Review POWWOW HIGHWAY Directed by Jonathan Wacks. Screenplay by Janet Heaney and Jean Stawarz, based on the novel by David Seals. Starring Gary Farmer, A. Martinez. At local theatres. What do ancient Comanche scouting trails, warrior steeds and spiritual offer- ings have to do with interstate highways, jalopies and candy bars? Not much, but the Native American road movie Pow- wow Highway makes them add up to plenty. Director Jonathan Wacks mixes mag- ical realism with Hollywood formula to concoct a partly angry, partly funny, wildly offbeat movie. Powwow Highway joins the recent crop of films which further push the boundaries of the allowable down the Hollywood assem- bly line, in the bold direction of meaning- ful. Powwow Highway stars A. Martinez (a part Blackfoot Native American anda Native quest transcends limitations daytime soap opera star) as Buddy Red Bow, an enraged, outspoken American Indian Moyement leader. He lashes out against a strip mining corporation bleed- ing the land dry and impoverishing the people on his Cheyenne Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana. Heavies from the federal government conspire to get rid of Red Bow during a crucial Reservation Council vote to approve of further strip mining, by arresting his sister (Joanelle Romero, who starred in the TV movie, The Legend of Walks Far Woman, and recently performed in the Drums Across America benefit concert). She’s arraigned on trumped-up drug charges, forcing Red Bow to leave for far-off Santa Fe to bail her out. He joins up for the long trip with Phil- bert (Gary Farmer), a huge, earthly hulk who is blissed out ona vision of fulfilling an ancient, as yet unrevealed, tribal mis- sion as a transformed warrior chosen to Gary Farmer (I) and hallucinatory Indian chief ... seeing beyond the bleakness _ of Native American existence to the severed past. : ee ee eee“ People’s Co-op Bookstore May Day Greetings to all from our members 25% off all labour books with this coupon Offer expires May 13, 1989 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. VSL 3K5 Phone: 253-6442 Mii y pay Greez;,, oe pret alk Music Peay tS ee 2, /f | See you at the 12th Annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival July 14, 15,16 - Jericho Beach Park Featuring songs of struggle and of working ple from across this country and around the world; from Newfoundland to Palestine, Central America fo British Columbia. Tickets on sale now! For complete line up and ticket information write or call Vancouver Folk Music Festival, 3271 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C., V5V 3Mé6 (604) 879-2931. i: 30 Pacific Tribune, May 1, 1989 carry out a legacy. While Red Bow broods about, the greedy companies “turning our reservations into sewers,” Philbert sees beyond the bleakness of _ Native American existence — the hov- els strewn over a once sacred majestic landscape now littered with metal junk remains and other commercial waste of corporate America —to the severed past. He is determined to spiritually revive his Cheyenne heritage, even if it means having to utilize the absurd implements of the white man’s materialistic world to do it: a jalopy transforms into a warrior pony, a candy bar becomes a spiritual offering, and a “sign” leading Philbert on to his heroic destiny is received on a CB radio. : In the course of this odd couple’s journey, each man grows and learns from the other. Red Bow begins to rise out of his paralyzing rage as he gets in touch with his cultural heritage, and Philbert directs his free flowing spiritual- ity into struggle. At the same time director Jonathan” Wacks (who also co-directed the 1986 Farm Aid Benefit on TV) attempts toy make his own peace between progressive — filmmaking and the constraints of Hol- — lywood formula. The road he takes is often a rocky one (the conflict with the strip mining company seems itself stripped, possibly lying on some cutting room floor, and never gets resolved in this suspiciously shortened movie). But the stars and their expressed” angers, hopes and dreams are exhilarat- ing. Gary Farmer, a Canadian Mohawk ~ from the Six-Nation Confederacy, won Best Actor award at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, where Powwow Highway also garnered Best Picture and Best Director Awards. — Prairie Miller, People’s Daily World Documentary on Philippines replays; director, coalition leader to attend A while back we reviewed Vancouver actor and filmmaker Nettie Wild’s docu- mentary, A Rustling of Leaves, a close-up account of the struggle for democracy in The Philippines after Marcos. We basically liked it. It follows the stories of three key representatives of the political landscape under President Corazon Aquino: Father Navaro of the New People’s Army; Kum- mander Dante, co-founder of the NPA who renounced violent struggle to run (unsuc- cessfully) for a senator’s post; Jun Pala, a fascist radio personality shown broadcast- ing threats to left-wingers. A Rustling of Leaves takes its audience into the jungles to move with the NPA for- ces, and to a dumpsite where Filipinos still living in poverty forage. The film, from a former member of Vancouver’s Headlines Theatre, raises doubts about claims of change and democracy by the government who ousted the previous U.S. backed dicta- tor. After a showing in England and a nomi- nation for a Genie award, A Rustling of Leaves returns to Vancouver for a run at the Vancouver East Cinema, May 5-6, 7 p.m. & 10 p.m., and May 7, 2 p.m. & 7 p.m. Wild and Zenaida Uy, secretary general of the trade union and grassroots organization coalition BAYAN, will be available for dis- cussion after each screening. * * * From the couches: Knowledge Network presents End of Empire: Malaya, concerning Britain’s war against its former allies in the Malayan Communist Party on Sunday, May 7, 8 p.m. and again on Tuesday, May 9, 9 p.m. Also on is The Troubles: Rising, about Ireland’s partition in 1921, Friday, May 12, 6 p.m. KCTS in Seattle has “Yellowstone Under Fire”, a production of the news show Front- line, that asks the question: did former U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s interior secretar- ies James Watt and Donald Hodel alter the landscape of the famous national park more than last summer’s devastating fire, by accelerating the development of mineral and timber extraction, and tourism? Of interest in light of the Socreds’ continued threat to B.C.’s parks and wilderness areas. It plays Tuesday, May 9, 10 p.m. Also airing is “A Walk in the Woods”, a fictional speculation on the stroll taken by negotiators of the U.S.-USSR disarmament talks in Geneva, 1982. Sam Waterston stars as American negotiator Paul H. Nitze and Robert Prosky plays the USSR’s Yuli Kvitszinksy. It’s on Wednesday, May. 10, 9 p.m.