Last Updated on April 12, 2025
Red Fever is a witty and entertaining documentary about the profound Indigenous influences on Western culture and identity, from sport and fashion, to politics and the environmental movement.
Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond has encountered many people in various countries who are completely enamored of Native people. The deluge of questions and reactions he receives about the Native experience prompts him to wonder “Why do they love us so much?” Red Fever follows Diamond on a journey to the four corners of North American and to Europe to find out why the world is so fascinated with the stereotypical imagery of Native people that remains widespread across pop culture.
In the realm of fashion, there has been institutionalized appropriation of Native garb into what is considered “western” or “Americana”, while indigenous designers are only now starting to get their due. In sports, Native mascots are widespread, but few understand that their use is derived from the Carlisle Indians football team, who, along with star athlete Jim Thorpe, popularized sports as mass entertainment, and evolved the game of football with cunning innovations. In politics, though Western culture considers modern democracy’s origins to be in Greece, the film highlights the Haudenosaunee Confederacy as the oldest continuous democracy in the world, far surpassing modern Western democracies’ capacity for gender rights and citizen well-being, and key to inspiring American revolutionaries. Red Fever concludes by considering land stewardship and the Native traditions that offer a path forward towards living responsibility on the planet.
Why have Indigenous cultures been revered, romanticized, and appropriated for so long, and to this day? Red Fever highlights the tragic ironies of this ubiquitous and rampant appropriation while Native peoples were forced to assimilate, and uncovers the fascinating truths and history so entrenched in the global cultural imaginary.
Visit the film’s official website: redfeverfilm.com
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