Friends and collaborators for more than 30 years, Canadian filmmakers Neil Diamond and Catherine Bainbridge have “always worked well together,” says Cree writer-director Diamond.
And, adds Bainbridge, a non-Native, “we’ve always had a conversation about Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.”
In a way, this conversation continues with Red feverthe world premiere of Hot Docs (May 1) on which Diamond (previously acclaimed for Injun Coil) and Bainbridge (director of Sundance Award Winner Rumble: the Indians who shook the world) was co-writer and co-director.
The documentary follows Diamond across North America and Europe as he explores the world’s fascination with – and romanticization of – Native Americans. It also reveals some of the history behind the influence of indigenous people on aspects of Western culture like fashion, sports, politics and conservation.
Produced by Lisa M Roth and executive produced by Bainbridge, Linda Ludwick and Ernest Webb for their Montreal company Rezolution Pictures, Red fever The theatrical release in Canada is planned for June by Les Films du 3 Mars, which also manages international sales.
Bainbridge and Diamond pitched the film’s central idea before the pandemic, when a backlash against cultural appropriation saw, for example, music festivals banning the wearing of Native American headdresses.
“It was in the news, so for us it still ticks a box,” says Bainbridge. “If it’s part of popular culture and talked about, it’s something we can get everyone involved in.”
Broadcasters, Bainbridge recalls, “were very interested” and the project got a green light when TVO, the state-funded educational television network in the Canadian province of Ontario, signed on. Crucial funding also came from the Indigenous Peoples Television Network of Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the German channel Arte/ZDF.
Other backers included Knowledge Network, the Indigenous Screen Office, the Canada Media Fund, the Rogers Group of Funds and Telefilm Canada, while the project received tax credits from the Quebec and Quebec incentive programs. Canadian federal government.
-Production began in the summer of 2020 and continued on and off through 2023. The pandemic complicated early location filming — and “added a lot to the costs,” Bainbridge confirms — filming in some small Native American communities having had to be postponed due to curfew and quarantine rules.
In addition to filming in Canadian locations such as Ojibwe country in the south and the Inuit territory of Nunavut, the production visited the Navajo regions of the southwestern United States and the lands of the Iroquois Confederacy in northern New York State, as well as the cities of New York. and Boston.
International filming also took place in Paris and Germany. The latter trip resulted in a 12-minute sequence (only included in the film’s European edit) in which Diamond spends time with German weekend enthusiasts, who, inspired by the 19th-century author’s work Karl May, like to dress and camp like a vintage native. Americans. Amateurs, Bainbridge says, “were nervous and wondering if they could do the things they were doing. They wanted advice on this.”
The sequence is typical of the measured and often witty approach the film takes to sensitive topics like the use of stereotypical Native American mascots in American sports and the appropriation of art and culture. Indigenous imagery by fashion designers.
“One of the things we’re known for is not shaming people,” Bainbridge says of how she and Diamond persuaded some non-Native participants to appear in the film or cooperate in the production . “We were able to convince people that we were going to tell them a story about what they were doing that even they didn’t know about. We are moving from shame to the beauty of Indigenous influence. It’s not about pointing fingers at people, it’s more about trying to understand where this all comes from.”
Diamond, whose storytelling and laid-back on-screen manner balance the film’s heavier sections and expert talking heads, attributes his attitude to growing up in the Waskaganish First Nation community in northern Quebec distant.
“When I was younger,” says the Cree filmmaker, “I was rather flattered when I saw sports team logos or people dressing up wanting to be “Indian.” And in a way, I guess I still am. I’m not angry or anything; This amuses me more. And the reason is, where I come from, our history is very different from what happened in, say, the southern part of the continent or western Canada. Our culture is still very strong.
He adds: “But I sympathize with the natives who have lost a lot. I can understand why they are angry when they see their culture being demeaned like this.
Red fever premieres May 1.
