COMS 4316 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Shelley Niro, Essentialism, Gradual Civilization Act

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Communication and Media Studies
• Course: COMS 4316
• Professor: Miranda Brady

Document Summary

Reading #1: sovereignty, subjectivity and social action: the films of alanis obomsawin. No matter what horrible things we see, we never get used to them. Any discussion of aboriginal filmmaking and specifically with the work of alan. Obomsawin must take place within a theoretical framework based on the political, social, historic, and artistic realities which face aboriginal people. In 1914, edward s. curtis produced and presented in the land of the headhunters, the fi(cid:396)st featu(cid:396)e fil(cid:373) (cid:862)a(cid:271)out(cid:863) i(cid:374)dia(cid:374)s. Since that time, the image of native people in film has followed a predictably colonialist agenda. The i(cid:373)age of the (cid:862)i(cid:374)dia(cid:374)(cid:863) has (cid:373)ai(cid:374)tai(cid:374)ed a(cid:374)d ge(cid:374)e(cid:396)alized the (cid:448)ie(cid:449) of nati(cid:448)e people as savage, primitive and ultimately, doomed. Fil(cid:373)do(cid:373)(cid:859)s ha(cid:374)di(cid:374)g of histo(cid:396)(cid:455) i(cid:374) this (cid:396)ega(cid:396)d, (cid:449)ith o(cid:374)l(cid:455) a fe(cid:449) (cid:373)a(cid:396)gi(cid:374)al e(cid:454)(cid:272)eptio(cid:374)s, is nothing more or less than elaborate denial of european/euro-american criminality on this continent over the past 350 years.