Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge talk 2024 Hot Docs world ...

Friends and collaborators for more than 30 years, Canadian filmmakers Neil Diamond and Catherine Bainbridge have “always worked well together,” says Cree writer-director Diamond.

And, adds the non-Indigenous Bainbridge, “we’ve always had a conversation back and forth about Indigenous and non-Indigenous people”.

In a way, that conversation continues with Red Fever, the Hot Docs world premiere (May 1) on which Diamond (previously acclaimed for Reel Injun) and Bainbridge (director of Sundance award winner Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World) served as co-writers and co-directors.

The documentary follows Diamond around North America and Europe as he explores the world’s fascination with – and romanticisation of – Native Americans. It also uncovers some of the history behind Indigenous people’s influence on aspects of Western culture like fashion, sport, politics, and conservation

Produced by Lisa M Roth and executive produced by Bainbridge, Linda Ludwick and Ernest Webb for their Montreal-based Rezolution Pictures, Red Fever is set for a Canadian theatrical release in June through Les Films du 3 Mars, which is also handling international sales.

Bainbridge and Diamond first sparked to the film’s central idea before the pandemic, when a backlash against cultural appropriation saw, for example, music festivals banning the wearing of Native American headdresses.

“It was in the news, so for us that always ticks a box,” explains Bainbridge. “If it’s in popular culture and being discussed it’s something we can bring everyone in on.”

Broadcasters, Bainbridge recalls, “were super-interested” and the project got its green light when TVO, the publicly funded educational TV network in the Canadian province of Ontario, committed. Crucial funding also came from Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Societe Radio-Canada and Germany’s Arte/ZDF.

Other backers included Knowledge Network, the Indigenous Screen Office, Canada Media Fund, and the Rogers Group of Funds and Telefilm Canada, while the project received tax credits from the Quebec and federal Canadian incentive programmes.

Production began in the summer of 2020 and continued, off and on, until 2023. The pandemic complicated early location filming – and “added a lot to the costs,” Bainbridge confirms – with shoots in some small Native American communities having to be postponed because of curfew and quarantine rules.

As well as shooting in Canadian locations such as Ojibwe country in the south and the Inuit territory of Nunavut, the production visited Navajo areas in the US southwest and the lands of the Iroquois Confederacy in upstate New York, as well as the cities of New York and Boston.

There were also international shoots in Paris and Germany. The latter trip yielded a 12-minute sequence (only included in the film’s European cut) in which Diamond spends time with German weekend hobbyists, who, inspired by the work of 19th century author Karl May, like to dress and camp out as period Native Americans. The hobbyists, says Bainbridge, “were nervous, and wondering if they could do the things that they were doing. They wanted some guidance on it”.

The sequence is typical of the measured, often witty approach that the film takes towards sensitive subject matter like the use of stereotypical Native American mascots in US sport and the appropriation of Indigenous art and imagery by fashion designers.

“One of the things we’re known for is not shaming people,” says Bainbridge of how she and Diamond persuaded some non-Indigenous participants to appear in the film or co-operate with the production. “We were able to convince people that we were going to tell them a story about what they were doing that not even they were aware of. We shift away from shame towards the beauty of Indigenous influence. It’s not about wagging your finger at people, it’s more about trying to understand where all of this comes from.”

Diamond, whose narration and easygoing on-screen manner balance out the film’s weightier sections and expert talking heads, puts his attitude down to growing up in the Waskaganish First Nation community of remote Northern Quebec.

“When I was younger,” the Cree filmmaker says, “I was kind of flattered when I’d see sports team logos or people dressing up wanting to be ‘Indian’. And in a way I guess I still am. I’m not angry or anything; I’m more amused by it. And the reason is, where I come from our history is quite different from what happened in, say, the southern part of the continent or in western Canada. Our culture is still really strong.”

He adds, “But I do feel for the native people who’ve lost a lot. I can see why they’re angry when they see their culture being demeaned in that way.”

Red Fever premieres on May 1.