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AMS 100: INDIAN IMAGE ON FILM Take Home Exam

Professor Theresa McCarthy

Distribution Date: Dec 4, 2018 Due Date: Final take-home exams are to be submitted in person, in hardcopy to room 1002 Clemens Hall (the office of Asri Saroswati )on Tuesday Dec 11th between 2:00- 4:00pm (or earlier). NO EXCEPTIONS! EARLY SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: If you complete your exam before the Dec 11th deadline you may submit a hard copy to my mailbox located in room 1010 Clemens Hall during business hours (9am-5pm). After hours you can slip your hard copy beneath my office door. If you do submit early please send me email verification that you have done so. This exam is worth 25% of your overall grade! ***In order for your exam to be graded, you must also upload an electronic copy into the SafeAssign link found in Course Assignments on UBlearns. Please upload your exam as a single file.

Instructions: Please complete the Part 1: Mandatory question and your choice of ONE question from Part 2 and ONE question from Part 3. Minimum page requirements for each answer are listed below. Each answer is to be properly formatted (typed, double spaced, with citations, reference page, etc.). Remember that although this is a take-home exam, it is not a collaborative exercise. You must work independently as any suspicious resemblances between student responses to these questions will be penalized. As with any take-home exam essays, always retain a copy for your personal records.

Answers will be graded on the basis of your ability to integrate and synthesize necessary and relevant materials from this course, including readings, lectures, and discussion questions along with the films that have been screened. You are not required or expected to do additional outside research to answer these questions. Answers must show evidence of your engagement with the assigned readings, class lectures, discussion questions, and your own thinking. Helpful Hint – Use the Discussion Questions to help structure your answers. Answers awarded higher grades will be distinguished on the basis of levels of creativity, insight, analysis and critical thinking. Each answer will be graded in correspondence with a letter grade scale (A- to A, excellent to exceptional; B- to B+, good to very good; to C- to C+, adequate to satisfactory; D, below adequate; F, Fail). Each answer will be graded on a letter grade scale and the combined average of each will give you your final grade on this exam.

Over

Part 1: Mandatory Question (answer in 3 pages minimum-recommended) 15 points:

1) Representing Indigenous experiences, realities, and knowledge are vitally important priorities in the work that Native and some non-Native allied filmmakers have undertaken in refashioning Indigenous images on film. This includes making films that engage Native language use, sacred history, oral traditions, ceremonial knowledge, relationships to the land/nature, storytelling, understandings of family and community, kinship, roles and responsibilities, relating the importance of culture and/or contemporary identity and colonial struggles. Discuss the significance of no less than THREE of these Indigenous priorities in THREE of the feature length films viewed in class since the midterm. What effect did the presentation of Indigenous priorities have on you as a viewer? (note: Do not engage Wind River for this question)

Part 2: Pick ONE of the following (answer in 2 pages minimum) 10 points:

1) How do your choices of TWO of the following films (Atanarjuat, Smoke Signals,

Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Drunktown’s Finest) revise conventional images of Indians on film? How do these films counter hegemonic representations of Indigenous peoples? How can these films be understood as acts of sovereignty given the historical context of Indian Images on film?

2) Discuss of the significance of Indigenous aesthetics (Indigenous artistic

expression) in TWO of the following films: Smoke Signals, Atanarjuat. Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Drunktown’s Finest. What types of challenges do the distinct stories, plotlines, characters, issues, cinematic techniques etc., present for the mainstream viewing audience? Why do you think Native filmmaker’s feel engaging these challenges was important?

Part 3: Pick ONE of the following (answer in 2 pages minimum) 10 points:

1) How do films like Rabbit Proof Fence, Rhymes for Young Ghouls, and the

documentary Unseen Tears help audiences to confront the realities of the historical mistreatment of Indigenous people? What realities do they bring to light and why is the representation of these historical realities through film so important? Be sure to talk about the kinds of ideas about Native people that permitted the establishment of laws and institutions designed to eradicate Indigenous cultures and people. What does this bring to your understanding of the role of images in upholding colonialism?

2) How would you organize a lecture based on a screening of the film Wind River (2017) using materials from this course (readings, class lecture/discussion points, scenes from the film). Providing context for the realities involving violence against Indigenous women presented in the film, discuss three points of value you would make about this film. Based upon what you have learned in this course, what three criticisms would you make about the representation of Native peoples and realities in this film (be sure to state the significance of these critiques). What important distinctions need to be made between Wind River as a vengeance film, and Rhymes for Young Ghouls as a vengeance film.

3) Evaluate how Indigenous women are represented in TWO of the following films: Rabbit Proof Fence, Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Drunktown’s Finest. How do these portrayals of Indigenous women disrupt or confirm the stereotypes, images and conventions we’ve examined this semester? Which ones fit with more positive portrayals and images of Indigenous women, and why is this significant.

Bonus Question (answer in ½ to 1 page) 5 points:

If you were asked to make a presentation on one of the films from the second half of this course, which would you choose and why. Outline the points or comments or arguments would you emphasize about the film to help a class understand its significance more thoroughly. (Point form answer is fine for this question only)

The End

Nya: weh (Thank-you) for taking this course and Good Luck!