DEFA Indianerfilme ("DEFA Indian films") was a series of adventure and western films ("Red Westerns") produced by the GDR DEFA film studio. The name comes from the obsolete term "Indians" for Indigenous peoples of the Americas.[1][2][3][4][5]
Between 1962 and 1983 DEFA produced 14 films of this type, about the resistance of Native Americans against white invaders.[6] A memorable actor in the series was Yugoslavian (Serbian) actor Gojko Mitic portraying fictional Native Americans ("Indians"), "Winnetou of the East", who played in 12 of these films.[5]
The films are searchable in the PROGRESS film database.[7]
- ^ Gerd Gemünden, Between Karl May and Karl Marx: The DEFA Indianerfilme (1965-1983), 2001, JSTOR 3137409
- ^ The DEFA’s “Eastern Westerns” (Indianerfilme)
- ^ Philip Decker, The ‘other America’ and its performers: pathways to socialism in the DEFA Indianerfilme
- ^ Jennifer Michaels, Appropriating the “Other” for the Cold War Struggle: DEFA’s Depiction of Native Americans in its Indianerfilme
- ^ a b DEFA-Indianerfilme. Die Ausstellung zeigt Original-Fotografien der Produktionen aus den Fotoalben der DEFA
- ^ Evan Torner The DEFA Indianerfilm as Artifact of Resistance
- ^ PROGRESS