INDIANER INUIT: THE NORTH AMERICA FILM FESTIVAL
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Knopf
Why do we watch films? Films paint worlds that we do not know; films offer insights into thoughts and souls of people we do not notice; films open access to cultures of which we know little. Films may shock and affect us, make us sad or happy – above all, they shape our worldviews.
In our country, which is still so much marked by romantic enthusiasm about ‘Indians’ à la Karl May, where ‘Indians’ are reduced to carnival costumes and playground figures and where stereotypical ‘Indians’ people our children’s books, documentary and feature films from North America can correct these distorted or even false images of Indigenous people. We have to watch such films that show us history and the present, knowledge and languages, fates and problems, happiness and humor of the various Indigenous nations from Indigenous perspectives. This is exactly what the Indianer Inuit Film Festival in Stuttgart offers. THANK YOU!!
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Knopf, University of Bremen
Oscar-Winning Director one of Germany’s top talents, skilled at captivating audiences with powerful images and gripping stories
Cinema has always been for me a view from a window into another world. In my films, I have visited the world of the deaf in Germany or described the fight for survival of a German-Jewish family in 1940 in Kenia.
The INDIANER INUIT: DAS NORDAMERIKA FILM FESTIVAL
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Klooss
University of Trier
The Significance of Indigenous Knowledge
When on 7 September 2014 the wrack of John Franklin’s “HMS Erebus“ was discovered in Victoria Strait west of King William Island, this meant the end of a 170 years’ search for the ill fated English explorer and his crew in the Canadian Arctic. “Erebus“ was not only discovered with the help of a remote controlled small submarine but also with the help of knowledge conveyed in 19th century Inuit oral testimony that had previously been largely ignored. In the same vein, indigenous knowledge was also instrumental in the exploration and appropriation of North America. A case in point is for example the Lewis and Clark Expedition through the continental divide to the Pacific (1804-6) whose success rested largely on the support by Native Americans. And the Canadian fur trade relied on the skills of the Métis who served as buffalo hunters, carriers, middlemen and interpreters. Yet, the significance of indigenous knowledge has hardly been acknowledged in official discourse. On the contrary, the contact of different cultural systems has resulted in the oppression and discrimination of North America’s Native peoples.
Prof. em. Dr. Wolfgang Klooss is Director of the interdisciplinary Centre for Canadian Studies at Trier University. He has published widely on the Canadian Métis. In 2015 he received the prestigious Governor General’s International Award for Canadian Studies.
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Lutz
Sumus, ergo sum©: Re-Indigenizing Europe
Orally transmitted knowledge and traditionally practiced values of Indigenous cultures of North America teach humans respect for all forms of life and an ethics of responsibility vis-à-vis the entire ecosystem, based on an indispensable connectedness to specific regions and places, to which human cultures are tied just as intricately as their “relations” in the fauna, flora and mineral world of the habitat they all share. The infinitely complex systems of Indigenous knowledge are gained empirically, and they are conveyed orally in stories and cultural practices over many generations. Such forms and practices of knowledge are generally missing in Europe, where enforced migrations and wars have again and again disrupted, or destroyed forever, most webs of relational knowledge and the environmental responsibilities they entail.
SIHASIN and Jones Benally family announces the INDIANER INUIT: DAS NORDAMERIKA FILMFESTIVAL
Canadian Film actress Sarah Podemski announces the INDIANER INUIT: DAS NORDAMERIKA FILMFESTIVAL