was surprisingly simple, yet disturbing, to understand how toxins, like yellow acid rain, precipitate, travel north to the Arctic and get locked there. In the film, interviewees noted that people in the Arctic are especially vulnerable since they will be the first to be affected from fish who have high levels of mercury. It was really striking to see our interconnectedness.
Besides showing us the importance of our interconnected actions vis-a-vis the environment, the film is more pointedly critical of Westerners’ roles in Innuit communities. Mauro chuckles while he acknowledges that his Inuktitut nickname is “the thief,” a name he says serves as a reminder of his position in the Innuit culture, where researchers are often seen as more interested in their research than in the local culture. One interviewee prompted laughter as he wonders where all the scientists who claim that the polar bears are in danger of decline are, since he sees no evidence of their disappearing. Another argues that it is actually outsiders, with their noisy helicopters and the collars that are placed on the bears, who are really harming these animals.
This is one of those movies that everyone should watch but in terms of scholarly interest, those teaching about the environment and Innuit culture will want to check this documentary out. In addition, I would recommend it as a way to sensitize science students and scholars doing scientific work in native or other communities to the concerns of the communities where they are studying or working and, ultimately, the big one we’re all inhabiting: the earth.
Upcoming documentary: “Off the Rez”
Hello folks! I’ve been gone for a while but this past weekend was the Native American Film and Video Festival here in NYC so I’ll have some posts about that soon.
In the meantime, I just read about a documentary called “Off the Rez” that will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. It centers around female high school basketball star Shoni Schimmel. It will be screened on April 26, 2011 and April 30, 2011. If you are interested in sports-related films, check out my reviews of the documentary Chiefs and feature Edge of America.
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…
X Festival CLACPI Ecuadorpi
Solamente una nota pequeña para avisarles que está disponible video e imagenes desde el X Festival de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígenas organizado por CLACPI y la CONAIE en el Ecuador. Gracias a Amalia Córdova por el enlace y a Gabriela Gamez por los videos. Para mayor información sobre el festival y sobre CLACPI, por favor visiten su página y también la Agenda General.
La Taxista
- Introduction to Ecuadorian soap opera La taxista.
Thanks to a recent tweet by Sacha Rosero of OtavalosOnline.com, I read an article about a new Ecuadorian soap opera called La taxista.1 The soap opera’s protagonist, Rosita Tituaña, is supposed to depict an Indian from Imbabura province who has migrated to the coastal city of Guayaquil. The show’s critics explain that it reproduces stereotypes about Indians being unable to speak correctly when in fact, Otavalos are well known as world travelers and polyglots. An indigenous professor notes that the show’s producers did not even bother to accurately portray native dress since Rosita wears a mixture of elements from the dress styles of native women from Otavalo and Chimborazo. The show’s librettist, however, argues that La taxista endeavors to show that Indians don’t have to change their ways in order to succeed in life. Ecuadorian actor Alberto Cuesta agreed with critics and made an interesting point: afro-Ecuadorians, women and gays have also been subjected to this type of treatment in Ecuadorian media.
After watching a recent cast interview (see up to 0:34 and 9:18 to the end in particular) and part of the second episode, it seems to me that the show’s creators have never traveled to Imbabura province or ever spoken to any Otavalos. First, Rosita’s style of dress is indeed inaccurate. This may seem like a superficial critique but it’s a manifestation of the fact that little research was done into the culture being portrayed. I have seen women from other provinces who migrate to Quito wearing a mixture of western and native dress. However, when women from Imbabura mix elements of western and native dress, it doesn’t look the way Rosita is portrayed in the intro clip. Second, the writer’s assertion that an Indian should not have to change left me at a loss as to what the show’s conception of an Indian is. Is the essence of an Indian to be innocent? To speak incorrectly? To play to folklorization of Indian culture by breaking out into dance in an Indian costume? It seems that whoever was responsible for molding Rosita’s character has conflated being ignorant and unsophisticated with being Indian. Being Indian is different things for different people but I think it has more to do with practicing and having pride and respect for native culture – something one can do while dressing in western clothes, while speaking French, or while speaking standard Ecuadorian Spanish, for that matter. I have nothing against dialects; I tend to sing like a Cuencana when I speak Spanish. But, Rosita doesn’t even speak in Imbabura dialect! And even if she did, she could do it more genuinely. The exaggerated manner in which she speaks is played for cheap laughs and it gets tired pretty quickly. Besides leaning towards insensitivity, it also results in bad acting.
It is sad that some people may watch this show and engage in ignorant jokes at Indians’ expense.2 And I suppose I should feel offended by the show. But I don’t. I shook my head as I watched the clips above, alright. But, at the same time, I know Rosita is not a reflection of who Indians really are. Instead of feeling offended for Indians, I feel embarassed for the show’s creators because it is more of a manifestation of their ignorance and how far they need to go to bring genuine and meaningful portrayals of Indians to the media.
If I had Ecuavisa, I’d probably tune in just to dissect these stereotypes some more. So, it might be worth it to examine this aspect of it for a class. But otherwise, and unless they start taking these things into consideration, it seems like I’d probably do like Rosita sings in her intro: hightail it outta there “hecho una bala.” Silly song is catchy.
P.S. But wouldn’t it be something if the show’s creators took critics’ comments to heart and came back with television we can all be proud of?
1. Redacción Sierra Centro. “La taxista incomoda en Imbabura.” El Comercio 15 de agosto 2010.
2 See Muenala, Germán. “La taxista.” El Diario del Norte. 8 de agosto 2010.
