deadCENTER to host world premiere Saturday at 5 p.m.
Hollywood filmmakers David Mueller, Bob Hicks and Lynn Salt wisely chose deadCenter Film Festival for the world premiere of “A Good Day To Die,” their documentary examining the rise of the American Indian Movement and its intrepid co-founder, Dennis Banks.
“We feel that (Oklahoma) is a very appropriate place to unveil the film because this is Native American country,” Mueller said.
–photo by Nathan Poppe, The Oklahoman
Appropriate indeed, because the film — which premieres at 5 p.m. today at the Kerr Auditorium — promotes awareness of the little-known movement that eventually secured a better future for American Indians everywhere.
Produced in just over two years, “A Good Day To Die” combines archival footage with interviews documenting both the rise of the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) and the life of Banks, its co-founder and leader.
“It’s a history that hasn’t been told and desperately needs to be told,” Mueller said.
Now retired and living in Okmulgee, the film’s associate producer, Bob Hicks, is of Creek and Seminole heritage and one such beneficiary of Banks’ hard work.
“I wanted to make a contribution in the sense that everything that I saw on the screen dealing with Native Americans was always being played by non-Indians,” Hicks said.
“I thought rather than griping about it, I should learn how to make the movies and make a movie about it.”
Originally from Okemah, Hicks traveled to Los Angeles in 1979 and received a degree from the American Film Institute.
Mueller said that Hicks’ 25-minute student film “Return of the Country” pushed the envelope in filmmaking.
“Bob’s film was an inspiration to me and Lynn, too, because it really broke ground,” Mueller said. “It was a very progressive perspective at the time. I think it’s a very important film that will be recognized in the future.”
Salt is a 30-year veteran of the movie industry. “A Good Day To Die” is the product of her passions for recording history and championing American Indians in the arts.
She originally wrote the script intending for it to be a feature film, but after meeting with Banks, it was decided to turn it into a documentary.
The trio hopes the film educates the public about a neglected chapter in American history and the figure at the center of it, Banks, whom Salt compares to Martin Luther King Jr.
“He was the most significant figure in starting the American Indian Movement and I don’t think people know that,” Mueller said. “He’s a remarkable human being with a heroic story.”
If you go
Check out a couple of films today that hit home — “The Wayman Tisdale Story” and “The Rock and Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher”.
Also showing will be feature films “Armless,” “The Extra Man” and “Bran Nue Dae”.
Acclaimed movie critic Elvis Mitchell will be part of a panel on film criticism at 4 p.m., after the showing of the documentary “For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism.”
–Carney
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Sorry to rain on your parade, but Dennis Banks is no hero. He is, in fact, knee-deep in the murder conspiracy of Anna Mae Aquash, and is not worthy of your accolades. Anna Mae was a member of AIM and mother to two young girls when she was murdered in 1975 on orders from Banks because he and his buddies believed she was an FBI informant. She was never an informant.
Banks once bragged he fathered over 70 children out of wedlock, mostly by underage girls. He is not a good role model. Banks is implicated in the shooting death of Ray Robinson at Wounded Knee in 1973. Robinson was a civil rights activist under MLK. Banks is certainly no MLK. Under his leadership and direction, Robinson’s body was buried near the village, along with what many believe are half a dozen victims who did not pass the interrogation test in the latter stages of the Wounded Knee occupation. Banks is rumored to have ended Robinson’s life by shooting him in the leg and letting him bleed to death.
During the recent Longest Walk to Washington, DC, Banks and his muscle men threatened people who participated; either turn over all donations or get beaten up. Talk to the people who actually did the Walk. Banks is a thug and a false hero who has lied and stolen and murdered his way to fame and Hollywood fortune. Any film that honors him merely perpetuates AIM propaganda detrimental to the hopes and dreams of Native Americans.
By any historical measure, Banks should be regarded with contempt. His evil deeds far outweigh whatever good he might have done for Indian people.