Reel Injun

Reel Injun
Directed by
Written by
  • Neil Diamond
  • Jeremiah Hayes
  • Catherine Bainbridge
Produced by
  • Catherine Bainbridge
  • Christina Fon
  • Linda Ludwick
Starring
CinematographyEdith Labbe
Edited by
  • Jeremiah Hayes
Music by
  • Claude Castonguay
  • Mona Laviolette
Production
companies
Distributed byDomino Film
Release dates
  • September 10, 2009 (2009-09-10) (Toronto)
  • February 19, 2010 (2010-02-19) (Canada)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Reel Injun is a 2009 Canadian documentary film directed by Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, and Jeremiah Hayes that explores the portrayal of Native Americans in film. Reel Injun is illustrated with excerpts from classic and contemporary portrayals of Native people in Hollywood movies and interviews with filmmakers, actors and film historians, while director Diamond travels across the United States to visit iconic locations in motion picture as well as American Indian history.[1][2]

Reel Injun explores the various stereotypes about Natives in film, from the noble savage to the drunken Indian.[3] It profiles such figures as Iron Eyes Cody, an Italian American who reinvented himself as a Native American on screen.[4] The film also explores Hollywood's practice of using Italian Americans and American Jews to portray Indians in the movies and reveals how some Native American actors made jokes in their native tongue on screen when the director thought they were simply speaking gibberish.[5]

  1. ^ Hale, Mike (14 June 2010). "Letting the Arrows Fly at Hollywood Stereotypes". New York Times. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  2. ^ Adams, James. "Hollywood portrayals shaped native self-perception and non-native prejudice". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Skenderis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Pevere, Geoff (19 February 2010). "Cree director Neil Diamond's real look at reel Indians". Toronto Star. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  5. ^ Ostrow, Joanne (4 August 2010). ""Reel Injun" coming to PBS in Nov". Denver Post.