February 09, 2007

More on the burden of representation

Filmmakers bring indigenous perspectives to Sundance“The Burden of Representation” panel featured Harjo, Luther, Waititi and Solito. The directors shared their experiences as Native filmmakers and the struggles that they have faced.

“The one thing that we lack in movies about Native Americans is just true, honest stories that just happen to be about Natives,” said Harjo, whose film, “Four Sheets to the Wind,” premiered at the festival.

Harjo, a native of Oklahoma, said he enjoys writing stories about Oklahoma people, but he does not want to limit himself to telling stories only about his community.

1 comment:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
Oh, boy, directors again, as though they are the only quantity extant when it comes to Native filmmaking. And Mr. Harjo says he enjoys writing stories about Oklahoma people, but does not want to limit himself to telling stories only about his community. There are 35 tribes in Oklahoma -- is he a member of all those communities? Poor baby, how limiting. And true, honest stories? Geez, no fiction either. Now, THAT's limiting! There are no 'rez' places left in Oklahoma and so he's really out of luck!
If only he had access to the stories in writerfella's anthology-to-be, HORSEMAN, STARMAN -- such as "Changing Woman" wherein a NASA geophysical mapping project is being abused by a delusional woman scientist who walks and steps on the huge state of the art holo-imaged map of North America, causing earthquakes and floods because the earth's soul is captured in the images -- only a Native woman technician and a Native male pilot are in any position to stop her.
Guess he's stuck with making road trip movies with titles like, WHERE'S THERE'S SMOKE SIGNALS, THERE'S FIRE...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'