DreamKeeper
Tags: storytelling

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with Eagle Boy, a young man who is on a vision quest. It then cuts to the present, where a 17-year-old Lakota named Shane Chasing Horse is living on the Pine Ridge reservation. He is in trouble because he owes some money to a local gang—money he used to buy a beautiful ring for Mae Little Wounded, a girl he likes. Meanwhile, his mother asks him to drive his grandfather, Pete Chasing Horse, a storyteller, down to the powwow. Shane is reluctant. However, when the gang comes after him, Shane changes his mind and heads out to the powwow with his grandfather, who agrees to give him his truck once they reach the powwow. Grandfather tells Shane the story of a young Lakota man who tries to win the hand of Bluebird Woman. He also tells the story of how a thunder spirit falls in love with a Mohawk woman and brings her up into the ethereal world of Sky Woman, and of how she raised their son back in her village until he was struck by one of the villagers and brought back to live with his father.
Later, when a young redheaded man who is eager to learn about Native culture and hoping to be adopted by a Native American family asks to ride with them to the powwow, Shane says no. His grandfather then tells him the Kiowa story of Tehan, a white man who lived among the Kiowa and fought bravely alongside them, and Shane relents and lets the redhead ride with them. Shane’s grandfather then tells how Eagle Boy follows the advice of a shining spirit elk, and seeks out an old woman who can give him weapons with which to slay the mighty serpent Uncegila. He is repulsed when the ugly old woman embraces him, but reacts quite differently when she transforms into a beautiful younger woman. She reproaches him, but gives him what he needs. Eagle Boy slays Uncegila, whose heart instructs him and grants him great power and prophetic visions.
Eventually, the gang members who are after Shane catch up with them, but accidentally drive their car off a cliff and into the Rio Grande River while chasing him. Shane dives in and saves them, and his struggle is contrasted with Eagle Boy’s underwater battle with Uncegila. The gang members ride with them for a ways, until they and the redheaded hitchhiker leave them in order to travel with a group of attractive young women who are also headed to the powwow.
As they travel, Shane’s grandfather tells Shane many other stories: several are about the trickster Coyote and Iktomi the spider. Another is about a young Pawnee man and his mother who are scorned by the rest of their tribe until the young man finds an unwanted dun pony who brings them good medicine. As Shane and his grandfather look up at the stars, the grandfather tells the story of the Quillwork Girl and her seven star brothers, which is about a Cheyenne girl who puts her faith in a dream and searches for seven brothers, but who must then contend with the Buffalo nation. The next story is about a young Chinook woman who sacrifices herself in order to cure her village of a terrible sickness, and the next is about a young Blackfoot hunter who cannot let go of the memory of his father.
Shane and his grandfather continue their journey, losing their truck along the way and continuing on horseback and on foot. The two become closer. However, it then turns out that Shane’s grandfather has led them not to the powwow but to Shane’s father’s (Sam Chasing Horse) trailer home. Shane is outraged and disappointed to be tricked, but is persuaded to stay the night. The next morning Shane finally makes peace with his estranged father. However, he then becomes grief-stricken when he discovers that his grandfather had meanwhile died in his sleep. Shane decides to continue on to the powwow on horseback, and his father says that when Shane comes home he’ll be there too. The ending of Eagle Boy’s story is revealed: Eagle Boy decides that he wants to live like other men, and disobeys the heart by revealing it to the entire tribe (to whom it appears to be nothing more than an ordinary stone). At the powwow, Shane takes on the role of a storyteller, and children gather around him to listen.

Review: SO glad to see a movie true to the people it depicts!!!.
As a Native American I hate movies that play out the old "cowboys and Indians" theme, which severely limited the "indian" movies I would watch.
I am SO GLAD to FINALLY see a movie that shows Native Americans as we are in real life rather than the traditional depiction as scalp-seeking-savages, tells our stories, and shows how life on the reservation truly is today.
I think it is very important to have movies like this to help dissolve a lot of racial stereotypes, and share our legends with the newer generation.
I was amazed when I saw the depictions of stories I had actually heard as a child, growing up in Tahlequah Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation Capitol.
We watched this instead.After having seen as many movies as I (who hardly does anything else) this was a very welcome break from the monotony of the standard portrayal of the native americans.
I am not a native american (or even american, I'm european) but still it was very nice to get to see "the other side of the story".
Next to the story I need to applaud the many outstanding performances by the actors and actresses, of which regretably none so far is well known.
Also to be noted is some exceptional cinematography combined with great special effects (for a TV movie).Great story, which has something to say.
This film is, by far, one of the most thoughtful, authentic andentertaining films related to the Native American experience andstorytelling that I have ever seen.
Few people know that there areover 500 different Native tribes in North America alone.
It combines stories from tendifferent tribes related to love, courage and redemption.
Yesterday i bought the movie the Dreamkeeper because the little scenes i saw on TV during a commercial interested me a lot.
In this story a boy from the Lakota Sioux tribe has problems because he has a quilt with an Indian gang.
His grandfather wants to visit the powwow, which is a meeting between all kinds of tribes from the USA, in which the dances and traditions will be shared.
During the trip his grandfather starts to tell him stories which form the base of the movie.
During the stories you enter a time of legends and fantasies but with every story the grandfather is teaching the grandson a lesson in life.
This story really impressed me and i enjoyed it a lot, also because i am very interested in Indian tribes.
This movie deserves a 9 out of 10 because i kept my attention for the full 3 hours it took, in one word beautiful and well done..
In South Dakota, in an Indian reservation, an old storyteller Indian (August Schellenberger) asks his grandson Shane (Eddie Spears), who is in trouble owing money to some bad guys, to take his old pony and him to Albuquerque to the great powwow, an Indian meeting.
While traveling, Grandpa tells mysterious Indian tales of love, friendship and magic and brings his grandson back to the Indian traditions and culture.What a great surprise was watching "Dreamkeeper"!
Released on VHS in Brazil, with 167 minutes running time, it is composed by several wonderful mystical Indian tales, with gods, spirits, enchanted horse, evil serpent in a lake, all of them connected through the narrative of the Grandpa to his grandson and with the support of excellent cast and special effects.
This feel-good film is a must-see entertainment for the whole family.
A great story, great acting, great cinematography, and so true in every detail.
This movie was the most phenomenal movie I have ever watched in my life .It was a movie I could watch over and over again,It really touched my heart and soul and also brought me closer to my heritage I too am native American and proud of it .The story and talented actors will remain in my heart forever.This movie is not just a one person movie or for one to relate to.Everything about this movie was absolutely breathtaking from the scenery,plots, clothing and again the actors and the story line .It also taught me a few lessons about my family and the things they have taught me over the years .also with now owning the movie I now own the soundtrack and listen to that just as much.It does my heart good to see how there are many others that feel about the movie just as I do ..
Great Indian TV movie.
Great Indian TV movie.
Great performances from almost all of both young and older Hollywood Native American actors/actresses.
It's too bad that most of the general public doesn't know these guys's names from Adam but they are all great perfomances in this tele-film.
Very cool Native American mythology stories & I'm always into films with the great Eddie Spears and Michael Greyeyes.
Hopefully, one day Hollywood will have a great well-known Native American actor/actress & then hopefully never again will they use Asian,Polynesian or Hispanic actors to play American Indians again.
Thankfully, as far as i could tell this film stayed true to the storyline and stories & made sure that they had authentic full to half-blooded American Indian actors.
They did a great job with this movie.
Alot of care was put in to ensure authenticity and accuracy, from identifying each tribe with their sacred stories and proper language use to ensuring costumes were correct for tribes and time periods, even down to including the "wannabe" character who tags along through part of the plot.
Alcoholism, drug abuse and gang violence make rez life as dangerous as the toughest big city neighborhoods of New York and LA.This film took several months to produce and employed thousands of Native Americans, from actors and actresses to extras, film crew members and laborers.The special effects accurately portray imagery of spirit characters without getting engrained in fantasia and the typical new-agey romanticized look-and-feel that some recent Indian movies have (say "Dances with Wolves")..
How can I get a DVD or VHS copy of this movie?
I want to save this movie and watch it again.
Like the line from the L.A. Times TV Times Commentary on Dreamkeeper says, "A lot of our elders are passing, and when they pass, people like myself and like my little sister will need to keep the stories alive.
DreamKeeper is one of the movies that will accompany you forever.
It contains today and yesterday and helps the understanding of the true history of the American Indian.
So you melt into wonderful pictures and stories given from the grandfather to his grandson being on their way to a meeting of all nations.
The intertwining of the genres(road movie, drama, tales) is very well made and John Fusco did another great job with the creation of the script.
The actors have been well chosen and you feel that they are not just acting in a movie they are truly concerned and giving you their story.
Behind all is a message not only for the Indians to again respect more their ancestry and live it but to the 'white people' as well.
every time i see the movie..tears come into my eyes.....
The movie speaks for itself and I'd definitely recommend the miniseries "Into the West" as well which stars some of the same characters from Dreamkeeper.
There are no words to describe the emotion that fills within me when thinking about the lives of American Indians.
To me they should be regarded as the "super-race" for the sheer fact that they, along with the Buffalo, after being not only marginalized, tokenized, robbed, and yes, decimated almost to literal extinction (remember, even the kids and babies were shot by the U.S. army), they, into the new millennium are still here and their numbers have increased (as of the year 2000 there are about 2 and 1/2 million Native Americans alive today).
The good note is that films such as these shed light on the true nature of the Indigenous American as well as expose the inhumane and inhuman treatment (which exists TO THIS DAY) that they have endured on soil that belonged and by human rights still belongs to them.
A progressive people's movement, which already exists, although pathetically fragmented since 9/11, needs to come together and at the center of it needs to be the will of the Native American, even spearheaded and centered around them.
A cerebral and visual feast of Native American myths !.
Creative use of modern film editing to bring the supernatural to realistic visions.The importance of passing on the ancient Native American stories from one generation to the next..
I can't wait for it to be available on DVD so I can enjoy it without all the commercials.I was familiar with some of the legends but not all of them.
Great collection of traditional American mythologies.
I enjoyed the main thread which was used to connect the myths of various American tribes, and how the stories were shared.
And of course I was thrilled to see Native Americans playing each of the appropriate roles--as well as how they briefly touched on the realities of tribal life (though this aspect was quite rightly very brief, as this was not the focus of the film).
I for one, would really enjoy this expanded into a whole series.I had to mark my rating lower than I wanted to, due to poor production values and areas that didn't quite hand together as they should have given the clever way the stories were tied together--but I would rate it as a solid 7.5 rather than just a 7 (yet it wasn't quite an 8 either).
Those few films pass on truths in beguiling, entrancing story forms....about gods, God, nature spirits, fairies, harmonious ways of living, our spirituality, deeply rooted strength of character and societal responsibility.
The true target audiences are our subconscious minds which inevitably are positively affected by the images shown in the films (or by the imagined images in the minds of people to whom the stories are being verbally told)."Dreamkeeper" is one such film which comes from Native American traditions (another would be "Pathfinder" from the Lapp people of Norway).
Then I can show it to my 10 year-old daughter whom the Great Spirit has given me the responsibility of teaching about the seen and the unseen, the physical and the metaphysical (or the real and the more real).Which other films have you seen which perform this shamanic duty for us?.
Simply Amazing those are the only two words I can think of at this time to describe this film.
Some of this movie was filmed near where I live and it is neat to recoginse faces and scenes in a movie.It's pretty amazing to see how similar different tribes stories are.
I found the Gary Farmer (Spider) Story was very similar to a childrens tale that the elders on our reserve tell to the children around here.
Though different events it is the same story.I'd recommend this film to anyone that I can, it is highly entertaining and gives a great view of what really matters in life.
Wonderful Story telling and the laughs in it are really cute..
Excellent story, scenery, characters and acting.
It really opened my eyes to different Native American people and customs.
Years ago I read and enjoyed the fiction, series books about Native Americans by Paul Joseph Lederer.
Dreamkeeper helped me visualize Native American life.
When this movie is available for sale I want to buy and put in our DVD library..
Dreamkeeper shocked me with wonder when I saw it on regular ABC TV a few years ago...
I love Native American culture and philosophy.
DREAMKEEPER has really done the job of giving the Native American USA message.
How great that an international group of artists have given me this wonderful gift of joy and power.I love that Native Americans have commented on the film and were depicted in such a wonderful manner..
Totally gripping; the story weaves between ancient myths and legends and present day reality.
The characters are engaging, the acting is great, and the special effects are phenomenal.I was reminded what special effects are really for - used right, they really bring a story to life, enhance it, engage your imagination and convey more than could be done any other way.This film stayed with me for days.
Great movie.
I have watched it many times, & everyone I've shown it to has loved it also.
It's an incredible story portraying Native American legends, and also shows the struggle that modern day Native American teens go through when trying to find their identity.
Anyone with an interest in history or Native American culture should watch this movie!!
Along the way, the grandpa, who is a story keeper, uses the stories of a few different tribes to teach his grandson and encourage him to choose the right path in life.
The stories come to life in this movie...
This also teaches some really good lessons, besides the ones in the stories.
It also shows some current problems today with the native American culture.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in learning more about the native American culture and about oral history..
The tales from many nations were told, and were the focus of the movie.
A perfect family movie that keeps everyone entertained.
The next best thing to hearing these stories yourself from the dreamkeeper would be to see this movie.
The first 10 minutes of the movie seems awkward, but the story gets better.
DREAMKEEPER is a beautiful and powerful film.Shane, a 17-year-old Lakota Sioux who owes money to loan sharks and has all sorts of other troubles on his mind, travels with his 87-year-old grandfather from their South Dakota reservation to an inter-tribal pow-wow in Albuquerque, NM.
Along the way, Grandfather spins a number of old myths and tales from the Lakota, Cheyenne, Mohawk, Kiowa, Blackfoot, Chinook-Salish, and several other tribes that teach Shane a great deal about how to approach this life and what follows it.
The myths themselves are wonderfully played-out in realistic non-animated fashion, and the 180-minute film is evenly divided between Shane & Grandpa and the stories Grandpa tells.
The costume design and settings in the myth sequences are as good or better than those in even the very best western films: DREAMKEEPER truly puts you among the Indians.
Amazing special effects too.This film could have turned out really sappy, but despite the Hallmark, it's not.
I am a European and white and feel that this story / these stories, while Native American in origin and tradition, have something of enormous value to teach all of us.
I am very interested in the history of the Native American Indian and I found this DVD to be a profound and moving record.
I know I will Play this film over and over again and each time will find something new..
Enjoy seeing movies about old Native American stories.
I considered this a great film !!
I would hope the Native American youngsters and everyone of all races to see this film and learn a little of the Native American life.
My children and parents watched this movie with me and we all enjoyed the old time stories..
It's a good day to watch Dreamkeeper.
My husband and I have been waiting and watching for this film for three-four years now.
My husband portrays the historical lifestyle of the Potowatomi in Illinois, which is where his research and study took him, so he couldn't speak to the film guys' questions about more western nations, but we were thrilled to see so many people on film sharing the stories, and teaching.
"Smoke Signals" was another really good one - it was a "sleeper" to me - I found it in the video store and took a chance, but it's one of my favorite all-time movies.
I laughed, I cried - I really liked the characters in the movie, just like this one - good storytelling.DreamKeeper needs to be followed by more strong film!
The cgi is feature-film quality and totally imaginative.The off-hand humor mixed with profound myth and storytelling is an astounding narrative device -- totally compelling!Excellent acting by the cast to boot.An overall Emmy-deserving piece of art.Must see -- WOW  !!!.
Dreamkeepers is a coup, it speaks to everyone who cares to listen about the resilience and gentle spirit of Native American Peoples.
I've not read or taken any mythology classes since college (a long time ago) but remembered many of the stories/myths from my undergraduate days.
What an excellent and powerful film (mini, if you want to be particular--but, hey...
A superb miniseries with messages that appeal, hopefully, to all persons who watch it--not just the Native American population.
The sparks of comedy are sudden, dry and brilliant; We ere laughing all night over one line: "Go sing it, then." My dad would have loved that line.Gary Farmer as the spider spirit Iktome, with his sidekick Coyote (Warner Brothers lifting him whiolecloth from First Peoples legends) showing us all how NOT to act, are like the sacred clown schticks between the serious dancing:The native/invader images of the old Bad Indian movies are flipped.
A rock speaks when the photo crew uses nothing but a flashlight beam.The stories are coming back, bringing back their values and lessons.
A rare film that shows the American Indian's point of view..
It certainly made me laugh, as well as cry, especially the end after Shane arrives at the Pow-Wow in Alberqueque & sees in the people there, some of the elements of the people in the stories that he was told by his grandfather before he died on the way, then watching him beat the drum to start the storytelling and remembering what he was like at the beginning rebelling against everyone & everything.