DANCE ME OUTSIDE

Director: Bruce McDonald

Year of production: 1994

Actors: Ryan Black, Adam Beach, Michael Greyeyes, Lisa Lacroix, Jennyfer Podemski, Tamara Podemski, Hugh Dillon.

With this movie made by Canadian director Bruce McDonald we flight in Canada, in Kidabanesee reservation (North Ontario).

The date of creation of this movie is 1994: the '90 atmosphere is very strong, especially in the look of the young protagonists of this movie. The '90 are the years of thrash metal and it is not strange to see the Metallica t-shirt "Ride the lightning" on them.

Actually this movie is a good example of an american teenager story in Native sauce. All the main actors are teenagers and the topic is about some aspects of young Native Americans who live in the reservations.

The three main male characters (Silas Crow, Frank Fancepost and Gooch played by three famous, sexy and talented Native American actors, Ryan Black, Adam Beach and Michael Greyeyes, at that time very very very young) played all the movie with leather jackets, stonewashed bluejeans, sunglasses and long hair, Gooch even drives a motorbike: the spirit of '90 is between us. After watched this movie I can say that a Native American man with leather jacket, stonewashed jeans, sunglasses (Rayban !!) and long black hair could be the best icon of this years, especially with heavy metal music like soundtrack.

This movie is a choral story where all the characters are the protagonists: Silas Crow is a young boy confused about his direction in life, who wear strange clothes in dark style: an old black hat and a black trench coat, very long. His best friend is the nice Frank Fencepost (Adam Beach), an hilarious guy with a big sense of humour. The two guys look forward to admittance to a mechanics' school.

Silas's girlfriend is Sadie Maracle (Jennyfer Podemski), I don't know why but I have some problems to appreciate Sadie's personality, in my opinion this girl is a little bit annoying, despite Silas is so cute, but anyway this girl is a devote Native activist, the kind of girl who like doing something always (This can be a good point...). Michael Greyes plays the role of Gooch, a gloomy Indian guy released from jail and in love with Silas's sister, Illianna: Gooch is her ex boyfriend, he want a reconciliation but she is now married with an Anglo Canadian lawyer, Robert. If Gooch is gloomy (but maybe charming) Robert is hilarious almost stupid, and when the guy try an Indian rite with him his reaction (He starts to scream "I am the Wolverine !!") is one of the happiest scene.

The morning after a night party in a club in the reservation Frank and Silas found the corpse of his friend, Little Margaret (Tamara Podemski), brutally murdered by an unknow murder . The movie follow how the police try to don't find a guilty, that is obviously Clarence Gaskill (Hugh Dillon) a drugged up white racist. This will stimulate the community to find vengeance.

Despite it is a drama story “Dance me outside” is not a real sad story. Maybe is more a comedy than a drama, the characters (especially Silas and Frank) are very hilarious like many moments during the movie.

Very important is the conversation between the two guys and the policeman after their arrest:

Bald Cop: Name?

Frank Fencepost: Frank Fencepost
Bald Cop: Address?

Frank Fencepost: Where do I live?

Bald Cop: Yeah, where do you live?

Frank Fencepost: I live where the land meets the sky. Where the eagle and the raven fly free. I live under the sun and the moon.

Bald Cop: [to Silas] Where do you live?

Silas Crow: I'm his neighbour.

Very important in this movie is the soundtrack, made with famous songs: “Indian car” by Keith Secola and “Half breed” by Cher.

This movie is get from a book by W.P. Kinsella “Dance me outside”, Kinsella is a Canadian novelist with Irish origins, which was a collection of seventeen short stories narrated by a young Cree, Silas Ermineskin, who describes life on a First nations reservations in Alberta State. Kinsella was criticized for writing from the point of view of Native people. The author rejected the critics and said that a writer has the right to create anything he chooses.

Anyway this story is a good examination of the tension between Anglos and Natives in Canada at that time. From the book and the movie it was created also a tv show, called "The Rez" (First Nations, Canadian television serie) with Ryan Black as Silas and Darrell Dennis as Frank Fencepost.

SMOKE SIGNALS

Director: Chris Eyre

Year of production: 1998

Actors: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Tantoo Cardinal, Irene Bedard, Gary Farmer

Preceding “Skins” by six years, “Smoke Signals” is directed by Chris Eyre as well, but the two movies are very different. The first feature of “Smoke signals” is the 70s atmosphere that the spectator can feel watching it, through colors and all the typical elements of that time (yellow sunglasses Ozzy Osbourne style as well): an example, the movie opens with the speaker of a reservation radio who address the listeners with “It's a good day to be indigenous!!”.

That sounds very '70 !!

In addiction this movie is less gloomy than Skins, even if the main topic is still not a lighthearted one; it has been described in many cine-reviews as being in part drama and in part comedy. The two main characters are Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds The Fire (Evan Adams), two Native American guys from the Coeur d'Alene Indian reservation (Idaho); the two are friends and they has grown up together, but they have two opposite personalities. Victor is a basket player with a grumpy temper, Thomas is an eccentric storyteller who always sees life in a positive way.

Something they have in common is their childhood relationship with the Victor's father, Arnold: Thomas considers Arnold like an hero because he saved him from a fire as a child, Victor has an opposite perception of his father, very negative, because he has endured his dad's alcoholism, domestic violence and child abandonment.

The difference between the two movies is also in the way the director decide to describe violence: like Moogie, Victor's father, Arnold, is also an alcoholic, but the spectator doesn't see in Arnold the brutal transformation caused by the alcohol like in Moogie. Even if Arnold is violent with Arlene, his wife and mother of his son, the violence against a woman showed in “Smoke signal” doesn't reach the extremes of “Skins”: Arlene (the beautiful Tantoo Cardinal) is a woman with a strong and wise personality and she accepts the husband's solution for their problems (the escape) without any bitterness. She is also not passive against the husband's violence. He is Victor, only a child, the real victim of this bad situation and maybe he is the the most gloomy character of the movie. He can't accept the father's behavior and he can't forget his suffering during his life with the passing of time.

When Arnold dies in Arizona, Victor begins a journey to Phoenix in company of Thomas to bring the ashes of his father home. In Phoenix he meets Suzy Song (the pretty Irene Bedard), an Indian girl who has become friend with Arnold, who reveal to him a big truth about his father.

This journey gives the possibility to young boy Victor to clean his life from his sadness, to forgive definitively his dad, a great opportunity to understand his life. Near the end, the scene when Thomas tells to his granny that Victor has finally forgiven his father can help the spectator understand that Thomas is not a naive boy, but he knows and loves his friend better than any other.

“The film is unique as an all Native American production: producers, director, screenwriters (Alexie), actors and technicians” (From Wikipedia).

Like “Skins”, this movie is a big opportunity for those that enjoy a real work of art from the Native American world.

The only one scene where the spectator can notice the  presence of white man is when Victor and Thomas, inside the bus for Phoenix, meet some of them. In a first moment the two guys start a conversation with an american girl. After that they have an argument with two arrogant cowboys who have occupied their places on the bus:

“Cowboys always win” “Cowboys don't always win” (Thomas says this to Victor, who replies “Shut up”).

The outcome is they singing together the song “John Wayne teeth are in plastic”, with all the people in the bus watching them, including the bus driver. This scene has impressed me a lot, as I can understand what kind of sensation can feel a member of a small community going outside of his microcosm, in a complicated world such as the USA.

Another important person for this movie is the screenwriter, Alexie Sherman. This movie is based on the short story “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona” from his book “The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven”. Sherman Alexie is a Native American poet, writer and film-maker with ancestry in several Indian tribes.

SKINS (2002)

Director: Chris Eire

Year of production: 2002

Actors: Eric Schweig, Graham Greene,Noah Watts

I watched the trailer of this movie few years ago for the first time on youtube. It attracted me so much, so I decided to buy the original DVD from Amazon because I couldn't find the movie streaming on the web.

This movie is now available on youtube, but at that time I had to wait almost a month because the DVD shipped to my house in Italy directly from USA.

Chris Eire is the director. Eric Schweig (The gorgeous Uncas from “The Last of the Mohicans”) and Graham Greene (Kicking Birds from “Dance with Wolves”) are the two main characters: all the movie is set on the Pine Ridge reservation, South Dakota. If you have watched the movie “Thunderheart”  (set in Pine Ridge as well) you may also remember what this place is called by the agent Frank Coutelle, friend with  Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer):

“This is the third world in America”

A native american director (Chrys Eire are a member of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes), a story with only native american actors in an native american world which can help the spectator to make a leap forward: with the movies of traditional american cinema usually a white “ambassador” (a white protagonist) brings the spectator in the indian's world. As depicted with the soldier John Dunbar in “Dance with wolves”, Katy and Honus in “Soldier blue”, Tom Jefford in “Broken arrow” and also Ray Levoi in "Thunderheart". In movies like “Skins”, made by a indian director, with indian actors in an indian place, you are directly projected in the indian world, without any filters.

This is the main reason of why I consider Indian independent cinema  so attractive.

“Skins” is a movie about the relationship between two brothers and about the sad reality of Indian people today in reservations. Rudy (Schweig) is a policeman on the rez, his everyday work-life includes the violence and the sadness of his people. Chrys Eire shows in “Skins” all the crude violence of Pine Ridge that comes from Indian despair : a husband who beats his wife in front of their baby, two men (Michael Spears and Tokala Clifford) who kill a friend and the big problem of the alcohlism that perpetually destroys the life of Indians. In addition the Rudy's brother, Moogie (Greene), is also an alcoholic with a lot of psychological problems from his past experiences, including being a soldier in Vietnam.

Rudy is a strong man with a deep sensitivity, this is the reason that he can't absorb all this without any consequence. His reaction is totally negative: Rudy wants to have revenge and for this and he uses illegal means, like beating the men responsible for the death of the sales guy, and lighting a fire at the alcohol shop (Whiteclay, a place where the economy is dependent on alcohol sales, while in Pine Ridge it is prohibited) which improves the alcoholism situation in the Rez. One of the main rules in life is that self-revenge is not a good solution, especially if you use violence for expressing your rage: Moogie, who stayed on the roof to try and steal some bottles, goes to hospital with a severe burn, especially on the face.

Rudy's remorse is large, but this will eventually help the two brothers to start a new improved relationship, better than it was before.
The movie contains a lot of details from the Indian world, like the Indian point of view about  Rushmore mountain (They consider it like a symbol of their oppression). The red tear on  Washington' s face made by Rudy when he pours a paint bucket on the monument, can be a symbol of the white consciousness that, finally, has recognized the Indian suffering. 

I appreciated a lot in this movie. I think it can be a good answer for a a common question that many European people have on their minds: How are Native American people living today in reservations?

The answer can be that they live like they do in Skins.

Another reason I appreciated this movie is because it is an independent movie, so it is very different from the classic style of american cinema. The choice to describe the feelings and emotions of the characters make it more similar to European cinema, with a deep and complicated core.