Movies, Race, and Ethnicity

The last time I taught the course Indigenous Images it was a two hour class which meant that there was no time to show movies. This time around I got a four hour slot, so there will be plenty of time to show a film every week and still have some good discussion. But that means I need to pick films and find good readings to go with them, so I was really happy to find this excellent resource: The UC Berkeley Media Resources Center has put up an extensive set of bibliographies and videographies relating to Movies, Race, and Ethnicity. For my course, I’m particularly interested in the material on Native Americans (books, videos), which has already given me some great ideas for my course.

6 thoughts on “Movies, Race, and Ethnicity

  1. Mickey Mouse Monopoly is good film about how gender and ethnicity is portrayed in Disney films. It isn’t specifically about Native Americans but it does have a brief section showing how Native Americans are portrayed by Disney in their cartoons.

  2. Comet Jo: Yes, certainly. Fast Runner is already at the top of my list! More recent is Ten Canoes, although I haven’t seen it yet…

  3. I would recommend the NFB film with anthropologist David Scheffel on the German, Czech and former eastern bloc countries obsession with American Native culture and dressing up in ‘genuine’ costume in Indianer Clubs. He and three Manitoba Cree go to Europe to meet them – the film is about their encounter. See a review: http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol2/no4/indian.html

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