Howard spent seven months shooting and editing his first film, Chief, a short movie about a Native American who keeps his grandfather's promise by saving the tribe's dam.
The Pima-Maricopa creator will feature his film at the American Indian Film Institute's annual film tour June 13, 15 and 16 at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
The three-day tour features films from across the nation, including award-winning Native American films, promoted by San Francisco-based institute, a non-profit media arts center founded in 1979 to foster understanding of the culture, traditions and issues of contemporary Native Americans.
"I wanted to portray a very atypical Native American character that one may not be used to seeing in a movie. He's very angry. Basically, I kind of got tired of how Native Americans are portrayed in movies. Usually it's someone to be sympathized, or somebody to be passive or a stereotypical savage type," Howard said.
In comics, the angry Indian (usually a military vet) is commonplace. The angry Indian grandson who takes up his grandfather's cause is common enough to be a cliché.
Writerfella here --
ReplyDeleteLuckily for writerfella, the Komchita grandson in "The Last Quest" isn't angry, simply desperate. And although Nathan Bighawk in ANASAZI is angry, he's an orphan and has no other relatives, save for a certain film actor's children. writerfella himself always has been slow to anger, but if high emotion becomes part and parcel to how he makes up his mind, it's permanent...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'