1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Film
The Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Film is dedicated to bringing the work of Indigenous filmmakers around the world to a larger audience. By giving voice to transnational and transcultural Indigenous perspectives, this collection makes a significant contribution to the discourse on Indigenous filmmaking and provides an accessible overview of the contemporary state of Indigenous film.
Comprising 37 chapters by an international team of contributors, the Handbook is divided into six clear parts:
- Decolonial Intermedialities and Revisions of Western Media
- Colonial Histories, Trauma, Resistances
- Indigenous Lands, Communities, Bodies
- Queer Cultures and Border Crossings
- Youth Cultures and Emancipation
- Art, Comedy, and Music.
Within these sections Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts from around the world examine various aspects of Indigenous film cultures, analyze the works of Indigenous directors and producers worldwide, and focus on readings (contextual, historical, political, aesthetic, and activist) of individual Indigenous films. The Handbook specifically explores Indigenous film in Canada, Mexico, the United States, Central and South America, Northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and the Philippines.
This richly interdisciplinary volume is an essential resource for students and scholars of Indigenous Studies, Cultural Studies, Area Studies, Film and Media Studies, Feminist and Queer Studies, History, and anyone interested in Indigenous cultures and cinema.
Introduction: Indigenous Filmmaking throughout the World Ernie Blackmore, Kerstin Knopf, Wendy Gay Pearson, and Corina Wieser-Cox
Part 1: Decolonial Intermedialities and Revisions of Western Media
1. MooNaHaTihKaaSiWew / Unearthing Spirit Framework Jules A. Koostachin
2. Telling Time: Confronting Ethnography in Alanis Obomsawin’s Documentaries Tia Wong
3. Barry Barclay’s Ngāti (1987) and Merata Mita’s Mauri (1988): A Whakapapa/Genealogy of Indigenous Māori Fiction Film in Aotearoa, New Zealand Deborah Walker-Morrison
4. Waru (2017) and Vai (2019): South Pacific Sisters Doing It for Themselves, Each Other, and Their Communities Marina Alofagia McCartney and Deborah Walker-Morrison
5. ’We are not Dead’: Decolonizing the Frame Jeni Thornley
6. Acts of Translation in Ten Canoes Corinn Columpar
Part 2: Colonial Histories, Trauma, Resistances
7. Yolanda Cruz’s 2501 Migrants: A Journey: Possibilities and Limitations of Cultural Activism Annette L. Rukwied
8. Recipes for Survival: Muffins for Granny and the Legacy of Residential Schooling Susan Knabe and Wendy Gay Pearson
9. ’It’s Going to be Chief’: Sterlin Harjo’s Barking Water Lee Schweninger
10. ’For Spirits, Time Doesn’t Exist’: Haunting and Homecoming in Chris Eyre’s Thriller Imprint Manuela Müller
11. Pathfinder and Pathbreaker: Nils Gaup's Ofelas as Indigenous Cinema Martin Holtz
12. ’The World is Disintegrating’ – Eco-trauma and the Representation of Mining in Catriona McKenzie’s Satellite Boy Victoria Herche
13. ’Two Parts Broken Heart and One Part Hope’: Violence and Historical Trauma in Skins, Bearwalker and Once Were Warriors Wendy Gay Pearson
Part 3: Indigenous Lands, Communities, Bodies
14. Generational Bonds, Language and Community in the Films of Angeles Cruz and Nicolas Rojas Itandehui Jansen
15. Making Accented Indigenous Transnational Community Cinema: Tiempo de Lluvia/In Times of Rain by Itandehui Jansen Deborah Shaw
16. Therapeutic and Bodily Politics in Busong (Palawan Fate) Adam Szymanski
17. The Land Has Eyes: Letter from the Island – Rotuma Gerd Becker
18. Romancing the Land: The Journals of Knud Rasmussen and the Circumvention of Colonial Landscapes Erin Morton and Taryn Sirove
19. After the Apocalypse: Self, Place and Movement in Liselotte Wajstedt’s Documentaries Stefan Holander
20. Nuummioq and Anori – Greenlanders and Land, Mythic Past, Modernity Kerstin Knopf
Part 4: Queer Cultures and Border Crossings
21. Constellating Bakla Desire in Auraeus Solito’s The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros Christian Ylagan
22. Captive Audience: Erotohistoriography in Kent Monkman’s Group of Seven Inches Kevin Shaw
23. Moving Again: Realism, (Indigi)Queer Hope, and Fire Song" Josh Morrison
24. Power in the Blood: Boundary Crossing and Bloodletting in Randy Redroad’s The Doe Boy Joshua B. Nelson
25. Transgressing the Borders of Being: Hacktivism, Posthumanism and Technological Paradoxes in Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer Corina Wieser-Cox
Part 5: Youth Cultures and Emancipation
26. Rhymes for Young Ghouls: The Stolen Letter André Dudemaine
27. ‘It is No Longer a Guilt Game’: Anger, Empowerment and Intercultural Dialogue in Tracy Deer’s Mohawk Girls Natália Pinazza
28. Yandiawish: The Great Turtle’s Account of Mesnak Guy Sioui Durand
29. Who We Are Now’: Iñupiaq Youth On the Ice Joanna Hearne
30. Running Up Heartbreak Hill on The Edge of America: The Struggle to Make Life Liveable Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval
31. Establishing Global Affinities in Katja Gauriloff’s Canned Dreams (2012) Kate Moffat
32. “Schism of a Nation: Echoes of Silenced Voices in Toomelah” Emme Devonish
Part 6: Art, Comedy, and Music
33. Shelley Niro’s Kissed by Lightning and its Painted Series ‘Peacemaker’s Journey’ as Forms of Indigenous Resistance through Artistic Expression Stephanie Pratt
34. Reggae Sounds in Maori Cinema Nele Rein
35. Joints, Rocks, and Slapstick: Decolonizing Humor in Stone Bros Geoffrey Rodoreda
36. Singing the Songs of our Era in Bran Nue Day Felicity Collins
37. ‘Love and Affection, to the Bone’: Identity and Reconciliation in Wayne Blair’s The Sapphires Susan Knabe and Ernie Blackmore.
Filmography
Index
Biography
Ernie Blackmore is a retired Lecturer in Aboriginal Studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
Kerstin Knopf is Professor for North American and Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Bremen, Germany.
Wendy Gay Pearson is an Associate Professor at the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Corina Wieser-Cox is a Ph.D. candidate in Queer Mexican and LatinX film and research assistant at the University of Bremen, Germany.
"Comprehensive in scope and profound in intellectual incisiveness, this book explores, in very accessible writing, a 'global' Indigenous cinema that needs more visibility. A must-read for film scholars and students."
Anthony Adah, Minnesota State University Moorhead, USA
