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Reel Injun

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Reel Injun
Directed by
Written by
  • Neil Diamond
  • Jeremiah Hayes
  • Catherine Bainbridge
Produced by
  • Catherine Bainbridge
  • Christina Fon
  • Linda Ludwick
Starring
CinematographyEdith Labbe
Edited by
  • Jeremiah Hayes
Music by
  • Claude Castonguay
  • Mona Laviolette
Production
companies
Distributed byDomino Film
Release dates
  • September 10, 2009(2009-09-10)(Toronto)
  • February 19, 2010(2010-02-19)(Canada)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Reel Injunis a 2009 Canadian documentary film directed byCreefilmmakerNeil Diamond,Catherine Bainbridge,andJeremiah Hayesthat explores theportrayal of Native Americans in film.Reel Injunis illustrated with excerpts from classic and contemporary portrayals ofNative peopleinHollywood moviesand interviews with filmmakers, actors andfilm historians,while director Diamond travels across theUnited Statesto visit iconic locations in motion picture as well asAmerican Indian history.[1][2]

Reel Injunexplores the various stereotypes about Natives in film, from thenoble savageto thedrunken Indian.[3]It profiles such figures asIron Eyes Cody,an Italian American who reinvented himself as a Native American on screen.[4]The film also exploresHollywood's practice of usingItalian AmericansandAmerican Jewsto portray Indians in the movies and reveals how some Native American actors made jokes in theirnative tongueon screen when the director thought they were simply speakinggibberish.[5]

Conception

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The film was inspired, in part, by Diamond's own experiences as a child inWaskaganish, Quebec,where he and other Native children would play cowboys and Indians after local screenings of Westerns in their remote community. Diamond remembers that although the children were Indians, they all wanted to becowboys.[6][7]When Diamond was older, he would be questioned by non-Native people about whether his people lived inteepeesand rode horses, causing him to realize that their preconceptions about Native people were also derived from movies.[3]

Interviews

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Interview subjects includeSacheen Littlefeather,Zacharias Kunuk,Clint Eastwood,Adam Beach,Jim Jarmusch,Robbie Robertson,Russell Means,Wes Studi,and scholars Angela Aleiss andMelinda Micco,and film criticJesse Wente.[2][3][7][8]

Locations

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The documentary is partly structured as aroad movie,with Diamond visiting locations across the United States as well as the Canadian North. In the U.S., he is traveling by "rez car,"a broken down automobile often used onIndian Reservations,as demonstrated inReel Injunwith a sequence from the filmSmoke Signals.Locations visited include theBlack Hills of South DakotaandWounded Knee,Camp Nominigue, theCrow AgencyinMontanaas well asMonument Valley.[1][9]

Release

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InCanada,the film had itsworld premiereat theToronto International Film Festivalin September 2009, followed by screenings at theImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.Reel Injunbegan alimited releaseat theaters inTorontoandVancouver;it debuted on television onCBC News Network'sThe Passionate Eyeseries on March 28, 2010.[3]Reel Injun had its local Montreal premiere at the International Festival of Films on Art, followed by a commercial run at the Cinema du Parc.[7]

In the United States, the film premiered at theSXSWfestival in March 2009.[10]It aired on November 2, 2010 on thePBSseriesIndependent Lens.[5]It was screened at theMuseum of Modern Artfrom June 14 to 20, 2010.[11]

Awards

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Reel Injunreceived three awards at the2010 Gemini Awards:theCanada Awardfor bestmulticulturalprogram, Best Direction in a Documentary Program andElizabeth Klinckand Laura Blaney won for Best Visual Research.[12]It received aPeabody Awardfor best electronic media in May 2011.[13][14]

Credits

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The renaissance of Native cinema

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The documentary mentions the following movies as being part of the "Renaissance ofNative cinema"—that is, movies byNative peoplesabout Native experiences, that "portrayNative peopleas human beings "and depict Native cultures in an authentic way:

Also worth mentioning is a silent film from 1930,The Silent Enemy(a reference to starvation), which this documentary calls "one of the most authentic films of its time, featuring real Native actors" (discussed 19 minutes into this documentary). In this documentary, silent film historian David Kiehn explains that, during the era of silent films, there was a great number of "Native American people directing and acting in films, and they were bringing their viewpoints to the table too. And those were being listened to". But then, according to this documentary, "[I]n the 1930s, [the Hollywood portrayal of] the Indian was transformed into a brutal savage". Film historian Angela Aleiss explains that "[T]here were a number of films that came out in the early 1930s that followed in the steps ofThe Silent Enemy,and the Indians were the stars of these movies, but... they just bombed at the box office. Americans [were] not that interested in them ". The documentary asserts that" America, struggling through the Great Depression, [needed] a new brand of hero ". Movies likeStagecoach,which pitted cowboys against Indians and portrayed Native Americans as "vicious and bloodthirsty", became the Hollywood image of Indians until the 1970s.

Native actors and performers

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In addition to members of the cast (mentioned above), this documentary mentions the following Native actors and performers who helped to change the way Native peoples are portrayed:

Plus:

See also

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References

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  1. ^abHale, Mike (14 June 2010)."Letting the Arrows Fly at Hollywood Stereotypes".New York Times.Retrieved3 December2010.
  2. ^abAdams, James."Hollywood portrayals shaped native self-perception and non-native prejudice".The Globe and Mail.Retrieved3 December2010.
  3. ^abcdSkenderis, Stephanie (18 February 2010)."A reel shame".CBC News.Retrieved3 December2010.
  4. ^Pevere, Geoff (19 February 2010)."Cree director Neil Diamond's real look at reel Indians".Toronto Star.Retrieved3 December2010.
  5. ^abOstrow, Joanne (4 August 2010). ""Reel Injun" coming to PBS in Nov ".Denver Post.
  6. ^Koepke, Melora (18 March 2010)."The real Neil Diamond".Hour magazine.Archived fromthe originalon 14 April 2010.Retrieved3 December2010.
  7. ^abcKelly, Brendan (2 November 2010)."Me cowboy, you Reel Injun".Montreal Gazette.Retrieved8 December2010.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^CBC Documentaries, "Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian"
  9. ^Weber, Bill (13 June 2010)."Reel Injun".Slant Magazine.Retrieved8 December2010.
  10. ^Acosta, Belinda (19 March 2010)."SXSW Film".Austin Chronicle.Retrieved8 December2010.
  11. ^"Canadian doc 'Reel Injun' to screen at MoMA".Canadian Press.13 May 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 14 July 2011.Retrieved3 December2010.
  12. ^"Reel Injun".Collection.National Film Board of Canada.Retrieved3 December2010.
  13. ^70th Annual Peabody Awards,May 2011.
  14. ^Dunlevy, T'Cha (9 April 2011)."Reel Injun continues making waves".Montreal Gazette.Retrieved15 April2011.[permanent dead link]
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