A Reflection on Native Cinema and Manifesto for My own Works (Fourth in a Five-part series) By Ernest M. Whiteman III
"The Prestige"
In the end it is all about power. Power to control the expectations people have about Native Americans. Even the hot button issues of sports mascots is about power, let no one fool you in that. Power to control the images, control the perceptions. It is not about money. It is not about art. It is not respectfully or disrespectfully representing a nation. It is about the power to control how others view you, your people, your culture. The power to represents ourselves as modern and evolving, and, most important, a part of today’s American society.
The current crop of film makers and actors have paved the way for the rest of us. Can we continue what they started? After Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie and the very first Native produced movie Smoke Signals rode the crest of the Independent Film movement; although successful, there were no further calls for another Native-produced feature in Hollywood. Smoke Signals had become the token film that showed Hollywood cared, but also, that they did not care enough to carry it further.
Alexie’s own The Business of Fancydancing was truly self-financed. Although it did receive critical accolades, it failed to get national distribution. While American Indian film festivals are appearing across the country, more and more; less and less, Native film makers are getting the proper venue they need to showcase their talents and works, their perspective, to showcase their voice. That can make a big difference to that Native Kid on the rez. When they see nothing but this tricky thing called “art” when all they want to see a Native kicking ass, a Native that is apart of that larger contemporary society. There are some film festivals out there. I am lucky enough to work with one that deals only with Native movie makers. We need to inspire that Native Kid to pick up a camera and tell like it is rather than have it dictated to them by TNT. We need not negate THAT voice. Or does that make it art?
Right now, we are in the midst of a Native New Wave in movies. The continuing interest in independent movie making outside of the mainstream industry, and the advent of digital technology that allows cameras and equipment to come cheaper, we are seeing more movie makers like Rod Pocowachit, Angelique Midthunder, Susan Cardinal, and Randy Redroad making forays into the independent side of the film industry. Because of these efforts at contemporary views and first-voice, that Native Kid can pick up a camera and shoot that movie she has always wanted to make.
More and more we are seeing a shift, small, but a shift nonetheless, of the desire to see Native movies, about Native peoples, made by Native movie makers. As we continue to reach beyond the confines of what makes a “native movie”, or even, what makes “art’, we must never compromise in our desire in putting out a contemporary Native first-voice perspective.
While it is easy to rely on the beads and feathers to mark us as Native Americans, it is also our responsibility to show others who Native Americans are now. Too many times and too many places have I seen the pendulum gradually slip back. But we as Native movie-makers have the opportunity to continue to show others we too are a part of the great social fabric of America and we too are a people facing the modern.
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So, to what is all this leading to? Why have I included my past experiences, my days on the reservation? I tell you about it now to show you my journey to the place and ideology I have arrived at and what it means for me in my future as a movie maker. I know I have responsibilities to my heritage, but I have a responsibility to my self, to my family. I have no illusions about it, I have dreams. Still, some will ask why do I make movies when I do not believe film is art? Why do I make movies at all?
Here is the secret; first of all, not giving in to the trappings of art is immensely freeing. I love shooting movies, even on my crappy little digital camera. I am free to explore what I want to. I love the whole approach of Robert Rodriguez towards movie making. It does seem he has fun doing it. And lastly, I really would like to see a cool movie about the Invincible Arapaho Hit Man I created years ago.
Obviously, I wish to become the “First Indian Sell Out” by making commercial studio movies. While movies may not be art in my book, they have the largest worldwide audience and can draw attention to issues like no other medium. I want to make the next Star Trek movie, if they let me, the next Godfather movie, if they let me, the next Batman movie, if they let me. I know I am always waiting on that one chance to make the next documentary about U2. I still wait.
We should not be afraid of making genre, such as action, horror or romantic comedies. “Art” is not inspiring to that Native Kid when all he sees is the next Hollywood product. Not in this “I need it quicker” American Society. I always tell the classes I speak to that most Native kids would rather watch Vin Diesel than Wim Wenders. It really is about connecting to that Native Kid. Inspiring that Native Kid to shoot her or his own movie, and that whatever movie they make, they should not feel ashamed about doing it because the rest of us Native “Artistes” do not think it ARTISTIC enough to portray the Native experience.
Every Native Kid who wants to make films will want to make the next Star Wars, make the next Hero, House of Flying Daggers, the next Enter the Dragon or XXX. I myself have always wanted to do a Native Equilibrium or Batman Begins. Here I must ask, what if Superman were played by a Native American? Would it make a difference? Should it?
My works are completely genre driven. During one year at the First Nations Film and Video Festival, I was the only director who had a Native film accepted that did not have any Native Americans in it, a short comedy Film by Committee, simply about a man who has never seen the movie, The Matrix. It was freeing in a way to counter expectations and do a movie that I had fun doing. Here I chose to represent myself as a movie director and chose not to show Native American images. That was the control I had. I felt that we Native movie makers can tackle any type of movie without having the crutch of doing the Native Art thing.
It was my own Native self-representation to be the Northern Arapaho director, not the Native on screen. I felt proud about that because I connected to a Native-majority audience by not pushing the Native-thing. I tried other kinds of genre; with The Arapaho, I tried my experiment of plugging a Native actor into a Hollywood genre. In this case the revenge thriller. I was pleased with the results. Plus, I was able to bring the Invincible Arapaho Hit Man to the screen once again. By exploring multiple genres is my means of doing the unexpected with Native imagery.
I am currently in pre-production on my first feature, The Shoshoni Connection. It is about that Invincible Arapaho Hit Man. I am in the third re-drafting of the script hashing out new action sequences and trying to temper them with a dramatic through-line for the character’s story arc. Plus, I imagine really cool action sequences. What I want to attempt, even if I am beaten to the action genre by another Native movie maker, will be unlike anything anyone has ever seen. All I need, really, is the camera. Will some one ever take the chance?
But that is what it has been all about for me, creating these stories. In a way I am fulfilling my mother’s wish to be a storyteller. I hope that I can inspire that Native Kid with my movie to try great things. Then that Native Kid can determine for her or him self if what they do is an art.
It is that Native Kid that we should want to continue to inspire. Because, like myself a generation before, their influences are identical—TV, movies, comic books, music, America. We need to only show them that while Native Americans in movies have changed, we are still here. And maybe, if a movie about an Invincible Arapaho Hit Man kicking seven kinds of ass on a movie screen can inspire that Native Kid to continue that thread of stories about the Native American experience in the world, then, selling out will have been worth it.
If only so that other Native American film makers can say, “At least my movies are better than Ernest Whiteman III’s.”
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Coming soon… The Conclusion: "We Have Become God's Madmen" Part One: No One Ever Sees Indians: The Pledge
On freedom, generosity and the kind of director he wants to be…
Part Two: No One Ever Sees Indians: “The Turn”
Part Three: No One Ever Sees Indians: "On Stealing a Native Identity"
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