Laura Beadling & Indigenous Filmmaking

Laura Beadling’s Common Time discussion on the state of indigenous filmmaking and Shelley Niro’s Kissed by Lightning underscored the nascent and fragile state of Native Americans telling their own story. As might be expected of any industry, Hollywood is a peculiarly exclusionary institution and rarely provides financial support to Native filmmakers. Niro’s film was partially funded by the government of Canada which might be considered a component of the apology issued by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to all members of the First Nations.

Beadling used the second half of her presentation to critically interpret Niro’s film. In particular, she illuminated aspects of the film that a non-Native viewer or someone unfamiliar with the culture would be unlikely to understand. Mavis’s paintings, for instance, depict a “traditional” narrative of Hyenwatha (Hiawatha) and his efforts to form a Confederacy. With this knowledge, viewers are able to treat the film with a greater aesthetic since the paintings now possess double meaning as manifestations of Jessie’s (Mavis’s husband’s) stories to her and as expressions of a Native creating Native imagery/stories in an “authentic” way. This is, after all, the ultimate goal of indigenous filmmaking.

Noticeably absent from the film is an explicitly scathing critique of White culture. There are of course moments of tension --the diner scene especially --but Niro uses them to express multiculturalism and a sense of unity. Niro’s choice to rewrite the diner scene from confrontational to funny serves a more effective agenda since viewers learn that African Americans too can stereotype and be stereotyped by other minorities. They expect a “traditional” Mohawk song from Mavis and she manages to pass judgment on the singers boisterous, Gospel-choir natures; Mavis targets them for their showy affect which indeed she sees as more confrontational to the White patrons than her own quiet, unassuming manner which just wants a meal. By singing together, Mavis and the Gospel singers evoke a sense of unity and spirituality. A seemingly more effective strategy than confronting the glares and terrible customer service is to overcome all that through solidarity. More generally, Niro’s choice to focus on Mohawk narratives demonstrates that indigenous filmmaking can follow two tracks: creating “authentic” or “traditional” stories or re-telling stories which have been manipulated by White filmmakers. In other words, Niro ignores the problems of The Last of the Mohicans (among hundreds of problematic portrayals of Native Americans, but perhaps the most famous) and in developing Mohawk storytelling (through painting and film), reshapes Native identity in her own subtle, but equally effective way.

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A big thanks again to all who made this Film and Performance Forum a success and to all those in attendance.