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Here is a sampling of related films on Native American land issues, many of which were produced and directed by Native American filmmakers. The American Indian’s Sacred Ground (1977) Freewheelin’ Films Backbone of the World: The Blackfeet (1998) Experimental documentary gives the Blackfeet perspective on homecoming, environmental peril, and the quest for tribal survival in the 21st Century. Backbone of the World is the story of one man's journey home and his tribe's crucial struggle to heal and forge a new identity, set amidst the breathtaking splendor of the northern Rockies. A team of young Blackfeet filmmakers use a mélange of documentary, experimental and cinema vérité formats to join the ancient legend of “Scarface” with contemporary stories that parallel the Native American experience. Rattlesnake Films Productions, Broken Treaty at Battle Mountain (1974) and Narrated by Robert Redford, Broken Treaty at Battle Mountain documents the story of the traditional Western Shoshone of Nevada and their struggle to regain 24 million acres of land promised them in the 1858 Ruby Valley Treaty with the US government. To Protect Mother Earth is the powerful sequel to the earlier film and is a gripping account of the Western Shoshone Dann sisters' struggle with the U.S. Government to retain control of their ancestral lands and end nuclear bomb tests. Both films have won numerous awards. Cinnamon Productions Broken Rainbow (1987) Examination of the forced relocation of Navajo Indians on Hopi territory in Arizona by the U.S. government. Captures the majesty of sacred Indian lands, and the devastating effect that mining, forced relocation and stock reduction has had on the land and its people. Navajo and Hopi describe eloquently how a century of bureaucratic racism has affected their lives. Earthworks Films Drumbeat for Mother Earth (1999) Many scientists and tribal people consider persistent toxic chemicals to be the greatest threat to the long-term survival of Indigenous Peoples. Drumbeat for Mother Earth explores how these chemicals contaminate the traditional food web, violate treaty rights and travel long distances. The video features testimony from a variety of Indigenous Nations in the U.S., Central America and the Arctic as well as interviews with scientists, activists, and the chemical industry. Bullfrog Films Earth and the American Dream (1993) This exhaustive treatment of the roots of environmental destruction in the modern world has come in for scathing criticism from those spearheading the "environmental backlash" movement, which is composed largely of rabidly pro-corporate thinkers and those who take "pure" capitalism as their religion. The filmmakers demonstrate that, beginning with Columbus's activities on the island of Hispaniola, the drive to exploit the natural world has increased explosively all over the world. In the case of the United States, doctrines like "Manifest Destiny" are shown to have played their role in justifying these developments. In this passionate indictment of current trends, the filmmakers have spared no offender, and the overriding tone is bleak indeed. It is clear that almost none of the villains the documentary names thought of themselves as such, or are willing to do so now. HBO Eyanopapi: The Heart of the Sioux (1988)
Color, 29 min. The Black Hills of South Dakota are the spiritual heart of the Sioux, the physical sacred geography that links the path of the sun and the constellations with the movement and ceremonial cycle of the Sioux on earth. Speaks of important rituals associated with the land including the sun dance, vision quests and sweat lodge ceremonies. Tells of the Sioux's land-rights struggle beginning with the treaty of 1877. University of Colorado Hopiit (1981) In this lyrical work, Hopi cultural activities are observed through the cycle of the seasons. Work and play, ceremonial rituals and the rituals of everyday life throughout the year are woven together in a s seamless vision that conveys the oral traditions of storytelling, the natural landscape of Arizona and the richness of Hopi Culture. IS Productions/Victor Masayesva How The West Was Lost (6 Part Video Series) (1993) Highlights the epic struggle as Native Americans bravely fought for their land and their way of life. Thought provoking and insightful, this video includes interviews, great videography, photographs, and historical documentation. PBS/Discovery How the West Was Lost II (4 Volume Video Series) (1995) PBS/Discovery Imagining Indians (1992) Employing a keen sense of humor to reveal a Native American perspective on the misrepresentation of Native Americans in feature films, this unconventional film plows headlong into the theme of the commodification and appropriation of Native American arts and material culture. The all-Indian crew visited tribal communities in Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Washington and the Amazon to produce this film. IS Productions/Victor Masayesva Also available at: Itam Hakim Hopiit (1984) Translated as “we someone, the Hopi” this programs celebrates the Hopi Tricentennial, honoring the occasion of the Pueblo Revolt against Spanish colonial rule. Speaking in Hopi, the oldest member of a storytelling clan weaves together personal and cultural history, recounting stories of the Hopi emergence, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the Bow Clan migration stories of his father. The eloquent rendering of the natural landscape of Arizona and the cadence of the storyteller’s language exerts a mesmerizing beauty. IS Productions/Victor Masayesva Also available at: KANEHSATAKE: 270 Years of Resistance (1994) A feature-length, multi-award winning documentary by a Native American filmmaker set in the thick of the armed confrontation between Native American Mohawks and Canadian government forces during the 1990 standoff in the Mohawk village of Kanehsatake near the village of Oka in Quebec. The two-and-a-half month ordeal received brief international attention when the Mohawk warriors of Kahnawake, in support of their brothers from nearby Kanehsatake, temporarily held the busy Mercier Bridge leading to Montreal, in an effort to bring world attention to the situation. Bullfrog Films Paha Sapa: The Struggle for the Black Hills (1993) The continuing struggle of the Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux peoples to regain their sacred ground is movingly portrayed in this documentary video, beginning with the arrival of white hunters in the early 1800s and continuing through the 1980 financial settlement for the Black Hills claim - which they still refuse. The Place of the Falling Waters (1990) A Native American produced documentary history of the Flathead Indian Reservation from the perspective of the Indian people who live there. The story relates the complex and volatile relationship between the people of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and a major hydroelectric dam situated within the Flathead Indian Reservation. The documentary is presented in three 30-minute parts. This broadcast quality program combines a powerful mix of interviews with tribal elders, archival newsreel footage of the Flathead Reservation, stunning aerial footage of the region, and rare photographs dating to the 19th century. Salish Kootenai College Pow Wow Highway (1989) Philbert, a Cheyenne Indian from Montana, goes on vision quest to find enlightenment. After he meets Buddy Red Bow, a fiery Indian activist, things really start to happen. Available for purchase at Amazon.com Real Indian (1996) Real Indian is a lighthearted, personal look at the meaning of cultural identity. As a Lumbee Indian, the filmmaker is constantly confronted with the fact that she does not fit any of society’s stereotypes for Native Americans. Those stereotypes are imposed by both whites and other Indians, alienating the filmmaker from many of the conventional definitions of Native American identity. Real Indian makes the viewers question our perceptions of Native Americans, as well as the meaning of our own identities. Malinda Maynor was co-producer of In the Light of Reverence. Women Make Movies Smoke Signals (1998) The first feature-length film written, directed and co-produced by Native Americans. Two Coeur d'Alene Indians travel from their Idaho reservation to Phoenix to retrieve the remains of a dead father and discover some truths about themselves along the way. This amusing, bittersweet road movie offers a refreshing Native American point of view. Available for purchase at Amazon.com Thunderheart(1992) A young, part-Sioux FBI agent is sent to solve a murder on the South Dakota Oglala Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There he meets the irreverent local sheriff and the tribe's religious leader, who helps the agent begin to understand his lost heritage. Gradually, he comes to believe that the U.S. government has framed an innocent man, but finds that he and those around him are thrown into danger because of his suspicions. Available for purchase at Amazon.com The Way West (4 Part Video Series) This documentary takes a photographic journey across an expanding American nation. Famous actors read the letters, diaries, and memoirs of the men and women who settled in the old west. Episode 1: (1845-1864)- "Westward, the Course of Empire Takes Its Way," Episode 2: (1865-1869)- "The Approach of Civilization," Episode 3: (1870-1876)- "The War for the Black Hills," Episode 4: (1877-1893)- "Ghost Dance." Available at: www.shoppbs.org The West (8 Part Video Series) (1996) The series covers a vast expanse of history when Native Americans inhabited the land to the early 20th Century, when the Indians had been brutally conquered, the land settled and the United States rapidly transformed into the continent spanning nation inspired by Manifest Destiny. The series attempts to portray Native Americans not simply as victims, but as people who struggled through and survived a tragic upheaval of their world. Available at: www.shoppbs.org The Film and Video Center of the National Museum of the American Indian's Native Networks website (also in Spanish) is devoted to Native American media--film, video, radio, television and new media--throughout the Americas. The site presents feature articles and related links, Native media news, resources for producers and for the general public and a catalog of outstanding recent productions. The American Indian Film Institute has published Films of the American Indian Film Festival 1975-2000. The 250-page directory is available for $39.95 plus $5 shipping from The American Indian Film Institute at 332 Valencia Street, Suite 322, San Francisco, CA 94103, (415) 554-0525. |
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