There’s a choice. We can continue to bitch and moan about Hollywood’s stereotypical portrayal of Natives in productions like Comanche Moon  and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. We can; and while it’s cathartic, let’s be honest. 

All the bitchin’ and moanin’ in the world doesn’t change a damn thing. Change  changes things. And changing things starts with empowering Native filmmakers with the money to get their productions completed and, equally important, a medium to get their movies seen by a mass audience.

Organizations like Northwest Indian News and Native American Television (NATV) understand this and are quickly creating an international venue for Native news and cultural expression.

Add another change agent to the list: www.isuma.tv, a new website providing a video portal for Indigenous filmmakers. A collaborative effort started by Igloolik Isuma Productions, Nunavut Independent TV Network (NITV), imagineNATIVE Film+Media Arts Festival, and Vtape, the new site brings the Indigenous perspective to a worldwide audience. At no cost to either the filmmaker or the viewer.

Among the films you can watch currently are Nanobah Becker’s Conversion, Zacharias Kunik’s Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner  and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, and more than a hundred other films and videos. By the end of the year, Isuma hopes to build a library exceeding 1,000 films representing films from 30 countries drawing a million site visitors. Sure, it’s a tall order, and the ultimate success rests on Native filmmakers creating productions that will earn the loyalty of an international audience.  

For us at least, it’s a marriage made in heaven. A place to get films seen; a place to see films. Native films. And that’s a good thing, indeed.

www.isuma.tv