American Native

The portrayal of Native Americans in films concerns Native Americans' roles in cinema, particularly their depiction in Hollywood productions, as well as television and videos. While Native Americans have directed and produced films since the 1910s, a resurgence in the 1990s led by Native American filmmakers began a movement of producing independent films that work to represent the depth and complexity of Indigenous peoples as people and provide a realistic account of their culture. In the turn of the century, the rise of Native American and Indigenous filmmakers has allowed for greater representation in Hollywood and in mainstream media. Contemporary Native filmmakers have employed the use of visual sovereignty, defined by scholar Michelle H. Raheja (Seneca descent) as "a way of reimagining Native-centered articulations of self-representation and autonomy that engage the powerful ideologies of mass media," to take back the right to tell their own stories.