act-dog

This passage is from the article “Native American Film outside the Margins of Filmmaking” by Beverly R. Singer (©2014 by University of Nebraska Press). To manifest oneself as a filmmaker evokes such traditional professional titles as lawyer, doctor, engineer, writer, teacher, and plumber, where established institutional access is built on hierarchy and where 5 acceptance into the profession opens opportunities for employment. One of those doors of access to filmmaking was opened to Native Americans in an exchange that took place at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. Along with other Native filmmakers, including actor 10 and producer Gary Farmer (Cayuga), I was invited that year to the festival to screen our productions. While there, we were invited to a consultation with the Sundance Institute executive staff to discuss how to enhance and improve the production of Native-made 15 films to make them competitive with any film in the program. Robert Redford, founder of the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival, was not present at that meeting, but we were told he was aware of it. When asked how the Sundance Institute could help 20 improve the participation of Native American films at the Sundance Festival, we found the conversation wavering from helping to fund filmmakers, to the need for professional training and support for distribution of films. 25 Of most interest to me during the meeting was the discussion of the quality of films produced by Native American filmmakers. In evidence was a demonstration of the power held by the Sundance Festival to promote films that fit specific aesthetic preferences and expecta30 tions by festival audiences comprised of film critics, entrepreneurs, and Hollywood “types.” To that end, Native American films had not yet achieved that appeal, but executive staff members thought it was possible. Hearing the familiar phrase “We really do want Native 35 American participation,” I instinctively sensed that little progress would be made toward “improving” Native filmmaking efforts if we did not become part of the system that made decisions. Maybe it was the timing, the place, or a release of the spirit of true col40 laboration that led me to say, “If we are to be taken seriously and respected, we need to be at the table helping to make decisions at the Sundance Institute’s headquarters where you plan programs and decide policy.” I suggested that the Sundance Institute hire a Native 45 American as a key staff member to help identify and promote Native filmmaking, someone who could work from the inside and be at the table where decisions were made. The first Native American staff member, Heather Rae (Cherokee), was hired in that capacity by the Sun50 dance Institute, which led to her own successful film production work. Progress on behalf of Native filmmaking by the Sundance Institute through its production labs provided initial support for the production of Smoke Signals 55 (1998), as noted by Joanna Hearne in her critical study of Smoke Signals: Native Cinema Rising. Hearne endorses Smoke Signals as a major event: The film can be seen as a landmark “first” in American film history—although it is import60 ant to remember the long history of Native filmmaking that came before Smoke Signals— and it can also be seen as a self-positioned first introduction to Native perspectives and Native filmmaking for many of its viewers. . . . As an 65 intervention, Smoke Signals challenges widely accepted misconceptions about Native Americans. Its “firsts” can be seen in different ways as inaugurating a new generation of Native film production; as an important but also prob70 lematic industry marketing category; as part of a critical paradigm based on sovereignty; and as a strategic creation of politicized space for Indigenous identity in the public mediascape. (xv–xvi) 75 Hearne’s extensive review and close readings of the film’s production and major players, including the film’s scriptwriter, Sherman Alexie, and film director, Chris Eyre, revives the energy surrounding the theatrical release of Smoke Signals. I endorse Hearne’s will80 ingness to take up the study years after the film’s release, but I have to ask, “What is the second act for Native cinema?” Hearne’s full attention to Smoke Signals is a combination of personal stories about the scripting and directorial decision-making processes and 85 the actors’ contributions; moreover, her critical discussion carefully articulates what cultural elements, including pop and Native culture, produced the film’s crossover appeal to audiences on multiple levels. Although the film’s glow has receded somewhat, 90 the direction of Native American filmmaking has led to measurable success and growth internationally. “Native American Film outside the Margins of Filmmaking,” by Beverly R. Singer is reproduced from Great Plains Quarterly with permission from the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 2014.