Native Americans on Film: Conversations, Teaching, and Theory

by M. Elise Marubbio (Contributor), Houston Woods (Contributor), Michelle Raheja (Contributor)

The film industry and mainstream popular culture are notorious for promoting stereotypical images of Native Americans: the noble and ignoble savage, the pronoun-challenged sidekick, the ruthless warrior, the female drudge, the princess, the sexualized maiden, the drunk, and others. Over the years, Indigenous filmmakers have both challenged these representations and moved past them, offering their own distinct forms of cinematic expression.

Native Americans on Film draws inspiration from the Indigenous film movement, bringing filmmakers into an intertextual conversation with academics from a variety of disciplines. The resulting dialogue opens a myriad of possibilities for engaging students with ongoing debates: What is Indigenous film? Who is an Indigenous filmmaker? What are Native filmmakers saying about Indigenous film and their own work? This thought-provoking text offers theoretical approaches to understanding Native cinema, includes pedagogical strategies for teaching particular films, and validates the different voices, approaches, and worldviews that emerge across the movement.

Genres: Indigenous

398 pages, Hardcover

First published November 21, 2012

Reviews

[Michelle Boyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique collection of Indigenous centered essays on filmmaking. M. Elise Marubbio is a great editor and her interview with Randy Redroad is really good. The book has several other amazing essays though, including one on The Business of Fancydancing that offered some insight into Alexie's characters and the film.

If you're interested in indigenous cinematic sovereignty, this is a good collection for you!

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title states the book is really a resource book for those teaching about representations of indigenous peoples in film.

[Rozemarijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book consists of a collection of several articles on Native American Cinema. I haven't read all of them, but the ones I read I found highly interesting. The different sections give each another perspective on film making, contexts, different theories.Especially the interview "Pockets Full of Stories" was equally interesting as entertaining to read.