by Abel Horwitz
Daily Lobo
Filmmaker Randy Redroad does not look at his movie, "The Doe Boy," as simply an American-Indian film.
"In the film the word 'Indian' is never said even once," Redroad said. "Because I'm native and I write personal stories, some of my characters tend to be native as well. That's how all my films are created and conceived, but they're simply about human beings. The theme of this film is about fathers and sons. I'd never limit my ideas as to whom the film should play for. I don't make Indian films; I make films about people."
On Tuesday Redroad will screen his film and answer questions from an audience on campus.
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"The Doe Boy" won him critical acclaim at 2001's Sundance Film Festival. Redroad walked away with the prestigious Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award.
It is a story about a hemophiliac half-Cherokee man who is haunted by a bad hunting accident from his youth in which he accidentally kills a female deer. This earns him the nickname Doe Boy.
"It's a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Oklahoma," Redroad said. "The boy has to come to terms with his disease, his father - who's white - and his past."
For Redroad, the process of making films is personal. The story of "The Doe Boy" is semi-autobiographical, with Redroad drawing on many experiences of his youth.
"The hunting incident really happened to me when I was 10 years old. Later my father and I split ways. The hemophilia, thankfully, is not autobiographical. It's something that I put into the story for identity issues."
Redroad has screened his film around the world to many audiences and said the reactions he gets depend on who is watching his film.
"The level of filmmaking is such that you can get something from it from watching the craft. I'm very proud of it. Hopefully, my goal is that people will want to talk about it afterward, tell someone else to see it."
Last week Redroad found himself in Park City, Utah, again for the Sundance Film Festival. He was there, as he has been for several years, as a creative adviser on the Native Forum. While he's dealt with many American-Indian directors, he said there is not a specific distinction within Native films.
"When a new genre of film comes out, people are scrambling around trying to define the films," he said. "It's a game academics like to play. However, the body of work is still relatively small. We want to think there's one thing that defines all native films, but if we open our eyes we see that the body of work is as diverse as native culture and still too early to see what the genre's aesthetic is."
