List of films featuring colonialism

Colonialism in the cinema has been the subject of many books and essays. Stereotyping, distortion, imagistic mistreatment, assimilationism and caricatural visions of colonies have been practiced in this type of cinema. Before 1960 most colonialism films were made with narratives constructed from the point of view of the colonizing nationals. During the era of colonialism, many European governments funded film projects which involved their overseas colonies; either for instructional purposes for individuals living in colonies or to support colonialism in general. The United States' settler colonialism resulted in the American westward expansion which led to the establishment of the so-called Western genre, which dealt with many colonialist topics; these have been subverted in Revisionist Westerns, which came about during a re-evaluation of the genre in the 1960s.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

In June 2022, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a formal written apology to actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather in relation to the management of her appearance on behalf of Marlon Brando to decline an Academy Award. In 1973, Sacheen declined the best actor award on Brando's behalf "...in recognition of the misrepresentation and mistreatment of Native American people by the film industry..."[12]

## List of colonialism-related films

[edit]

The following is an alphabetical list of films and series that feature or relate to colonialism.

Film  | Year  | Description

|
|

Adwa | 1999  | In 1896, Ethiopia defeats an Italian army bent on conquest and colonization at the Battle of Adwa.
African's Black Star: The Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah | 2011 | Film about the rise and fall of Ghana's colonial liberation leader Kwame Nkrumah.
Africa Addio | 1966  | Documentary about the end of the colonial era in Africa, and the violence and chaos that followed.
Afrique 50 | 1950  | Film about colonization in Ivory Coast during French rule.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God | 1972 | Film by Werner Herzog, based on the journey of Spanish explorer Lope de Aguirre during his 16th-century attempts to conquer what is now Peru.
An American Genocide | 1999 | ABC Australia-produced film about the genocide of Mayan nations in Guatemala. Video.
Amistad | 1997  | About a slave revolt in 1839 by Mende captives, who had been captured and sold to European slave traders, and illegally transported by a Portuguese ship from West Africa to Cuba. Two Spanish plantation owners, bought 53 captives, including four children, in Havana, Cuba, and were transporting them on the ship Amistad to their plantations in Cuba.
Amigo | 2010  | Events in the Philippines in 1900 during the Philippine–American War.
Another Country | 2015 | Examines how a traditional way of life has been disrupted by Australia, and the consequences that has had for the Yolngu people.
The Australian Dream | 2019  | Featuring Australian Football League (AFL) player Adam Goodes, the film examines Australian Aboriginal identity and racism in modern Australia.
Baler | 2008 | Set in the late 19th century, this historical fiction is based on the siege of Baler, a colonial Spanish military base by Filipino revolutionaries.
Bamako | 2006  | The film about the relation between historical colonization and African issues including a trial and debt.
Barkskins | 2020  | Colonial French and English, and Indigenous peoples enter conflict in New France.
The Battle of Algiers | 1966 | An Italian-Algerian film covering the struggle for decolonization in French Algeria in the context of the Battle of Algiers.[13]
Beans | 2020 | It explores the 1990 Oka Crisis at Kanesatake a Mohawk settlement in southwestern Quebec, Canada.
Beatriz's War | 2013  | During the Indonesian occupation, a young East Timorese woman named Beatriz struggles.[14]
Bengal Shadows | 2018 | This 50-minute featurette is a film on the causes of the Bengal famine of 1943 during the period of British rule in India.
Berlin 1885: The Division of Africa | 2010  | A drama about the Scramble for Africa.
Between Two Worlds: The Story of Gonzalo Guerrero | 2012 | Film based on the life of Spanish soldier Gonzalo Guerrero and his transition to fight on the side of colonized Mayas.
The Birth of a Nation | 1915 | An American drama film that depicts African Americans in a negative light and glorified the Ku Klux Klan. Despite its controversy and protests by activists, the film was a commercial success.
The Birth of a Nation | 2016 | Based on the life of Nat Turner, a former slave in America, who leads a liberation movement to free African Americans in Virginia that results in a violent retaliation from whites.[15]
Bitter Springs | 1950  | An Australian pioneer family in the Australian outback in 1900 has problems with local Aboriginal people arise over the possession of a waterhole.
Black and White in Color | 1976  | French colonists in Africa enter World War 1 with help of locals against Germans in a neighbouring colony.
Black Robe | 1991 | Based on the fictional novel of the same name. Set in the 17th century, it depicts the adventures of a Jesuit missionary tasked with founding a mission in New France.
Blood of the Condor | 1969  | Forced sterilization to prevent births amongst Indigenous Bolivians.
The Book of Negroes | 2015 | A Canadian television series based on the book of the same name. The series deals with the experiences of Black Loyalists during the Revolutionary War.
Bounty | 2021  | Members of the Penobscot Nation in Maine present the difficult history of around 70 cases of government-endorsed scalping of Indigenous people.[16] Video link
55 Days in Peking | 1963  | The Boxers oppose the westerners in China in an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian movement.
Brave New Land | 2000  | Portuguese colonial lives in 18th century Brazil.
Burn! | 1969 | An agent provocateur is sent to the fictional island of Queimada, a Portuguese colony in the Caribbean to replace the Portuguese administration by a formally sovereign state controlled by white latifundistes friendly to the British government. To realize this project, the agent persuades the black slaves to fight for their liberation from slavery.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee | 2007 | A film about the history of Indigenous peoples in the American West in the 1860s and 1870s, focusing upon the transition from traditional ways of living to living on reservations.
Cabeza de Vaca | 1991 | Mexican film about the explorations of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in the New World. He was one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition.
Camp de Thiaroye | 1989 | Senegalese film about the struggle for decolonization in French Senegal depicting the Thiaroye massacre. The film was banned in France for a decade and censored in Senegal as well.[17]
A Captain's Honor | 1982  | A courtroom-drama about a dead French Algeria Captain whose memory is publicly accused by a historian.
Catch a Fire | 2006  | A film about Patrick Chamusso andt activists against apartheid in South Africa.
Ceddo | 1977  | The film is set in the 17th century, and focuses on the conflict between traditional African customs and encroaching foreign cultures. It analyses the multi-dimensional reactions of African traditionalists to the advent of Islam, Christianity, and colonialism.
Chittagong | 2012  | Based upon events of the Chittagong armoury raid in British India.
Chocolat | 1988  | The daughter of a French colonial administrator befriends a servant in French Cameroon.
El Cimarron | 2007 | Based on the life of Marcos Xiorro who conspired and planned a slave revolt in Puerto Rico in 1821 against the Spanish Empire.
Clive of India | 1935  | Historical biographical film about the life of Robert Clive.
Cobra Verde | 1987  | A criminal called Cobra Verde is paid by a plantation owner, but Cobra Verde is sent to Africa and his fortunes change.
Columbus in America | 2018 | A film about the controversy in America surrounding the life of Christopher Columbus, an Italian official commissioned by the Spanish Crown to find an alternate commercial route to Asia by travelling West. Commentators challenge traditional representations of Christopher Columbus, bringing issues of imperialism, colonialism, racism, greed, religion, and human rights into focus.
Concerning Violence | 2014  | About the African independence movements in the 1960s and 1970s.[18]
The Convert | 2023  | A preacher arrives at a British settlement in New Zealand in the 1830s.
Cousins | 2021  | At a young age, an Indigenous child is sent to a residential school. There, she is renamed and grows up ignorant of her Māori culture, language, and family.
Cry Freedom | 1986 | The film centres on the real-life events involving black activist Steve Biko and his friend Donald Woods.
Dispute in Valladolid | 1992 | A French telefilm about the Valladolid debate in which European authorities debated whether Indigenous peoples had a soul.
Doctrine of Recovery | 2022  | Three generations of First Nations' women speak to the ongoing destructive formula patterned by the Discovery Doctrine.
Dances with Wolves | 1990 | Fictional story of a Union soldier travelling to the American frontier and his interactions with Indigenous peoples.
Days of Glory | 2006 | French film about the contribution of colonial French North Africa's soldiers during the Second World War.
Dawn of the Damned | 1966  | French-shot film footage of their tortures, massacres and executions of Algerians.
The Descendants | 2011  | A Honolulu-based attorney and the sole trustee of a family trust of 100 km2 of pristine land on Kauai.
El Despojo | 2004  | A film about the Mapuche Indians of Chile and their struggle for self-determination.
Diamond City | 1949  | In 1870s South Africa, Englishman Stafford Parker tries to persuade Boer leader Jan Bloem to hand over control of a potential diamond field.
The Drum | 1938  | The film about British rule in India was well received in Britain but caused protests when shown in Bombay and Madras.
Elephant Walk | 1954  | A colonial tea planter takes a wife to the plantation house built by his father in Ceylon.
Embrace of the Serpent | 2015  | Two explorers traveled through the Amazon and saw the effects of colonialism on the indigenous cultures they encountered.
The Emigrants | 1971 | A Swedish film depicting poor Swedes who emigrate in the mid-19th century and claim land in Minnesota, USA.
Emitai | 1971 | A 1971 Senegalese drama film directed by Ousmane Sembène set with the Vichy government conscripting men from France's colonies.
Epitaph | 2015 | On the orders of Hernan Cortés, three Spanish soldiers travel to the Popocatepetl volcano with the task of looking for sulfur necessary for the war. The conquerors will face their fears on the journey in an inhospitable territory.
Eureka Stockade | 1949  | British film of the story surrounding Irish-Australian rebel and politician Peter Lalor and the gold miners' rebellion of 1854 at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Victoria.
Everything is connected | 2022 | The film tells the story of five Sixties Scoop survivors – 4 women and 1 man – all of whom had someone close to them become either missing or murdered. The film points to the inter-generational trauma of colonialism, residential schools, and the Sixties Scoop as forces that connect all of these tragedies Video.
Eye for Eye | 1918 | An American drama film set in the colonial Sahara Desert involving a Bedouin woman with a colonial French captain.
Exterminate All the Brutes | 2021 | The four-part series follows colonization and multiple genocides, and the effect of both, alongside imperialism and white supremacy. Based on the book Exterminate All the Brutes by Sven Lindqvist, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, and Silencing the Past by Michel-Rolph Trouillot.[19]
Faces of colonialism | 2023  | Robert Lohmeyer is a photographer who captured the first color photographs of Togo, Cameroon, German Southwest Africa and German East Africa in a way that promoted colonialism.[20]
Farewell to the King | 1989 | A 1989 American fiction adventure drama film starring Nick Nolte in which an American deserter becomes the leader of a head-hunting tribe of Dayaks.
Farha | 2021  | Film about a Palestinian girl's coming-of-age experience during the Nakba, the 1948 displacement of Palestinians from their homeland.
First Charge of the Machete | 1969  | Cuban peasants rebel against Spanish Cuba in the late 19th century.
Fitzcarraldo | 1982 | It portrays would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who is determined to transport a steamship over a steep hill to access a rich rubber territory in the Amazon Basin. The film is derived from the historic events of Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald and his real-life feat of transporting a disassembled steamboat over the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald.
Five Fingers For Marseilles | 2017  | A rebellious character returns to a colonial town in South Africa after fleeing police aggression two decades before, and finds the town under a new threat.
The Flood | 2020  | An Aboriginal woman raised on a Christian mission in Australia seeks revenge.
Follow the River | 1995  | A film surrounding events after the Draper's Meadow Massacre of 1755.
The Four Feathers | 1939 | A British film about the story of a young British private during the Sudan campaign of 1898 of the Mahdist War.
Four Men and a Prayer | 1938  | A British Army Officer, is cashiered in India following accusations of dereliction of duty.
Fort Apache | 1948  | Film starring John Wayne in which the American army battles with Indigenous nations, inspired by the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fetterman Fight.
Fort Saganne | 1984  | A European soldier of humble beginnings who volunteers for service in the Sahara in 1911.
Fury at Furnace Creek | 1948  | Troops are massacred at a Furnace Creek fort in 1880 by Apache.
Ganga Zumba | 1963 | Not released until 1972 because of a military coup in Brazil, this Brazilian film highlights Ganga Zumba, a 17th-century slave revolutionary against the Portuguese Empire.
Gandhi | 1982 | A biographical film about anti-colonial nationalist and lawyer Mahatma Gandhi's involvement in the Indian liberation movement.
Geronimo: An American Legend | 1993  | Events leading up to the surrender of Geronimo in 1886.
Ghosts of Amistad | 2014  | Ghosts of Amistad chronicles a trip to Sierra Leone to visit the home villages of the people who seized the slave schooner La Amistad in 1839, to interview elders about local memory of the case, and to search for the long-lost ruins of Lomboko, the slave trading factory where their cruel transatlantic voyage began.[21] Video
Give Us Our Skeletons | 1999  | Following the 1852 Kautokeino rebellion against the Norwegian government.
Gold | 2017 | Spanish historical drama film directed by Agustín Díaz Yanes. The film is based on a short story by Arturo Pérez-Reverte and depicts a 16th century Spanish expedition during the Colonization of the Americas aiming at locating El Dorado. It is loosely inspired on expeditions by conquistadors Lope de Aguirre and Nuñez de Balboa.
Gold Coast | 2015  | In 1836 a Danish man travels to Africa to create plantations on the Danish Gold Coast.
GomBurZa | 2023  | A Philippine film about three secular priests falsely accused of inciting a anti-colonial insurrection put on a show trial and executed by strangulation during the era of Spanish imperial rule.
The Great Indian Wars | 1991  | A video series about the encroachment of European settlers upon Indigenous lands and their reaction in their struggle to survive.
Gunga Din | 1939 | This American film is a fictional story about three British Indian Army officers who fight the Thuggee, an Indian cult, in British India.
Haiti: The Way of Freedom | 1975  | The fight of the Haitian Indigenous and enslaved people for their freedom from European rule.
Headline Today: Guatemala | 1983  | A documentary about the Civil War in Guatemala from Finnish television presented by two US reporters.
Heart of Darkness | 1993 | A film based on the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad about a narrated voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State by an Ivory trader.
Heart of Whiteness | 2006 | South African filmmaker Rehad Desai travels to Orania in the Northern Cape, to investigate what it means to be white in the new South Africa.
Hernan Cortes, A Man between God and the Devil | 2016  | Biographical film about Hernan Cortes who invaded and destroyed Tenochtitlan with assistance of the rivals of the Aztecs.
Hidalgo: The story never told | 2010 | A Mexican film about the life of Mexico's liberation from Spanish colonial rule leader Miguel Hidalgo.
Hostiles | 2017 | An American revisionist Western film about a story between a US army official and a few members of Indigenous peoples within North America.
The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived | 1974  | A story of colonialism and the struggle for liberation in Oman.
How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman | 1971 | A fictional story set in 16th century Brazil where rival French and Portuguese settlers are utilizing the Indigenous people as allies in their struggle to establish control.
Human Zoo: The Final Journey of Calafate | 2011 | At the end of the 19th century, four groups of Indigenous people (a total of 25 people, from infants to the elderly) were taken from Chile by a German businessman and were shown as animals in different fairs and public exhibitions in several Europeans cities.
Independencia | 2009  | Three generations of a family who flees American colonization and tries to survive in the jungle.
The Indian Wars: Change of Worlds | 2007  | A six part video series journeys back through history to the battles from the first settlements to the last massacre that created a change of worlds as the United States stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
If Only I Were That Warrior | 2015 | A look at the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1935. Following the construction of a monument dedicated to Fascist general Rodolfo Graziani, the film addresses the unpunished war crimes he and others committed in the name of Mussolini's imperial ambitions.
In My Country | 2004 | The film is centred around the story of Afrikaner poet Anna Malan and an American journalist sent to South Africa to report about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
Indian Horse | 2017 | The film centres on Saul Indian Horse, a young Canadian First Nations boy who survives the Canada's Indian residential school system to become a star ice hockey player.[22][23][24][25]
Ishi, The Last Yahi | 1993  | In the early 1900s, Ishi, the last of the Yahi Indian nation in California, is discovered nearly 20 years after the Yahi tribe was thought to be wiped out.[citation needed]
Jedda | 1955  | Jedda is an Aboriginal girl born on a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Ka Whawhai Tonu | 2024  | The siege of Ōrākau in 1864 during the New Zealand Wars from the perspective of the Māori.
Kalushi | 2016 | A story based on true events about Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, a nineteen-year-old that goes into self-exile following the 1976 Soweto uprisings to join the liberation movement.
Kartini | 2017  | About Kartini a prominent Indonesian activist who advocated for women's rights in Dutch Indonesia.
Khartoum | 1966 | The film is based on historical accounts of Gordon's defence of the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdist army, during the 1884–1885 Siege of Khartoum.[26]
Killers of the Flower Moon | 2023  | A series of Indigenous murders in the Osage Nation during the 1920s, committed after oil was discovered on tribal land. Based on the 2017 non-fiction book of the same name.
Kim | 1950  | Based on the classic 1901 novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling.
King of the Khyber Rifles | 1953  | Adventures of a British military man during the British Raj.
King Leopold's Ghost | 2006  | A film about the exploitation of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium.
King Solomon's mines | 1937  | Based on the 1885 novel of the same name by Henry Rider Haggard.
The Kitchen Toto | 1988 | In Kenya in 1950, a British policeman takes a murdered black priest's son to live with him at his home as a houseboy.
Kongo: 50 years of independence of Congo | 2010  | Documentary series on the history of the Congo from the 15th century to 21st century.
Kroktoa | 2017  | An aboriginal youth is taken to serve a colonial administrator in Cape Colony.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India | 2001 | A Hindi-language musical film about a fictional colonial-era cricket competition that pits desperate but untrained villagers against an amateur but seasoned British cricket team. In the midst of a harsh drought, the stakes are a doubling or cancellation of the agricultural tax.
Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee | 1994 | The film is based on Mary Crow Dog's autobiography Lakota Woman, wherein she accounts her involvement with the American Indian Movement and relationship with Lakota medicine man and activist Leonard Crow Dog.
The Lion Has Seven Heads | 1970  | In the late 1960s, a white preacher in Africa fights a Latin American revolutionary.
Lion of the Desert | 1981 | Historical epic war film about the Second Italo-Senussi War, starring Anthony Quinn as Libyan tribal leader Omar Mukhtar, a Bedouin leader fighting the Regio Esercito (Italian Royal Army) and Oliver Reed as Italian General Rodolfo Graziani.
Little Bird | 2023  | The series centres on a First Nations woman who was adopted during the Sixties Scoop, as she attempts to reconnect with her origins.
La Llorona | 2019 | Former Guatemalan dictator and military general Enrique Monteverde (based on Efraín Ríos Montt) is convicted for directing the genocide of native Mayans in 1982–83. He is terrorized by ghosts from the past and present, and becomes ill.
The Last of the Mohicans | 1920 | An American film adapted from James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 fictional novel of the same name.
Last of the Mohicans | 1992  | Based on the 1826 novel of the same name by James Fenimore Cooper.
Last Stand in the Philippines | 1945 | Spanish biographical war film directed by Antonio Román.
The Last Supper | 1976 | A colonial plantation owner during Spanish colonial times recreates the last supper using slaves, in order to teach them about Christianity.
The Last Tasmanian: Extinction | 1980  | Tells the story of the European colonization of Tasmania and the ultimate fate of the Tasmanian people.Video
Latin History for Morons | 2018 | In this one-man Netflix show, John Leguizamo finds humor and heartbreak as he traces 3,000 years of Latin history in an effort to help his son find his identity and deal with abuse.[27]
The Liberator | 2013  | A Spanish–Venezuelan about the life of Simon Bolivar.
Little Big Man | 1970  | A white man who was raised by members of the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century and then attempts to reintegrate with American pioneer society.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer | 1935 | An American film about a group of British cavalrymen trying to defend their stronghold and headquarters at Bengal against enemy forces during the period of the British colonial rule in India.
Lousy Little Sixpence | 1983  | Film about the stolen generations in Australia.
Lumumba | 2000 | Biographical film directed by Raoul Peck. The film depicts the rise and fall of Patrice Lumumba, and is set in the months before and after Congo-Léopoldville achieved freedom from Belgium in June 1960.
Lumumba: Death of a Prophet | 1991  | Award winning film about the life of Patrice Lumumba.
A Man Called Horse | 1970  | An English aristocrat who is captured by the Sioux people.
Man to Man | 2005  | In 1860, Victorian scientists capture a pygmy couple during an expedition in Central Africa.
The Man Who Would Be King | 1975  | Two military veterans roam India during the British Raj and one of them is taken for a god by the locals, with the ensuing chaos.
Malintzin: The Story of an Enigma | 2019 | Film about the story of an Indigenous woman called Malintzin or La Malinche, who was the translator (and diplomat) of Hernán Cortés back in 1519 when his warriors started the project to conquer Tenochtitlan.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom | 2013  | A film based on the autobiographical book Long Walk to Freedom by anti-apartheid revolutionary and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Manganinnie | 1980 | An Australian film set in the Black War of 1830 in Van Diemen's Land. Manganinnie, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, survives a raid and searches for her tribe with the company of a lost white girl.
Max Havelaar | 1976  | Based on the 1860 novel Max Havelaar by Multatuli.
Meek's Cutoff | 2010  | Frontier guide Stephen Meek led a wagon train through the Oregon desert along the Meek Cutoff in the United States.
Michael Collins | 1996  | Michael Collins is a leading figure in the early-20th-century Irish struggle for independence against Britain.
Miranda Returns | 2007  | The struggle for Venezuela's independence and Francisco de Miranda in South America.
The Mission | 1986 | Based on events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, in which Spain ceded part of Jesuit Paraguay to Portugal.
Mister Johnson | 1990 | A Nigerian who works as a clerk for the British colonial civil service and adopts the style of the British colonialists in the belief that he is a true Englishman.
Mother Dao, the Turtlelike | 1995  | A film about Dutch colonialism in Indonesia during the early 20th century.
The Naked Prey | 1966  | An adventurer in colonial Africa is hunted by an angry tribe.
Namibia: Genocide and the Second Reich | 2005 | In 1904–1908, three quarters of the Herero nation and half of the Namaqua nation of the German colony of Namibia were killed in the Herero and Namaqua genocide, many in concentration camps. This BBC film tells this forgotten story and its links to German racial "theories".
Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation | 2007 | An epic film on the Namibian liberation struggle against South African occupation as seen through the life of Sam Nujoma, the leader of the South West Africa People's Organisation and the first president of the Republic of Namibia.
Neither Wolf Nor Dog | 2017 | The film was primarily shot on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which borders South Dakota and Nebraska. The film is notable for a climatic scene shot at Wounded Knee where the Wounded Knee Massacre happened in 1890. The film stars Chief Dave Bald Eagle in the lead role as a Lakota elder.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero | 2004 | A biographical film about Subhas Chandra Bose who fought for Indian independence against the British Raj by forming the Indian National Army with the help of Japan.
The New Land | 1972 | The Swedish film depicts the struggles of the European migrants to establish a settlement in North America.
The New World | 2005  | Largely fictionalized retelling of the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas.
The Nightingale | 2018 | An Australian film set in 1825 in the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania), depicting the story of an Irish woman trying to avenge her husband during the Black War.[28]
NZ Wars: Stories of Tainui | 2021  | The 1863 invasion of the Waikato in New Zealand. Video
Older than America | 2008  | A drama film about the atrocities that took place at an American Indian boarding school.
Once Upon a Time... The Americas | 1991 | A French animated TV series directed by Albert Barillé. An episode on the Spanish Golden Age was censored in Spain.
Once Were Warriors | 1997  | Award winning film that explores the effects of the colonisation of New Zealand suffered by Māori.
The Only Good Indian | 2009  | In the early 1900s, a Kickapoo youth is taken from his family and forced to attend a distant American Indian boarding school, designed to achieve to his assimilation into western society.
The Other Conquest | 2000 | The film is a drama about the aftermath of the 1520s Spanish Conquest of Mexico told from the perspective of the Indigenous Aztec people. It explores the social, religious, and economic changes brought about by a historical process of colonization that both defined the American continent.
An Outpost of Progress | 2016 | A film based on An Outpost of Progress by Joseph Conrad based upon his experiences in the Congo.
Outside the Law | 2010  | A drama about the Algerian struggle for independence from France after World War II.
The Pearl Button | 2015  | The documentary examines the fate of two persecuted groups in Chile - the indigenous peoples and the victims of Pinochet.
Pedjuang | 1961  | Film about protagonists of 1947 Indonesian war of liberation.
Plains: Testimony of an Ethnocide | 1971  | A film on the massacre of Indigenous peoples in the Colombian east plains in 1970.
Planter's Wife | 1952  | Set in the Malayan Emergency and a campaign of sustained attacks by insurgents.
El Presidente: General Emilio Aguinaldo Story and the First Philippine Republic | 2012  | Emilio Aguinaldo's efforts to coordinate colonial resistance against the Spanish.
Princess Kaiulani | 2009  | The life of Princess Kaiulani (1875–1899) of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi struggling for independence from the United States.
Quilombo | 1984 | Account of Quilombo dos Palmares, a 17th-century Brazilian community of escaped slaves within the Portuguese Empire. Features its one-time leader, Zumbi.
Rabbit-Proof Fence | 2002 | Award-winning film that illustrates the official child removal policy that existed in Australia between 1905 and 1967. Its victims now are called the "Stolen Generations".[29]
Radiance | 1998  | The story of three sisters in the context of Australia's Stolen Generations.
Rebellion | 2011  | Film about the Ouvéa cave hostage taking by Indigenous rebels.
Reclaiming History | 2024  | Documentary about the role of German and Belgian colonialism in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Red Island | 2023  | Follows a ten-year-old boy and his family stationed in a French military base in Madagascar.
Reel Bad Arabs | 2006 | A film based on the book of the same name by Jack Shaheen, which also analyzes how Hollywood misrepresents the image of Arabs. The film analyzes 1,000 films that have Arab and Muslim characters, produced between 1896 and 2000.
Remember the Children | 2022  | This film is about the children who perished at the Rapid City Indian Boarding School, one of more than 400 American Indian boarding schools. The school operated from 1898 to 1933.
The Revenant | 2015 | A member of an American frontier fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival in North America, while trying to avenge his Indigenous family.[30]
River Queen | 2005 | The film takes place in New Zealand in 1868 during Titokowaru's War phase of the New Zealand Wars between the Māori and New Zealand colonial forces.
Rhodes of Africa | 1936  | British biographical film charting the life of Cecil Rhodes.
Robinson Crusoe | 1954  | Fictional account of a castaway who spends years on a remote tropical desert island encountering cannibals before being rescued.
Romero | 1989 | A biographical film depicting the story of Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, who organized peaceful protests against the violent military regime.
RRR | 2022  | Fictional account of two Indian revolutionaries who befriend each other and fight against the British Raj.
Rhymes for Young Ghouls | 2013  | Film that takes place in the context of a reservation and a Canadian residential school.
Safari | 1956  | An American white hunter is on a safari, and Mau Mau rebels attack his farm.
Sambizanga | 1972 | A film about the colonial liberation movement in Angola against the Portuguese Empire.
Sami Blood | 2016  | A Sami youth is exposed to racism and phrenological examinations in her boarding school.
Samson and Delilah | 2009  | The film depicts two Indigenous Australian 14-year-olds living in a remote Aboriginal community.
Sanders of the River | 1935 | A British film set in Colonial Nigeria depicting the experience of a district officer.
Sarraounia | 1986  | Battle of Lougou between queen Sarraounia and the advancing French Colonial Forces of the Voulet-Chanoine Mission in 1899.
The Searchers | 1956 | An American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, set during the Texas–Indian wars, and starring John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his niece abducted by Comanches.
Seargants Three | 1962  | A remake of Gunga Din (1939).
The Secret Country: The First Australians Fight Back | 1985 | It details the persecution of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders throughout Australia's history.[31] Video
The Secret Nation | 1989  | An Indigenous man returns to his Aymara community from which he was expelled long ago.
The Seekers | 1954  | Maoris attack an English settlement in New Zealand.
Shaka Zulu | 1986  | A historical account on the life of the Zulu King Shaka.
Shangani Patrol | 1970  | A last stand fought by the British South Africa Police in the First Matabele War (1893-1894).
Shout at the Devil | 1976  | Based on a novel by Wilbur Smith which is very loosely inspired by real the sinking of the SMS Königsberg.
Simba | 1955  | A British family living in East Africa, who become embroiled in the Mau Mau Uprising.
Sitting Bull | 1954  | Depicts the war between Sitting Bull and the American forces, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Six Hours in Yogya | 1951  | Recapture of the town of Yogyakarta from Dutch forces in March 1949.
Smoke Signals | 1998  | A coming of age film set on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation in Plummer, Idaho.
The Sleeping Dictionary | 2003  | During the 1930s, British colonial officer John Truscott (Hugh Dancy) journeys to a remote village in colonial Malaysia to educate and Westernize the local Iban population.
Soldier Blue | 1970  | Inspired by events of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in the Colorado Territory, USA.
Something of Value | 1957 | It shows the colonial and native African conflict caused by colonialism and differing views on how life should be lived. It stars Rock Hudson as the colonial and Sidney Poitier as the native Kenyan. The two men grew up together but have drifted apart at maturity.
The Sons of the Great Bear | 1966 | A German revisionist Western film that turned the traditional American "Cowboy and Indian" conventions on their head, casting the Indigenous peoples as the heroes and the American Army as the villains.
Squanto: A Warrior's Tale | 1994  | Based on the life of Squanto upon the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620.
Stealing a Nation | 2004  | A 2004 film about the British–American clandestine operation that saw the expulsion of the Chagossian population who have lived on Diego Garcia and neighbouring islands.
Stolen | 2024  | A Sámi girl seeks revenge against a poacher.
Sundown | 1941  | British colonial authorities fight against fascist forces in Africa.
Sun Never Sets | 1939  | American drama film about British colonialism in Africa.
Sweet Country | 2017  | Set in 1929 in the Australian Northern Territory against the backdrop of a divided society.[32]
Tabataba | 1988  | Film about the Malagasy Uprising, a nationalist rebellion against French colonial rule in Madagascar.
The Territory | 2022  | It follows a young Indigenous leader of the Uru-eu-wau-wau people fighting back against farmers, colonizers and settlers who encroach on a protected area of the Amazon Rainforest.
Thunder Bay | 2023  | Film series about the murder of Indigenous youths in Thunder Bay, Canada.
Thunderheart | 1992  | The film is a fictional portrayal of events relating to the Wounded Knee incident in 1973.
Tjoet Nja' Dhien | 1988  | A film about Acehnese guerrilla leader Cut Nyak Dhien in conflict with the Dutch colonial army.
Toussaint Louverture | 2012 | French historical film based on the life of Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian emancipation revolution against French colonial rule.
The Tracker | 2002  | In outback Australia, a colonial policeman gets help from an Indigenous Australian tracker to locate the murderer of a Western woman.
Tula: The Revolt | 2013  | In 1795 on Curaçao, then a Dutch colony, a slave uprising takes place.[33]
Twice Colonized | 2023  | Aaju Peter is an Inuk lawyer and activist who has lived in both Greenland and Nunavut working for the enforcement of Inuit rights.
Two Mementos | 1985  | A man joins the anti-Dutch freedom movement in the 1930s.
Utopia | 2013 | Written, produced and presented by John Pilger and directed by Pilger and Alan Lowery, that explores the experiences of Aboriginal Australians in modern Australia.[citation needed][34] The title is derived from the Aboriginal homeland community of Utopia, Northern Territory. Video
Utu | 1983 | Partly inspired by events from Te Kooti's War, the film tells of a Māori scout setting out to get utu (vengeance) on colonial forces after the destroy his home village. The film is set in 1870.
Unsettled | 2021  | The series centres on a First Nations woman in Canada who was adopted during the Sixties Scoop.
Veera Puran Appu | 1978  | Film about Veera Puran Appu and the Matale rebellion in 1848 for the freedom from British.
A Very British Way of Torture | 2022 | A film about the use of torture by the British colonial administration in Kenya against the Kenya Land and Freedom Army during the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s.[35]
Viceroy's House | 2017 | A film about Lord Mountbatten and his involvement in the partition of India.
Waiting for the Barbarians | 2019  | A magistrate at an isolated outpost reevaluates his loyalty to his nation when an army colonel uses cruel tactics to interrogate the locals about a possible uprising.
Walkabout | 1971  | Two siblings are lost in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the help of an Aboriginal boy they meet on his walkabout: a ritual of his culture.
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale | 2011  | An indigenous group the Seediq people living in Taiwan find their way of life threatened.
We of the Never Never | 1982  | Jeannie, an educated woman from the upper-middle class of society, adapts to life in the outback of Australia.[36]
We Were Children | 1992 | A 2012 Canadian film about the experiences of First Nations children in the Canadian Indian residential school system.
West of Zanzibar | 1954  | A British film sequel to Where No Vultures Fly (1951).
When the Mountains Tremble | 1983  | Documentary about the war between the Guatemalan Military and the Mayan Indigenous population.
Where the Green Ants Dream | 1984  | Based on a true story about Indigenous land rights in Australia about a land feud between a mining company and the local Aboriginal people.
Where the Spirit Lives | 1989 | A 1989 television film about Aboriginal children in Canada being taken from their society to attend residential schools for assimilation into alien mainstream culture.
White Material | 2009  | A white French farmer runs a failing coffee plantation in an unnamed African country.
White Sun of the Desert | 1970 | A Russian 1970 'Eastern' or Ostern fictional film of the Soviet Union.
White Mischief | 1987  | Based upon the non-fiction book White Mischief: The Murder of Lord Erroll (1982) by James Fox.
Wildhood | 2021  | A young man is raised disconnected from his maternal Mi'kmaq heritage by his abusive white father.
The Winds of the Aures | 1966  | An Algerian widows struggles as the colonial war destroys her family.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley | 2006  | A film about the Irish War of Independence.
Zabana! | 2012  | Film about Algerian freedom fighter Ahmed Zabana.
Zama | 2017 | An Argentinian film set in the late 18th century in a remote South American colony under the Spanish Empire, and portrays the period's "naturalness of slavery".[37]
Zulu | 1964 | A 1964 British epic war film depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift between the British Army and the Zulus in January 1879.
Zulu Dawn | 1979 | A 1979 British epic war film depicting the Battle of Isandlwana between the British Army and the Zulus in January 1879.
500 Años | 2017  | Film about the trial of Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt for the Guatemalan genocide.[38]
499 | 2020  | Exploration of the legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico, 500 years after the Spanish conquest.
1491 | 2017  | Series based on best-selling book "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" by Charles C. Mann.
1492: Conquest of Paradise | 1992  | The travels of Christopher Columbus and the effect this had on Indigenous peoples in the Americas.

## See also

[edit]

* Colonial cinema
* List of films about revolution
* List of films on imperialism
* List of films featuring slavery
* List of films that depict class struggle
* Native Americans in film

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Stam, R. (1998). "Colonialism, Racism, and Representation" (with Louise Spence), in the Fifth Edition of Braudy and Cohen, eds., Film Theory and Criticism (New York: Oxford, 1998).
2. ^ Retrieved February 25, 2021 from Encyclopedia.com http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/colonialism-movies
3. ^ Slavin, David Henry. (2001) Colonial Cinema and Imperial France, 1919-1939: White Blind Spots, Male Fantasies, Settler Myths. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 300 pp. ISBN 0-8018-6616-2.
4. ^ "Colonialism on film: How cinema finds new ways to bust an old Tabu". TheGuardian.com. 26 March 2013.
5. ^ Rice, Tom (24 August 2016). "British Empire's forgotten propaganda tool for 'primitive peoples': mobile cinema". The Conversation.
6. ^ "An ugly truth: Is cinema finally facing up to Britain's colonial past?". TheGuardian.com. 29 November 2019.
7. ^ Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey; Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey, eds. (1997-10-30). The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 89\. ISBN 978-0-19-874242-5. "Documentary-type programmes continued to appeal to middle-class and genteel audiences, and performed a range of significant ideological functions. They were frequently employed as propaganda for the colonial agenda of industrialized nations. The Anglo-Boer war was extensively photographed and filmed from a British perspective in 1899–1900. After 1905 numerous films were taken in the British, French, German, and Belgian colonies of Central Africa, including Chasse a' l'hippopotame sur le Nil Bleu('Hunting hippopotamus on the Blue Nile', Pathe', 1907), Matrimonio abissino ('Abyssinian marriage', Roberto Omenga, 1908), and Leben und Treiben in Tangka ('Life and events in Tangka', Deutsche-Bioskop, 1909)."
8. ^ Lahti, Janne. 2017. “Settler Passages: Mobility and Settler Colonial Narratives in Westerns.” Journal of the West 56 (4): 67–77. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hft&AN=128157823&site=eds-live&scope=site .
9. ^ do Carmo Piçarra, Maria, Rosa Cabecinhas, and Teresa Castro. 2016. “Colonial Imaginaries: Propaganda, Militancy and ‘Resistance’ in the Cinema.” Comunicação e Sociedade 29 (2): 17–23. doi:10.17231/comsoc.29(2016).2407
10. ^ Berny, Martin (2020-04-01). "The Hollywood Indian Stereotype: The Cinematic Othering and Assimilation of Native Americans at the Turn of the 20th Century". Angles. New Perspectives on the Anglophone World (10). doi:10.4000/angles.331. ISSN 2274-2042.
11. ^ Richards, Jeffrey (2017-03-01), "Imperial heroes for a post-imperial age: Films and the end of empire", British culture and the end of empire, Manchester University Press, pp. 128–144, ISBN 978-1-5261-1962-9, retrieved 2024-01-08
12. ^ Sun, Rebecca (2022-08-15). "Academy Apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather for Her Mistreatment at the 1973 Oscars (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
13. ^ Flood, Maria (2021-10-18). "The Battle of Algiers: an iconic film whose message of hope still resonates today". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
14. ^ Maddox, Garry (2013-10-02). "Fresh start for East Timor's film scene". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
15. ^ Ebiri, Bilge; York, a film critic for New; Vulture (2016-01-26). "The Powerful, Record-Breaking The Birth of a Nation Is Uncompromising in Its Story of a Slave Uprising". Vulture. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
16. ^ "Penobscots use film to retell history of Indigenous killings". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
17. ^ Haque, Nicolas (12 November 2013). "A little-known massacre in Senegal". Al-Jazeera. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
18. ^ "Fanon documentary confronts fallacies about anti-colonial philosopher | World | The Guardian". TheGuardian.com. 2014-07-21. Archived from the original on 2014-07-21. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
19. ^ ""Exterminate All the Brutes," Reviewed: A Vast, Agonizing History of White Supremacy | The New Yorker". The New Yorker. 2021-04-09. Archived from the original on 2021-04-09. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
20. ^ Faces of colonialism: the story of an imperialist propaganda | DW Documentary, retrieved 2024-02-26
21. ^ "Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of the Rebels". Retrieved 2022-08-09.
22. ^ Peebles, Frank (February 2, 2017). "Indian Horse head to screen with local talent". Prince George Citizen. Glacier Media. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
23. ^ "About the Film". Indian Horse. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
24. ^ De Vore, Alex (February 19, 2019). "'Indian Horse' Review". Santa Fe Reporter. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
25. ^ "Opinion: review of Indian Horse film – Anishinabek News". Retrieved 2024-03-11.
26. ^ Duiker and Spielvogel, 2015, p. 621
27. ^ "John Leguizamo Has Harsh Words for Us - The New York Times". The New York Times. 2018-11-09. Archived from the original on 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
28. ^ Behrendt, Larissa (2019-08-20). "The Nightingale review: ambitious, urgent and necessarily brutal. But who is it for?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
29. ^ "FILM REVIEW - Aborigine Girls Run Away From a Racist Program - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 2013-05-08. Archived from the original on 2013-05-08. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
30. ^ "The Revenant's white-saviour complex". The Globe and Mail. 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
31. ^ ""8 July 2014, 9pm The Secret Country shown on NITV"". Respect & Listen. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
32. ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (2018-04-05). "Review: 1920s Australia Is No 'Sweet Country' for Aboriginal Australians". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
33. ^ Samuel, Allison (March 15, 2013). "How 2013 Became the Year of the Slavery Film". The Daily Beast. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
34. ^ John Pilger on breaking the Great Silence of Australia's past. The Irish Times, Donald Clarke, 15 November 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
35. ^ "A Very British Way of Torture". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
36. ^ Maslin, Janet (1983-02-11). "FROM AUSTRALIA, 'WE OF THE NEVER NEVER'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
37. ^ Koza, Roger (September 24, 2017). "El arte de la espera: esta semana se estrena "Zama", de Lucrecia Martel". La Voz del Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved November 19, 2017.
38. ^ Jaworowski, Ken (2017-07-11). "Review: '500 Years' Looks at a Guatemala Searching for Justice". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-19.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Alford, Matthew; Secker, Tom (27 June 2017). National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood. CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1548084981.
* Baldwin, James. 1976\. The Devil finds work: an essay.
* Cowans, Jon. (2018) Film and Colonialism in the Sixties: The Anti-Colonialist Turn in the US, Britain, and France Publisher: Routledge. 292 pp. ISBN 0429665024, 9780429665028.
* Cowans, Jon. (2015) Empire Films and the Crisis of Colonialism, 1946—1959 Johns Hopkins University Press. Project MUSE, ISBN 9781421416410
* Friedman, Jonathan C. and Hewitt, William L. (eds.) (2017). The history of genocide in cinema : atrocities on screen. London :I.B. Tauris,
* Lahti, J., & Weaver-Hightower, R. (2020). Cinematic Settlers: The Settler Colonial World in Film (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003057277
* Limbrick, P. (2010) Making Settler Cinemas: Film and Colonial Encounters in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand Author P. Publisher: Springer. 272 pp. ISBN 0230107915, 9780230107915
* Mayer, Hervé, & Roche, David (Eds.). (2022). Transnationalism and Imperialism: Endurance of the Global Western Film. Indiana University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv26qjhx8
* Nunn, Nora (2020) Rose-Colored Genocide: Hollywood, Harmonizing Narratives, and the Cinematic Legacy of Anne Frank's Diary in the United States, Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal: Vol. 14: Iss. 2: 65-89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1715 Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol14/iss2/7
* Rice, Tom. (2019) Films for the Colonies: Cinema and the Preservation of the British Empire, Oakland, University of California Press. 360pp. ISBN 9780520300392
* Richards, Jeffrey. (2001). 'Imperial heroes for a post-imperial age: Films and the end of empire', in Stuart Ward (ed.), British culture and the end of empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
* Shaheen, Jack G. (2012). Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (Revised and updated ed.). New York: Olive Branch Press, Interlink Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-623-71006-4. OCLC 928572276. – originally published in 2001
* Slavin, David Henry. (2001) Colonial Cinema and Imperial France, 1919-1939: White Blind Spots, Male Fantasies, Settler Myths. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 300 pp. ISBN 0-8018-6616-2.
* Stam, R. (1998). Colonialism, Racism, and Representation (with Louise Spence), in the Fifth Edition of Braudy and Cohen, eds., Film Theory and Criticism (New York: Oxford, 1998).

### External links

[edit]

* IMDB films about colonialism
* Indigenous content film and stories (Canada), Aboriginal Peoples Television Network

## Related documentaries

[edit]

* Imagining Indians (1992): a 1992 film produced and directed by Indigenous filmmaker, Victor Masayesva Jr. (Hopi). The film attempts to reveal the misrepresentation of Indigenous culture and tradition in Classical Hollywood films through interviews with different Indigenous actors from various tribes in North America.[1]
* Inventing the Indian (2012): a 2012 BBC film that explores the stereotypical view of Indigenous peoples in the United States in cinema and literature.[2]
* Reel Injun (2009): a 2009 Canadian film directed by Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, and Jeremiah Hayes that covers the portrayal of Indigenous peoples in film.[3]

1. ^ "Imagining Indians". Documentary Educational Resources Online Store. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
2. ^ "BBC Four – Rich Hall's Inventing the Indian". BBC. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
3. ^ "Reel Injun: Native Americans Portrayal in Hollywood". Independent Lens. PBS. Retrieved November 18, 2019.