Native American Film and Video Festival
jenny pond-muckerman (icpon@asuvm.inre.asu.edu)
Sun, 5 Jun 1994 20:49:10 -0700
This past weekend a film festival entitled "Imagining Indians: A
Native American Film and Video Festival"...took place at the Scottsdale
Center for the Arts in Scottsdale, Az. Some of the events that took
place were showings of films such as Victor Masayesva, Jr.'s "Imagining
Indians" which is a documentary that examines the ways that Hollywood
has appropriated Native American Culture. (Victor Masayesva, was also
the festival's artistic director.) Other events included showings
by Dr. Manual Pino (Professor of Justice Studies at Arizona State University.
His areas of specialization include natural resource development on
American Indian land, Indian sovereignty and Indian law. He was in-
volved in the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973 and was on the Longest Walk
protesting the abrogation of Indian Treaties in 1978.)..of "Incident at
Oglala"..."Thunderheart"...These showings were followed by a panel discussion
that included Robert Robideau, Sheila Tousey (lead actress in "Thunderheart")
and Norman Brown who is President of the Native American Producers Alliance.
Other festival participants were: Tantoo Cardinal, Ava Hamilton, Floyd Red Crow
Westerman and Russell Means...The festival lasted for 4 days
and showed some 60 plus films..either made by Native Americans or that
included storylines about Native American peoples. Topics discussed
were: Sound tracks for Indian films, How to copyright your work, Can a white
man make a film about an Indian?, Hollywood opportunities for Native Americans,
Aesthetics of Native American Film, Intellectual property rights: Can
Language, History, Stories, designs and Rituals be Exclusively Owned?, etc.
The consensus was that movies such as "Dances With Wolves" are "really
about a white man, or a white man wanting to be an Indian, or a white man
wanting to be an Indian and passing themselves off as an Indian." Panelist
Sandy Johnson Osawa (a Makah who is an independent producer and scriptwriter)
said that "We have not been able to tell our own story." She said that she
felt that she was raised with the tradition of "not singing anyone else's
songs." which Anglo moviemakers have been doing to Indians for too long."
There is a lot to report about this festival...If anyone would like more
information about it then please e-mail me. Also, if anyone has infor-
mation about Native Americans and filmaking...please pass it on to me. I
would greatly appreciate it. Thanks....jenny.
P.S. Although I thought that Victor Masayesva's film "Imagining Indians"
was truely great...I REALLY liked "Cow Tipping: The Militant Indian
Waiter". It's the story of a Cherokee waiter working the graveyard
shift in a NYC Cafe who continually finds himself in heated conversations
with his customers who insist on sharing their ignorance of Native
American's. (Info: USA,video,color, 10 min. Produced and directed
by Randy redroad (Cherokee)).