Project Detail

Colouring the Media

Synopsis

Coloring the Media begins with the premise that since the invention of the camera, Native Americans were the very first people to be documented either in photographs or in moving pictures. This film explores this journey as European Americans used the camera as a propaganda tool to depict native peoples in America as less than human. Through the development of stereotypes, and inadequate research, early films depicting native peoples set into motion a language of film that is still being used today. This language came to affect all peoples of colour around the world as they were often portrayed as ignorant or noble savages whose only good was to make the European look superior, civilized and just in their cause - which was more often than not the civilization of the savage.

By using contemporary films such as Smoke Signals; and documentaries such as Healing the Hurts and Spirit combined with interviews with Native people, Coloring the Media takes us on a journey and asks how the past can affect the present and shape the future for Native Americans and also for people of color. As Black and Asian people living in Britain speak about their experiences and the struggles they face today, we see how the language of film set into motion in the early 20th century still plays an important part in the portrayal of people of colour.
Coloring the Media offers a refreshing investigative insight into the past and present. For future generations it offers a solution of change through the voices of people, and asks one important question: 'What is it going to take to make this change happen, now, today?'

Details

Year: 2005
Type of project: Features
Running time: 47 mins
Format: DV
Director: Carlisle Antonio
Producer: BBC, Skillset, Millennium Commission
Co-Producer: BBC, Skillset, Millennium Commission
Editor: Carlisle Antonio
Screenwriter: Carlisle Antonio
Director of Photography: Mike Catherwood
Sound: Mike Catherwood, Nik Mather, Carlisle Antonio
Composer: John Trudell, Peter Buffet
Principal cast: Several contributors

Genre

Asian Black

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

american.indian@blueyonder.co.uk

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Filmmaker Eamon Bourke lost his mother, Sue, when he was three and has no memory of her. When his father decides to sell the remote Lake District home where she died, Eamon returns with his camera to document the house and its clearing. Among Sue’s belongings - diaries, poems, photographs and tapes - he discovers a box of damaged cassette recordings. After painstakingly repairing them, he uncovers something extraordinary: his mother’s voice. Through these intimate audio diaries, Sue speaks candidly about motherhood, sings to her children, and captures fleeting family moments Eamon never knew. One final tape records her describing the onset of hepatitis, days before she fell into a coma and died in 1983. Another, more haunting still, features three-year-old Eamon calling out to his unconscious mother in hospital, in a desperate attempt to bring her back. As Eamon pieces together this archive, he confronts the enduring impact of early loss, speaking with his father and sisters while retracing the emotional landscape of his childhood. Set against the vast beauty of the Lake District, a deeply personal exploration of grief, memory and love - an attempt to recover what was lost, and to finally say goodbye.

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