vanishing american

neil diamond's nfb documentary, reel injun, appropriately examines the evolutionary portrayal of indian culture in hollywood cinema. framed chronologically, the film provides an iconoclastic deconstruction of each decade's stereotypic representations of the "injun" and, in turn, the difficulties in constructing an identity lost to genocide. an insightful interview with filmmaker jim jarmusch brings attention to how the birth of cinema coincided with the colonization of native peoples allowing america to replace an exterminated culture with a mythology of the indian. technology taking over for centuries of tradition.

this thought really puts into perspective the fragility of native identity, which independent of its own free will is inextricably linked to the power of cinema. as a result, any form of cliche, from the "noble" indian (silent, peaceful, mystical) to the "savage" indian (loud, warring, barbaric), de-humanizes and warps native/popular conceptions of what it means to be an actual indian. it takes from the original and imparts creations of convenience (non-existent headbands); alters truths of appearance (plains indians did not wear headdresses); and instills fallacies of fiction (that signature woo-ing warrior call, an invention of hollywood) into the replacement.

with such a media-based identity, technology has also helped in the reconstruction and empowerment of native culture. sacheen littlefeather's stand-in for marlon brando's best actor (the godfather) boycotted acceptance speech gave visibility to real adversities (wounded knee) in the native community. and a current for-us by-us mentality in native filmmaking has given a voice and gaze to native peoples that is utterly native. prize winning atanarjuat (fast runner) ends with a presumedly dead man running out of a tent completely naked across the arctic ice in a scene that volumizes the rebirth of the on-screen injun; stripped down and the future ahead of him.