Documentary: Identifying Indian

[Cole McDonald]

Many Native Americans are trapped between the white world and the Indian world. They search for their heritage while encountering resistance from both communities. Their efforts to discover their heritage has them "Identifying Indian."

Identifying Indian | Facebook
Identifying Indian

Please watch and share this with everyone you know (if you're so inclined). The second link is the official page comes with full interviews for academic review as it was made for an Anthropology class. Please feel free to comment on the technique, the content, the technology - I have thick skin :)

[Alan Melville]

Cole,

The Facebook link worked but the second didn't.

I watch the FB link, the parallels that can be drawn with the Australian Aborigines are quite remarkable.

I suspect these parallels could be drawn between many of the Aboriginal peoples of the world, particularly those colonized by Europeans and who are in the minority.

Al

[Cole McDonald]

Odd, second link works for me... it's the same vid in Quicktime format, perhaps that's the sticking point there...

But thanks for watching it. I would agree that may cultures subjugated by the conquering expansionists from Europe at that time shared similar hardships.

I've often found the children of parents involved in social cataclysms to show interesting adaptations and behaviors. Not just in this issue, but in others. I grew up surrounded by refugees and immigrants. The parents and children who came from their respective countries showed remarkably different outlooks on the societies they were both coming from and merging into than the generations that were born here in the states (My city is a large settling community for the Hmong in the 70s, the Hispanics in the 90s, ethiopians in the 2000s and Somali's now in the 2010s. The second generation of each has always held a fascination for me personally.

The documentary here though is from the voice of one of the interviewees who kick started this project. I took great pains to have as little voice as possible in the direction of the narrative as I felt I would taint the dialog being created. He chose the next dialog pieces from the interviews, I merely fit them together in the editing software as a technician. I am personally confident that this is as untainted by my own personal viewpoints as it was possible for me to achieve.

That said, it was very rewarding to participate in a piece that feels as important as this does to me. I'm very proud of the presentation of the information we were able to achieve.

[Cole McDonald]

I've posted this on Youtube having finally received permission to post videos larger than 10 minutes:

Identifying Indian - YouTube

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Nice documentary - from a different kind of Indian. Thanks for sharing.

[Cole McDonald]

Thanks for taking the time to watch. Helping the director with this project was really rewarding. I felt as if I had done something important instead of just realizing scripts for entertainment. It was a really nice application of what I've been striving to learn for these past years... In Filmmaking and Anthropology as well.

[Jay Kavi]

Fascinating Cole, thanks for sharing.

[Cole McDonald]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.