PORT ANGELES — In some 4,000 movies portraying Native Americans — from “Stagecoach” to “Little Big Man” to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” — Hollywood shaped the world’s view of tribal people.
And in “Reel Injun,” Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond’s 2009 documentary, viewers go on a trip through cinema history. Then they meet contemporary Native innovators who are reclaiming their identity.
Part of Peninsula College’s Magic of Cinema series, “Reel Injun” will light the screen Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. in Maier Performance Hall.
The public is invited to see it and take part in a discussion afterward; general admission is a suggested $5 donation while Peninsula College students with ID cards will be admitted free. Maier Hall is on the southeastern side of the campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Indigenous people appear as stereotypes and mascots, Diamond asserts, and the internalizing of such portrayals has hurt tribal people and their communities.
Then Diamond lays out interviews with directors, writers, actors and activists contradicting the past, such as Russell Means, Clint Eastwood and Sacheen Littlefeather.
Littlefeather stepped into the spotlight in 1973, when Marlon Brando won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Don Corleone in “The Godfather.”
Brando didn’t ascend the stage to accept his statuette during the live broadcast of the Oscars; instead he asked Littlefeather to step up and call the audience’s attention to the treatment of Native Americans and the siege at Wounded Knee.
Others who appear in “Reel Injun” include filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, writer John Trudell, actor Graham Greene and singer-songwriter Robbie Robertson.
For more information, contact Peninsula College professor Helen Lovejoy at hlovejoy@pencol.edu or 360-417-6362.
