Terry Macy and Daniel Hart's award-winning documentary "White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men" digs skin-deep into the commercialization of American Indian spiritual traditions by non-American Indians.
The film focuses on the followers of new-age religions who take the practices of American Indian religions and attempt to make money off of them by helping non-believers practice them.
Directors Macy and Hart said American Indians can get quite bothered when their religious practices are not taken seriously.
"Many people tend to think copying and imitating American Indians can be a way to possibly flatter them, but in fact it can be quite upsetting," Colleen Boyd, Ball State University assistant professor of anthropology and director of the Native American studies minor, said.
Some American Indians believe that when people imitate their religious practices the balance of the universe is thrown off, Boyd said.
The documentary, which lasts 30 minutes and will be shown at 7 p.m. tonight in Burkhardt Building Room 300, is the final one in a series of movies that began in November for Native American Indian Heritage Month. The film is presented by the Native American Studies minor program.
A new film series will begin on Jan. 30 with the showing of "Big Eden."
This film series, "Queer Cinema in Native America," examines the lives and experiences of Native Americans who are gay, lesbian and transgendered.
"The series will really give an inside look at the people who are dealing with a dual-prejudice against them," Boyd said. "How they understand the world is completely different from [how] anyone else may perceive it."
The documentary and the film is a good way for Ball State's students to learn about Native Americans, Boyd said.
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