Native Features Indigenous Films from Around the World

Though interest in indigenous feature-length films has expanded greatly in recent years, there is as yet no book-length examination of this subject. Native Features will fill this gap.

Written for students and the general viewing public, Native Features explores the varying contexts in which indigenous filmmaking takes place. The book demonstrates how indigenous films challenge some of the basic assumptions of viewers who experience these films while using national cinemas as their models. Each chapter includes little known information that is likely to increase the understanding and pleasure of all who view these diverse films.

The book has two sections. Section One, divided into five chapters, provides an overview of the indigenous films that have been produced in the past few decades. These chapters demonstrate that indigenous films on all continents and across Oceania frequently share a commitment to correcting earlier misrepresentations of native peoples. In addition, this section details how indigenous films strive to invigorate native oral and visual storytelling traditions. Indigenous films not only bring pre-modern cultures further into modernity but also adapt technology to revitalize existing stories and cultural practices. The chapters make clear that even the best known indigenous filmmakers are often more concerned with being indigenous than with being commercially successful filmmakers.

Section Two, divided into seven chapters, offers a region by region review of the very different contexts within which indigenous films are being produced. Each chapter begins with an overview of one region’s history and cultures, then provides a separate discussion of that region’s existing indigenous feature films. These discussions begin with a summary of each film, then present details about production, audience reception and, especially, relationships between the film and the traditions of the indigenous people it represents.

A final chapter points to trends that suggest indigenous films will become increasingly prominent in many countries across the world. Three appendices offer a list of several hundred indigenous films arranged by country and region, listings of film festivals that highlight indigenous films, and names of regional and international distributors with substantial offerings of indigenous films.

Native Features should function as an essential guide for everyone interested in indigenous peoples or in innovative films.

Featured in the 23 June 2008 New Zealand newsletter.
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