On November 8th of 2014, the inaugural Lakota Film festival was held at the one screen theater in Martin South Dakota. They played a variety of documentaries, the best one easily being the very first film they played.
Reel Injun is a 2009 documentary chronicling the portrayal of Indians in Hollywood. It’s very comprehensive, covering the complete history of Hollywood up to the present day. It starts with the early days of silent films and shows how natives were part of cinema from the very beginning. At the birth of film Indians were seen as exotic and fascinating when in reality they were close to dying out in the fallout from the old west.
During the silent film era Indians actually had a hand in being in film as the market was wide open and endless features were being filmed. The Silent Enemy is mentioned, which is a silent film about how many Indians at the time were facing starvation. One Indian movie star who was famous at the time was mentioned, as well as his secret that he was half black. At first he was the darling of the cocktail parties and intellectual crowd, but once his secret was discovered, and someone threatened to leak it to the press, he committed suicide.
Once the Great Depression hit, Reel Injun theorizes that Americans were no longer interested in the exotic Indian, and the portrayal of the savage Indian began. This continued through the decades with John Wayne films being mentioned. As the Western developed as a genre, the image of Indians of the Great Plains, with their head dressed full of feathers, became the default image for all Indians. We must remember that North America was filled with many nations that were very distinct from each other in language, culture, and traditions, thus they were not all like the plains Indians. Clint Eastwood is interviewed and has a few good quotes in this segment.
Naturally the 1960s brought a change in attitudes in society. Hippie culture is mentioned, as they also adopted generic notions of the hippies are like, assuming they all wore headbands etc. A Native model at the time recounts how she was once dressed in her everyday clothing and someone remarked to her that she looked like a hippie.
This brings us to the early 70s, and an incident involving Marlon Brando. The standoff at Wounded Knee was occurring between AIM, (American Indian Movement) and the FBI. Meanwhile, Marlon Brando was set to win an Oscar for the Godfather. Brando asked a young Native American woman to accept on his behalf, so that she would have an opportunity to address Native issues to a national audience. The producers of the Oscars threatened to arrest her if she went on too long. She gave a short speech, to which some cheered but some booed. Afterwards she said people spread rumors that she wasn’t really Indian, and that the traditional dress she wore was rented etc.
Also in the 70s Billy Jack is mentioned, a Kung Fu Indian who looked like a blonde white guy. He was in a few action movies.
In the 1980s the Indian disappeared from cinema, but returned in the 90s with Dances with Wolves, which was significant even though it was still told from a white’s point of view. Disney’s Pocahontas is mentioned, as it is like an American fairy tale, with Pocahontas representing all that is desirable about America. In actual history, she was only around 9 years old when she met John Smith.
Reel Injun states that the modern era is kind of a golden age for Native Cinema, as more Natives are producing and starring in films themselves. Smoke Signals among other films are mentioned, including one set in the frozen north that has a scene of a naked man being chased across an icy wilderness.
The film’s director has a loose narrative about traveling to Hollywood in an old beat up car, or rez bomb. It has some entertainment value but doesn’t add much otherwise. Still, it’s a very well made documentary that cover’s its subject very well.
And Now for Something Serious 