Indigenous Film Reviews

Well, the title of this blog is misleading. You might be expecting to read reviews about Indigenous films. No, no, no, these are Indigenous reviews of non-Indigenous films.

That sounds unusual, doesn't it? Doesn't quite sit right. That's because the colonial experience to date has involved people speaking about and for Aboriginal people, the work of Indigenous artists critiqued according to dominant culture standards in order to allow honorary inclusion status, or to exclude as "Other".

So, what we're doing here is turning that magnifying glass around, pointing it back. Rather than being examined and judged, we are doing the evaluating.

Why am I doing this today? Well, I just found out I was the object of a research study a couple of years ago without actually being informed that a study was taking place. It was shocking to read about myself in a study I never knew I was part of. Apart from the massive human rights violations involving human subject research and informed consent issues, I'm mostly feeling bad because of that paranoid feeling of never knowing when that magnifying glass is pointing at me.

So I'm writing this blog to make myself feel better, make myself feel like I have some sort of control over that cultural magnifying glass. So here are the film reviews - my way of looking back at those who are looking at me...

• Wolf Creek
• Star Wars Saga
• The Proposition
• Crocodile Dundee