Reflecting on the making of
Imagining Indians, Victor Masayesva Jr says, "Coming from a village which became embroiled in the filming of
Darkwind, a Hollywood production on the Hopi Reservation, I felt a keen responsibility as a community member, not an individual, to address these impositions on our tribal lives."
"I have come to believe that the sacred aspects of our existence which encourages the continuity and vitality of Native peoples are being manipulated by an aesthetic in which money is the most important qualification. This contradicts the values intrinsic to what's sacred and may destroy our substance. I am concerned about a tribal and community future which is reflected in my film and I hope this challenges the viewer to overcome glamorized Hollywood views of the Native American, which obscures the difficult demands of walking the spiritual road of our ancestors."
Combining staged sequences with interviews with native people in Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Washington and the Amazon, Imagining Indians is an alternately funny and biting critique of the intrusion of filmmaking into native communities. Filmed with an all-Indian crew, this remains one of Masayesva's most controversial works.
"What commands most attention in Imagining Indians is the examination of films as social projects, sowing disruption while perpetuating the myth that Indian cultures are easy for whites to understand."
– Elizabeth Weatherford, National Museum of the American Indian, in Art Journal
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, 1993
Envisioning Native Americans, NYU, 1992
Onthullen om te Overleven Film Festival, Amsterdam, 1992
Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival, 1994
Native American Film and Video Festival, NYC 1995
Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2007