Saturday, May 21, 2016

Edge of America (2003)

Ad for TV program

I will watch pretty much any native American film (either made by native American, or about them),  I am guessing I stumbled upon this film after watching Dreamkeeper, which also features the actor Eddie Spears.

This is the story of a women's high school basketball team on the 3 Nations Reservation.  It shows how they went from a horrible losing streak to be coached into winners.

In this film, coach Williams refers to the people of the reservation as native Americans, but  is "corrected" by the Annie assistant coach.  I take issue with this.  While the term Indian brings up images of beautiful people in native American costumes, it's use is disingenuous.  What I mean is, that it actual refers to a culture that was has has existed in Asia for thousands of years, and using the term to refer to a different unrelated group of people belittles the original and true Indians.

DVD cover that gives you an actual idea what the movie is about.

I believe this was a TV movie.  It was based on a true story and which was covered in another film "Rocks with Wings", which I haven't yet tracked down, but appears to be on YouTube.

Unfortunately, the real coach represented in this film, Jerry Richardson, was killed in a car accident in Florida in 1996.

There were a few native American (Navajo) words used in the film, but try as I might I was unable to chat exactly what they were saying, and unable to find the terms with an internet search.  The words I was looking for appear to mean together and were used by the assistant coach when she confronts coach Williams for the first time.

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