www.reelinjunthemovie.comFor decades, the cinematic depiction of Aboriginal people represented in Hollywood films was almost always negative and wildly inaccurate.

Worse still, as Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond’s feature documentary REEL INJUN carefully observes, this screen depiction and myth of “the Injun” has had a very real impact on Aboriginal people and on non-Aboriginal people's ideas of who they were.

REEL INJUN takes us on a highly entertaining road journey through the heartland of America, and into the Canadian North, tracing the evolution of cinema’s depiction of Native people. In his interviews with a broad range of Native actors, directors, writers, academics and stand-up comics, Diamond focuses on how the stereotypical depictions of redskins affected the self-images of Native Americans and how key positive images inspired them.

REEL INJUN traces the evolution of cinema’s depiction of Native people from the silent film era to contemporary times, with clips from hundreds of classic and recent Hollywood movies, and candid interviews with celebrated Native and non-Native activists, film critics and historians.

Diamond meets with Hollywood legend, Clint Eastwood at his studios in Burbank, California, where he discusses the evolution of the image of Indians in Westerns and what cowboy-and-Indian myths mean to America.  Adam Beach and Clint Eastwood talk about Beach’s acclaimed performance as an alcoholic war veteran in Flags of our Fathers.  Native American activists John Trudell, Russell Means and Sacheen Littlefeather are interviewed throughout, and REEL INJUN also hears from celebrities such as Robbie Robertson, the half-Jewish, half-Mohawk musician and soundtrack composer (Shutter Island, Raging Bull, Casino, Gangs of New York); Cherokee actor Wes Studi (Avatar, Last of the Mohicans); film director Chris Eyre (Smoke Signals); acclaimed Native actor Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves, Thunderheart); and filmmaker, Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man).

Neil Diamond (writer/director) is a filmmaker from the Cree community of Waskaganish, on James Bay. His documentaries include One More River: The Deal That Split the Cree (2004) and Heavy Metal: A Mining Disaster in Northern Quebec (2004), which won the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Award at the First Peoples' Festival in 2005. He has also directed Dab Iyiyuu, a series about Aboriginal elders. REEL INJUN (2009) is his latest documentary.


Circle Cinema in Tulsa, Okla. will begin a week run of “Reel Injun” on May 21. A special screening will include local film experts and Native Americans involved in panel presentations and film introductions. The cinema is located at 12 S. Lewis in Tulsa, between Admiral and First Street, on Lewis Avenue. For show times  call  ( 918)592-3456 or visit online at www.circlecinema.com.