Most films about Native Americans concentrate on European perspective or indigenous experience in North America, but there are Natives abroad, and our film shares the lives and daily experience of being “loved in the wrong way” in “Indian crazy” Germany. There are many forms, ranging from laughable to offensive, yet all are the flip side of the same racist, not-yet-post-colonial coin. Stereotyping, such as with Natives, is linked to behaviors and beliefs in western societies wherein increasingly blatant racism against all people of color is being met with determined resistance.
Short Treatment: “Indians feel no pain!” and “No ‘firewater’ for you, it makes your people crazy!” are comments Natives living in Germany may hear daily, such as Gerald “Kunu” Dittmer (Ho-Chunk). He grew up in Berlin and has experienced a range of “treatment” from shallow adoration of his “Indianness”, to antagonism and resentment of his heritage, especially if he didn't oblige requests to meet white German expectations.
Viveka Frost (Teques/Caribe) has a somewhat different experience. She frequently receives compliments on her attractive features, but only those resembling white standards of beauty, while her husband Johnny (Purepecha/Mezica) regularly endures hateful comments, such as neo-Nazis yelling at him on the street as he strolls his daughter, that he shouldn’t have been allowed to procreate. Many Germans assume he is Roma, another historically vilified and/or stereotyped people in Europe. The young couple worry what the future holds for their two-year old daughter, Wednesday, in an increasingly aggressive, racially divided Germany where favored foreigners are popular, like American Indians of stereotypical appearance, but other people of color experience “Alletag Rassissmus” or “everyday racism” affecting all aspects of their lives.
The only film of its kind, we explore the roots of racism and colonialism, apathy and adoration in German society from Native perspectives and through their experiences. Germany is a microcosm of struggles taking place across the world both against and for decolonization, and the correction of systematic racism and white supremacy that’s still dividing and destroying our world.