“Forget Winnetou: Going Beyond Native Stereotypes in Germany” is an upcoming documentary by Timo Kiesel & Red Haircrow. Exploring themes of racism, stereotyping and erasure that Native Americans face living and working in Germany, despite German fascination with the indigenous peoples of North America.
Website: https://forgetwinnetou.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/forgetwinnetou/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forgetwinnetoufilm/
Our video “Conejitos Amarillos” with original piano composition and performance by German jazz pianist Uli Lenz has been selected for the Kids Program at the Anibar Animation Festival in Peja, Kosovo, 21-25 August 2016!
About the video:
“Conejitos Amarillos” is a short energetic piece composed and performed by German jazz pianist Uli Lenz, combined with a poem by Red Haircrow. Inspired by Lenz’s thoughts on the song’s creation and the mixture of jazz and animation in iconic Tom & Jerry cartoons, Red Haircrow created a simple but fast moving musical story of comedic gravity about the idiosyncracies of rabbits. It is part of Lenz & Haircrow, “Poetry & Piano” project, and created by Flying With Red Haircrow Productions. https://www.facebook.com/flyingwithredhaircrowproductions/
“Conejitos Amarillos” is a live recorded performance from Lenz’s solo album ““Dance Mañana” available at HGBS Studios.
About Uli Lenz:
Lenz is regarded as a brilliant musical engineer with a particularly strong left hand, and an immediately recognizable style. Through his melodically complex but highly danceable style of play, while in Africa, he acquired the nickname ‘The man who dances on the keys.’
Although based in Berlin, Germany, and being a well known artist in the local jazz scene, Uli Lenz is a world traveler in the field of jazz, serving as a musical ambassador for Germany. His tours have taken him to almost every country on earth. He has played and continues to perform in various groups, bands, duos and trios with fellow artists such as François Jeanneau, Cecil McBee, Ira Coleman, Pepe Burns, Patricia Nomakosazana Dhlamini, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and more!”
www.ulilenz.com
“Whether from novels, non-native historians and so-called native experts, US systematic, institutional racism and white privilege caused the spread of misinformation and misinterpretation of natives around the world. In the US, native stereotypes and Eurocentric perspectives at times nearly subsumed real natives and their reality.
From kindergarten to post-doctoral university, misinformation and skewed history has miseducated generations. Whether in books, film, pop culture and fashion or on sport fields as mascots, native identities have been stolen, and that theft justified with a sense of ownership and superiority. Disregard or dismissal of native concerns continues to be widespread, along with minimization of the challenges native peoples face to represent and present themselves due to resistance. These attitudes and behaviors also spread to and flourished in Germany. However, Germany presents a unique opportunity for reeducation for several reasons….”
We’re excited to announce that we will again we’ll be giving a workshop at this year’s, “Tage des indigenen Films” (Day of Indigenous Films) in Rostock, Germany in cooperation with elements e.V. The event lasts from 16-20 November. Our workshop will be on Tuesday the 17th.
Films we will specifically review are Disney’s “Pocahantas” (and other misrepresentations), Adam Sandler’s “Ridiculous Six”, a German film company’s “The White Comanche” (2014) and Eli Roth’s “The Green Inferno”, which was recently internationally released. Particular discussion will be for the upcoming European release of a new “Winnetou” film, characters created by Karl May, and which continues the practice of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation of Native Americans.
From the elements e.V. website:
“At the film festival will be shown at least six programs: feature films, short films, documentaries and films for young people which address the lives of indigenous and primarily told from the perspective of the indigenous.
In addition, we organize three thematic workshops:
(1) Representations of Indigenous in film. The workshop is organized by indigenous people themselves and carried out. Speaker is D.S. Red Haircrow, author with indigenous background (Chiricahua Apache / Cherokee), and moderation by Carmen Kwasny of the Native American Association of Germany eV (NAAoG eV).
(2) Protected areas: A Space for Indigenous Peoples? The workshop will be conducted in collaboration with Survival International. Speaker is Lea-Kristin Martin of SI Berlin.
(3) The dances of Farotos and palm weaving. The workshop will organize in cooperation with the group Canoafolk from Colombia/Germany.
The film program list and further information about the workshops and the exhibition will be published by the end of October. The on-site photography exhibition will remain through December.
For details about the days of the indigenous film in 2015, please visit:
http://indigen.elements-ev.org/.
On Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/indigenerfilm/.
Native American Association of Germany (NAAoG) website:
http://www.naaog.de/.
On Facebook:
Flying With Red Haircrow 