SXSW 2010: REEL INJUN Review

[With Canadian documentary Reel Injun having its US premiere at SXSW 2010 we now re-post the review we initially ran at the world premiere in Toronto.]

Neil Diamond's Reel Injun accomplishes one truly remarkable feat.  The documentarian, himself a native from a far northern community, sets out to craft a record of Hollywood's depictions of native people over the years.  And that he does, neatly breaking the film down into cleanly defined eras with a string of fascinating interviews from key actors, journalists, activists and more to back himself up.  It's an absolutely fascinating trip.  But more than that - and more importantly - in the process of creating this film about film, Diamond also creates a compelling portrait of a people still struggling to find their own voice and shape their own image.  This last bit not despite, but because of, a library of over four thousand films dealing with native people and culture, virtually all of them getting it willfully wrong.

Far from the angry rant that this sort of film could easily have become - a catalog of insults perpetrated against his people - Diamond instead adopts a quizzical, playful posture, remaining remarkably even handed whether at a John Wayne theme ranch, a native-themed summer camp run entirely by white people with no knowledge of native culture outside what they've seen in the movies, or puzzling over the fact that he and his friends would side with the cowboys when watching old Westerns as children.  And why not?  Those were Plains Indians - sort of - while he's an Inuit.

It's this tone that allows Diamond a huge amount of leeway to explain contentious topics - he goes right into the thick of events at Wounded Knee and Marlon Brando's refusal of an Oscar in protest - while still keeping the audience engaged and entertained.

Most interestingly, as the film progresses it becomes less a history lesson and more an intriguing study of what effect constant, public mis-portrayal can have on the psyche of a people.  Or, more properly, of several peoples as one of the great travesties of the film record of natives was to lump many diverse nations into a single, fabricated category.

Impeccably well researched and crafted, Reel Injun neatly walks the line between Michael Moore-style personality driven doc and the more traditional talking head, educational style.  And appropriately so, because he walks the exact same line in balancing entertainment and education.  Reel Injun succeeds magnificently at both.