Smoke Signals: Negative Stereotypes

Smoke Signals addresses many negative stereotype that represent Native Americans in cinema. The film seems to satirize these stereotypes responding to the prejudice most Native American face. It’s unique in the sense that it deviates from the typical Native American film. Which usually degrades Native Americans or portray them as everything but human beings. Smoke Signals mock these stereotype and bluntly debunks them with what Native American truly are. Ordinary people.“Performing redface has allowed individuals to test out new political oppositional ideas and had helped to assuage white guilt” (Raheja 139). Smoke Signal has also break the stereotype of redface allowing Native American actors to play Native American characters. Thomas, one …show more content…
It blurred the line between fictional narrative and documentary film. One created out of the imagination of the writer and other recorded document of real life event. Audiences who knew nothing about Native Americans tribes of the north learned about lives of the Inuit. It shows a way of life that was slowly disappearing according to Flaherty as he began to document the daily life of an Inuit family. Reel Injun takes a closer at Hollywood’s influences on Native American people through film. Exploring the stereotypes of the savage Indian and spiritual wisemen who is tuned with nature. The audience also learns about the First Nations culture movements that greatly influenced the 1960s. Miss Navajo explores the story of a young woman who is competing for Miss Navajo competition. This film helps the audience to learn of the role women play in the Navajo culture. Both film convey something that the Nanook of the North failed to hit. That Native Americans are real people they aren’t mythical or on the verge of going extinct. Reel Injun and Miss Navajo isn’t forced nor does it have a suspenseful plot but it’s real. It shows Native American in real time and rebuff stereotypes and reinforces a positive image for Native Americans through a …show more content…
Alcoholism plays a huge role in contemporary Native American film. Whether it’s the problem or the aftermath of a character's struggles. Alcoholism is a huge problem in the Native American Community. One film that shows this issue is the movie Skins. In Skins, we see two brothers struggle with alcoholism. Both boys experiencing alcoholism and domestic violence at an early age. One brother struggles with alcoholism and other has to deal with it. Like, for example, in the film one of the brother is drunk and passed out on top of the liquor store’s rooftop and fire starts. He end up burned and almost dies. The film its entirety explores that effect alcoholism plays in a Native American community. Another trend is identity. Identity plays a huge role in contemporary Native American film. Whether it is finding way back to your roots to discovering who you really are common plot lines in Native American cinema. One example would be movie Imprint which revolves around a Native American women return to her reservation after she wins a case against her own people. At the conclusion of the story she manages to discover that the haunting weren’t ghosts but her future self. “Where she will devote her career to serving the Native American there or perhaps eventually return to Pine Ridge Reservation to perform legal advocacy work” (Raheja 168). At the end she rediscover herself and will help her people. Identity plays a crucial