Re-reading Indigenous cinema: Criticism, white liberal guilt and otherness

In this paper, I will advance a critical perspective of some methodologies on appraising Indigenous films, in terms of their aesthetic as well as their cultural value. In doing this, I propose a cultural and textual approach that gives the films a context for which they can be critically understood. With a heavy emphasis on the political content of many Indigenous films, here I argue for a more critical pedagogical evaluation that considers the challenges of Indigenous films and problems that arise when we ignore to discuss them as 'cinema'. Through surveying a number of recent Indigenous films, and the criticism that surrounds them, I concentrate on how they can be better used as texts to enhance the study of world cinema and cultural issues of Aboriginality.