COWJEWS AND INDIANS WEB

CowJews and Indians

Year 2013
Runtime 86 mins
Alberta Premiere

Writer and director Marc Halberstadt figures this: if Native Americans are owed years of back-rent from the people living on their land, and Jews are owed years of back-rent from those who took their homes in Nazi Germany, why not just have Native Americans go directly to the Germans to collect? Halberstadt describes it simply as “tribes working together.”

The seed of the film (which boasts the full title CowJews and Indians: How Hitler scared my family – and I woke up in an Iroquois longhouse with a picture of Jesus, reminding me – for the wrong reason – that I owe the Mohawks rent) began when Halberstadt began an effort to regain his family’s home in Germany, until research led him to discover that the place he called home today—in New York—was actually Mohawk land. Sensing his own hypocrisy, he set out to create a satirical documentary, in which Halberstadt enlists four Native Americans and travels to Germany to see if anyone will agree to his terms. It’s a funny and poignant reminder about perspective.

Countries

United States
Festivals
Opening Film Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2013
Director
Marc Halberstadt
Producer
Marc Halberstadt
Screenwriter
Marc Halberstadt
Cinematographer
Giuseppe Saitta
Editor
Justin Buck, Michael Sorenson, Manuel Tsingaris, Patrick Read Johnson
Music
Kaeli Ferguson, Sarah Plant