SPIRITS FOR SALE Best International Film at South Dakota Film Festival 2007   “The information in Europe about Native Americans and Native Canadians is most often full of fantasies and lies. People in general know very little about American Indians and their general view is based on stereotypes, mascots and film clichés. In some cases the belief is that “Indians do not exist.” Europe has also seen a growing interest in so called Native American spirituality. Ceremonies and rituals together with sacred objects are being sold on websites and in papers. Cults and organizations offer people to become “an Indian shaman” or a medicine man during a weekend course. Seldom or never do Native voices get heard and because of the lack of information, con-men make a considerable amount of money while they violate the spirituality of mostly Plains Indians. The film will address the issue of spiritual exploiters and the harm they do towards Native cultures but also to followers who, in many cases “don’t have a clue”.”   “When Annika got a sacred eagle feather from a Native American visiting Sweden she realized that it was a very sacred object which should probably not be in her hands. What was she supposed to do with it? Should she return it? If so, to whom? Her quest to find the right owner took her deep into Indian communities, where she learned about the anger and sadness of traditional Natives. “First they killed our people. Then they took our land. Now they steal our faith.” But the Indians are fighting back. This time the fight is not mainly about protecting life and land. Instead they are fighting to protect their culture.”   Quotes from film website –   In communicating with Annika she gave some additional background to the film:   “In 2000 I was invited over to visit the Navajo reservation and learned a lot about the problems that American Indians face. I went back to Sweden and started a foundation, World in Our Hands, raising money for poor Native children and doing presentations to get the truth out. In 2002 I published an anthology with 11 Native writers, which was recommended by National Geographic in Sweden and sold really well. The profit went to Natives in Albuquerque.   My dream was to make a film about the exploitation of Native cultures which is a million dollar industry here in Europe. I knew nothing about filming but happened to meet an experienced film photographer “by a coincidence” and in 2005 we started planning the film. We decided to use a story: some years ago I had been given this eagle feather by a Native Canadian visiting Sweden. I knew I shouldn’t keep it, but didn’t know whom to give it to. So the story in the film would be for me to travel round to different Native communities to find the right owner.   I was very honored that Chief Arvol Looking Horse from the Lakota/Nakota/Dakota Nations decided to support us and to take part in our film. In the summer of 2006 we spent five weeks with traditional Lakota people, doing more than 20 interviews. And in February 2007 we returned to film in Texas and New Mexico. We also filmed in Denmark, where we got an interview with a non-Native guy selling sweats. The film was completed in August 2007, 40 hours of footage was down to 58 minutes, and opened up at South Dakota Film Festival, where it was awarded Best International Film. In October 2007 Arvol Looking Horse visited Sweden for the opening of the film.   We have produced the film ourselves, with our own money, together with some economical help from a Swedish production company. But we felt that it is an important film, because in order to make the abuse stop and to build bridges between our cultures, Europeans – and other non-Natives – need to get educated on how American Indians of today live.   It was amazing making the film because the “coincidences” were too many. People we needed were suddenly there to help us along. Everything we wanted for the film just came to us. And some extra info about the feather: I did not have a clue where it came from in the first place. Knowing the guy who gave it to me, he might have bought it at a market store. So when the film was done, I asked him. He told me it had been given to him by an old medicine man from his community in Manitoba, Canada. It had been blessed and he had been told that only people with a good heart can have this feather and only good things can come out of it. This medicine man was dedicated to protecting ceremonies and sacred places. Well, this Native guy came to Sweden and unfortunately lost his head. I guess he knew he couldn’t keep the feather, so he gave it to me. And eventually the feather ended up with Arvol Looking Horse.   Some days after him having received it from me, he went to Manitoba Canada to do a ceremony. The same place where it all started, from one medicine man to another holy man, a big circle where it picked up a Film Project for the protection of ceremonies, and then it returned. Shortly after the feather had left Canada, the old medicine man died.”   This film features Victorio Camp. Cost is $35 each. To purchase please contact her directly at annika@banfield.se