Imagining Indians (1993) / Take a Picture With a Real Indian (1993)

October 20, 2014 - 7:30 pm

Imagining Indians (1993)

Directed by Victor Masayesva Jr. (Hopi).

Hopi filmmaker Victor Masayesva Jr. takes the moment of Dances With Wolves (1990) to dismantle Hollywood’s new “sensitivity” towards Native Americans and position it within the long history of cultural appropriation it continues. Masayesva constructs a critical layering of interviews, film clips, photographs and original footage, to expose this system of exploitation even as he implicates himself within it.

Independent Television Service. Producer/Cinematographer/Editor: Victor Masayesva Jr. Cast: Patty Runs After Swallow, Ed Jones, Shirley Atene.

BetaSP, color, 56 min.

Preceded by

Take a Picture With a Real Indian (1993)

Directed by James Luna (Luiseño).

Director James Luna’s performance art piece, offered in a highbrow gallery setting, invites art patrons to indulge in a time-honored tradition.

National Film Board of Canada. Producer: Silva Basmajian. Screenwriter: Clint Alberta. Cinematographer: Marcos Arriaga. Editor: Katharine Asals. Cast: Clint Alberta.

Betacam, color, 12 min.

Images of Indians, Part I: The Great Movie Massacre (1979)

Directed by Phil Lucas (Choctaw), Robert Hagopian.

This first part in a three-part television documentary series was a groundbreaking historiographic examination of the legacy of culturally insensitive cinematic representations of Native Americans.

Producer: Phil Lucas. Screenwriter: Phil Lucas, Janet Tanaka. Cinematographer: Peter Von Puttkamer. Editor: Peter Von Puttkamer, Phil Lucas. Cast: Tommy Harry, Roland Harry, Richard Dick, Joe Dick, Robert Chelsea.

Digital video, color, 29 min.

Tonto Plays Himself (2010)

Directed by Jacob Floyd (Creek/Cherokee).

The filmmaker embarks on a journey of discovery and self-discovery, upon learning that an actor often seen in diverse “Indian” roles onscreen is actually a distant relative.

Digital video, color, 20 min.

Part of:

Through Indian Eyes: Native American Cinema

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