Tuesday, March 26, 2019 - 11:00am Tuesday, March 26, 2019 - 3:30pm MLC 205 & MLC 153 Film Lecture The American West in Cold War Eastern European Cinema: Transnational Agenda and Commentary on Race in DEFA's Indianerfilme Lecture, Film Screening, and Q&A with guest lecturer Dr. Mariana Ivanova, Asst. Professor of German, Miami University of Ohio 11:00 - 12:00 Lecture and light lunch: Miller Learning Center Room 205 3:30-5:30 Film screening followed by Q&A Miller Learning Center 153 Abstract: In the 1960s and the 1970s, a new film genre swept Eastern European audiences. The Red Westerns, or the Indianerfilme as they were originally called, were appropriations of the classical Hollywood genre but they staged Native American communities at the center of the narrative. Realized as joint projects among East Germany and other socialist nations, these films sought to stage a Native American community as unified by notions of brotherhood, and at the same time critiqued the way race and class distinctions were handled in the US before the Civil rights Act of 1964. However, as the title of the genre tells us, most of these films were fantasy projections of European (and Euro-centric) directors onto Native American life and these films mostly reinforced racial and gender stereotypes. The Red Westerns, therefore, remain in history as ideological weapons, but sometimes they stirred a genuine interest among East German viewers and lead them to contact Native Americans and to learn about their history.
