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Red Fever has a similarly rich story to tell, from Inuit designs stolen by major fashion houses, to how the Iroquois federation inspired the birth of democracy in the United States as well as encouraging female leadership. One coup for Diamond was convincing feminist icon and organizer Gloria Steinem to be interviewed in the film: “It turned out that one of the places we were filming, Akwesasne, she had been there, she had a gathering there. We spoke with our contact in Akwesasne, and said we would like to talk to her about Iroquois women, so we secured Gloria Steinem, who spoke of this hidden history of strong women.”
“[Red Fever] thoroughly explores cultural appropriation and fetishization through some really eye-opening and revelatory history,” writes Tysoneko in their review. “It’s insane and heartbreaking how many massive ways [Indigenous] people have contributed to our culture that have been completely erased from our cultural lexicon.”
Heroes and Human Beings
There are many more films to champion this year. We haven’t even touched on Moana 2, two of whose three directors are of Samoan heritage, and whose historic New Zealand theatrical release—concurrent screenings in both English and Māori—just broke box office records there. More on that coming to Journal soon, and we can continue the wider Indigenous cinema conversation in the comments of our Native Year in Review 2024 list.
Special mention must go to the recent crop of new releases at Vancouver International Film Festival. Ninan Auassat: We, the Children by Kim O’Bomsawin won the fest’s TIDES Award and Jules Koostachin’s Angela’s Shadow won the Panorama Audience Award, with a prize sponsored by .
We’ll borrow lines from the opening titles of Reel Injun to inform the last word in this year’s Native film round-up:
In over 4,000 films, Hollywood has shaped the image of Native Americans. Classic westerns like They Died with Their Boots On created stereotypes. Later blockbusters like Little Big Man, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Dances with Wolves began to dispel them. Not until a renaissance in Native cinema did films like Once Were Warriors and Smoke Signals portray Native peoples as human beings.
Reel Injun concludes that Native filmmakers have progressed to a point where, at last, we can be seen and respected as human beings—something heroic for 2009 and perhaps still heroic today, and something to reflect upon as we look back at the year in Native cinema for 2024.
