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It took an East
Indian to make one of the best ever documentaries on what it
takes to be a North American Indian. In the new production Shooting
Indians: A Journey With Jeffrey, Ali Kazimi shows what goes into
the quest of an Indian man eager to preserve his native roots.
Kazimi is "the other Indian" - as a film student in
the 1980s he was intrigued by the treatment of Canadian Indians,
specifically the inability of many of the people to speak their
native Ianguages. Here Kazimi profiles Jeffrey Thomas, who was
born in Buffalo and grew up in Brantford, a member of the Six
Nations Confederacy. Thomas was always fascinated by the pictures
taken 100 years ago by Edward Curtis of the vanishing aboriginal
peoples of North America. Thomas decided to photograph contemporary
aboriginals freed of the romantic conceptions of Curtis and the
results are bold and provocative, a social history of a people
in flux.
- Jim Bawden, Starweek magazine, Toronto Star, July 11-17,
1998
Filmmaker Ali Kazimi
is East Indian and started making this film about Native Canadian
and American Indians years ago. As a foreign student in Canada
he was fascinated by the difference between the Indians he had
seen in Hollywood movies and those he met in Canada. He began
documenting the work of Iroquois photographer Jeffrey Thomas
and, with him, travelled the hard road to understanding what
photography means. The result is a curious film, as much about
the filmmaker's struggle and mixed emotion as it is about his
subject's perseverance. It does raise many sticky issues about
stereotypes and the power of the visual, but it doesn't simplify
them.
- John Doyle's, Critical List, Broadcast Week, The Globe
& Mail, July 11-17, 1998
Awards/Festivals
Golden Gate Awards, San
Francisco 1998
• Certificate of Merit
Genie Award (Canadian Academy Award), Canada
1997
• Finalist
- Best Short Documentary
HOT DOCS! Canadian National Documentary Awards, 1998
• Finalist - Best Arts Documentary
Broadcasts
TVO (Canada)
Credits
Producer, Director, Writer
& Cinematographer.
Ali Kazimi
Sound Recordist
Ant Sprung, David
Adkin, Premika Ratnam
Editor
Ricardo Acosta
Music
Rahul Ram, Asheem
Chakravarti, Indian Ocean, Six Nations Women Singers
Produced with the generous
assistance of
Canada Council
for the Arts
Ontario Arts Council
Toronto Arts Counci
Canadian Independent Film & Video Fund
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