Bury My Heart humanizes Indians

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" premieres in South DakotaThe film gave Giat a chance to explore in-depth such iconic figures as Sitting Bull and tell their stories and humanize them in a way that has never been done before.

Previously, Giat said, it was hard for a white audience to sympathize with those characters because they had always been depicted as saints, not as human beings.

For example, the HBO film depicts Sitting Bull as a flawed man, proud and vain, and the human factor allows the audience to feel for him all the more because of what he does to keep his people together, Giat said.