Reel Injun (2009)

Directed by

Catherine Bainbridge, Neil Diamond

Genre

documentary film

Country

Canada

Runtime

1h 25m

Rated

14A

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 40 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary looks at how Native Americans have been shown in Hollywood movies over the years. A Cree filmmaker travels across the United States to talk with actors and historians about stereotypes and hidden truths behind the portrayals.

thoughtfuleducationaleye-openingreflectiveengaginginformativesoberingconversational

What happens

Reel Injun is a 2009 Canadian documentary film directed by Cree filmmakers Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, and Jeremiah Hayes that explores the portrayal of Native Americans in film. Reel Injun is illustrated with excerpts from classic and contemporary portrayals of Native people in Hollywood movies and interviews with filmmakers, actors and film historians, while director Diamond travels across the United States to visit iconic locations in motion picture as well as American Indian history. Reel Injun explores the various stereotypes about Natives in film, from the noble savage to the drunken Indian. It profiles such figures as Iron Eyes Cody, an Italian American who reinvented himself as a Native American on screen. The film also explores Hollywood's practice of using Italian Americans and American Jews to portray Indians in the movies and reveals how some Native American actors made jokes in their native tongue on screen when the director thought they were simply speaking gibberish. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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