Interviews

with the director of the American Indian Film Institute & Festival in San Francisco and the Canadian Mohawk actress Alex Rice on the occasion of the film festival Indianer und Inuit – The North American Native Film Festival.

Zürcher Tagesanzeiger, culture section, 27.11. 2004
Documented by Florian Keller:

Michael Smith, promoter of American Indian film
I grew up in a time when portrayals of Native Americans in a positive light in the cinema and on television were few and far between. Admittedly, every so often there were Native Americans to be seen in Westerns but they mostly symbolised obstacles standing in the way of the western world’s progressive way of thinking.

And they were more often than not played by white people with black wigs and make up in their faces. In 1972, a film was made that marked a turning point in this way of thinking: it was Arthur Penn’s “Little Big Man” starring Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George. It was the first time that I felt that a positive picture of a Native American was being communicated and furthermore, he was played by a very humorous Indian. It was the first commercial film to make large audiences aware of how wrong the general picture was in America that depicted Indian life.

During this time the idea behind our Native American Film Festival was born, when we asked ourselves: what exactly are these images, circling above us, and how can we communicate positive images of their cultural identity to young people? At that time, it was not easy to find appropriate films; however, by 1975 we had enough material to put a programme together. That first festival was originally planned to be a one-time event, now, 29 years later, we are still going.

Right into the 1970s there were hardly any Native American film-makers. When the first young Native Americans started going to university, they studied Law or Medicine; they did not go to university to make films or to start careers in media. That has taken a long time to change. It has not, however, become any easier to finance films. This year, for example, we had a first in our programme – a film that was made on a budget of 17 000 dollars. The director said to himself: I can either buy myself a new car, or make a film.

He went for the film and we, from the American Indian Film Institute, are here to encourage this kind of person. Unfortunately, a lot of these films go unseen for many, as they are only shown at festivals. And if their makers do enjoy international success, such as Chris Eyre did, for his film “Smoke Signals”, he was then cast-set as a director for Indian topics. As if Chris Eyre did not have enough talent to direct the major films, which possibly have nothing to do with that…

In commercial cinema, the old pictures unfortunately continue to have an effect. It is frustrating when a director such as Ron Howard puts the old cliché up on the screen as he did in “The Missing”. Unfortunately it is this kind of film that provides Indian actors with good work opportunities and the chance to prove their talent. It is sad that a lot of the rubbish that is produced does actually provide for a decent income.

Think about the film “Hidalgo”, where Viggo Mortensen played a half-Indian. We included this film in our programme and noticed the following: in the official information on the film provided by Touchstone Pictures and Disney, the Indian aspect of the film was completely ignored! A well-known actor plays a character with an Indian background in a major Hollywood production and the film is sold based on the story of a White man in Saudi Arabia. That does not make sense, does it?

Photos
1. Michael Smith (Photo: Gunter Lange)
2. Dan Golding (Photo: Dr. Sonja Schierle)

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