http://www.journalstar.com/sunday_am.php?story_id=111866

Native filmmakers, actors depict tribal life -- past and present
BY KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star

`In 100 years of American cinema, we are celebrating only five years of
self-representation.'
-- N. Bird Runningwater of the Sundance Film Institute

It could have been a scene from a movie.

Chris Eyre meeting his mother, grandmother and brother for the first time.

Long silences filled only by awkward stares and tears.

Eyre had been adopted shortly after his birth and raised in a non-Native
home. Now he was 24 and in search of himself, of his identity.

That picture might seem familiar to Eyre fans. The 33-year-old filmmaker
admits to similarities between his life and "Smoke Signals," his movie in
which a young Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, man embarks on a cross-country journey
to find out who his father was -- and why he left the reservation years
before.

"`Smoke Signals' is about what's closest to me, and what's most painful to
me," Eyre said. "I missed my mother for 20 years."

"Smoke Signals" also was a departure from the way Hollywood showed Natives.
Considered the first major motion picture written, produced and directed by
Natives, it depicted contemporary life on, and off, the reservation.

That was intentional. Eyre refuses to make movies about Natives in the
past, a stance with which not everyone agrees.

But moviegoers can expect more of both. Led by Eyre and other Native
filmmakers and actors, the number of movies depicting tribal life -- then
and now -- is increasing. Slowly.

"In 100 years of American cinema," said N. Bird Runningwater of the
Sundance Film Institute, "we are celebrating only five years of
self-representation."

But success isn't guaranteed. Millions of people saw "Smoke Signals," then
Eyre's next film, "Skins," bombed.

He's hoping to change that with "Edge of America," which tells the story of
a Native girls basketball team. It will be previewed at the Sundance Film
Festival later this month.

"Those are the kind of stories I want to tell," he said, "because they're
important to me personally."


• • •

American cinematic history is, really, the history of all cinema. And it is
a history rich with Native influence.

"Indian people have been the longest running subject of films out of
anyone," Eyre said.

In fact, Thomas Edison used film images from a Pueblo village as early as
the 1890s to showcase his kinetoscope, long considered the first motion
picture viewer.

From 1910 to 1913, about 100 movies a year were made about Native people,
Eyre said. Most were silent movies romanticizing the noble red man, yet
portraying him as naive and childlike.

Later, Westerns of the 1930s and 1940s used non-Native actors to portray
Natives as bloodthirsty savages out to kill pioneers and capture their
women.

Given that history, Eyre argues, it's about time Native people get more
involved in film production.

"Shouldn't Indian people be governing that image?" he asked.

Increasingly, that is happening. This year, the American Indian Film
Institute received more than 100 submissions for its annual film festival,
said the institute's Verne Balagot.

"If nobody's going to make these films," he said, "we've got to make them
ourselves."

Natives aren't just working behind the scenes. It's no longer politically
correct to use non-Natives to portray Native people, said Kevin Hagopian, a
lecturer in media studies at Penn State University.

And, starting in the 1960s and '70s, filmmakers became more sympathetic in
their treatment of Natives.

"Little Big Man," released in 1970 and starring Dustin Hoffman, was one of
the first blockbusters to question Western civilization as a more
enlightened way of life.

"The white civilization is absurdly portrayed in that movie," Hagopian
said. "It's the Indian life that's normal."

But did Hollywood simply swap its old habits for new ways to propagate
Native stereotypes? Films like "Dances with Wolves" featured white main
characters as enlightened saviors trying to preserve the Natives' dying way
of life.

Eyre described "Dances with Wolves" as the product of liberals trying to
burden viewers with guilt over the treatment of Native people.

"It's not an Indian movie. It's a political movie."


• • •

History may not have been kind to the image of the Native, but it has been
kind to Wes Studi.

The Cherokee actor has found fame playing the role of the angry Native in
period pieces, including "Dances with Wolves."

He's also found critics, who say he's perpetuating Native stereotypes.

Studi doesn't mind talking about stereotypes. In fact, he questions whether
stereotypes -- such as the noble red man or bloodthirsty savage -- have
actually been harmful to Natives.

"An Indian can be a noble red man and a bloodthirsty savage," he said.
"These are characteristics that a person can have."

And, he argues, he adds complexity to roles that otherwise would have
appeared stereotypical.

His first big role was that of a Pawnee warrior out to kill Sioux in
"Dances with Wolves." His motivation, he said, was the Pawnee's anger at
seeing his people's lands intruded upon by the Sioux.

Later, as Magua in "Last of the Mohicans," Studi played a Huron intent on
killing British soldiers responsible for his family's death. He said
Magua's past made his anger understandable, if not justified.

To be fair, Studi has played contemporary roles as well.

He recently starred as Navajo detective Joe Leaphorn in a PBS movie series
based on Tony Hillerman's popular mystery novels.

He offers this advice to aspiring actors: Learn the art of acting and
actively seek opportunities.

"It's really a matter of being prepared for the opportunities that may
arise," he said.

• • •

Eyre, now considered the leader in contemporary Native filmmaking, found
his opportunity at the Sundance Film Institute.

Two years after earning his master's degree at New York University, Eyre
went to Sundance to work on his script for "Smoke Signals."

Founded by Robert Redford, the institute is known for supporting
independent filmmakers. And its Native American Initiative provides help to
Native directors and writers.

The program has helped out with half a dozen films about Native people
since it began. Each year, it supports two to four projects and four
producers, helping with production and financing, said Runningwater.

It hasn't always been successful. After "Smoke Signals" garnered nearly $6
million, "Skins" fell with a thud at the box office.

That didn't surprise Eyre, who sarcastically describes it as a "raw,
documentary-esque movie about the smallest minority in America -- and
they're not wearing feathers or riding horses."

Set on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, "Skins" examines the
strained relationship between two brothers, one an alcoholic, the other a
tribal officer.

Like "Smoke Signals," it seems to reflect Eyre's experience as an adopted
child.

"It's about family members who should be as close as they can be and that's
not happening," he said.

Eyre never knew his real parents. He met his mother when he was 24 and
learned his name given at birth was Steven.

In the end, Victor Joseph -- the main character in "Smoke Signals" --
learns his father never meant to leave him and never stopped loving his
estranged son.

Like the main character in "Smoke Signals," Eyre's search for his mother
ended with a revelation.

"I had always wondered whether she missed me like I missed her," he said.
"It turns out she did."

Reach Kevin Abourezk at (402) 473-7237 or kabourezk@....