Dennis Banks to Attend "A Good Day to Die" Film Screening in Germany

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Entertainment. Discussion »

INDIANER INUIT

STUTTGART, GERMANY - Dennis Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement, will attend the film screening of "A Good Day to Die" in Stuttgart, Germany.

The award-winning "A Good Day to Die" will make its European debut during the INDIANER INUIT: Das Nordamerika Filmfestival from January 19 - 22 at the Treffpunkt Rotebühlplatz (VHS Stuttgart).

The film festival is being held under the motto BETWEEN TRADITION AND MULTIMEDIA LIFE and under the patronage of UNICEF in Stuttgart, the American Indian Film Institute and Festival in San Francisco as well as the International Aboriginal Film Festival DreamSpeakers in Edmonton, Canada.

It is the first and only of its kind in Europe. After a great start in 2004 it is held every 2 years. INDIANER INUIT: Das Nordamerika Filmfestival is based on the cooperation of the Volkshochschule (Community College), the Linden-Museum (National Museum of Ethnology), the James Byrnes Institute - all located in Stuttgart - and the University of Konstanz. The overall artistic direction is provided by Gunter Lange - Media Arts Cultural Events.

In 1973, Dennis Banks was the leader of the protest movement on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota against the corrupt Tribal President Dick Wilson that led to the 71-days siege of Wounded Knee the same year.

Also in 1973, the American Indian Movement protested under Banks' leadership in Custer, South Dakota a court sentence which acquitted a white man of killing a Native American. As a result, Dennis Banks was arrested and tried in 1975, along with 300 Native American activists. He was convicted of inciting riots in Custer, and to escape the prison and the prosecution by the FBI, he went into hiding. He and his family first found refuge in California, and later in the Onondaga Reservation, New York.

In 1987, Dennis Banks was called to Uniontown, Kentucky where grave robbers were caught, looting Native American graves for treasures. He organized reburial ceremonies. Due to his activities the states of Kentucky and Indiana passed strict laws against the desecration of graves.

In 2006, Dennis Banks organized the Sacred Run from Alcatraz to Washington. Some of the participants even came from Japan, Australia, Ireland as well as Canada.

Lynn Salt, Choctaw, and David Mueller co-produced the film.

The festival is seen as a form of international understanding and cultural dialogue. In addition to cinema it offers viewers the opportunity to personally meet the indigenous filmmakers and to discuss their work with them. Film screenings for school classes, cultural programs and educational training are important components of the festival.

Media centers will receive recommendations for rental films of high educational value, which are ideal for use in the classroom.

It already emerges that the festival with increasing popularity will attract even more people from all over Europe. This unique film and cultural event underlines the character of Stuttgart as a cosmopolitan, internationally interwoven and inter-cultural trendsetting city.

posted November 2, 2011 8:30 am edt