The thought-provoking opener of last weekend’s 2025 Reframe Film Festival, Red Fever presents a comprehensive view of Indigenous Peoples’ and their culture’s impact across the world. The documentary written and directed by Neil Diamond and Catherine Bainbridge tells the story of how Indigenous culture, fashion, and ideas have been interwoven into western culture.

Red Fever is the follow-up to Diamond and Bainbridge’s award-winning feature documentary, Reel Injun. In his director’s statement, Diamond explains through his press work for Reel Injun he “encountered many who are completely fascinated with Native people.” This would lead him to Red Fever which he says, “began as an exploration of cultural appropriation and how our spirituality, traditional wear, objects, identities, and ceremonies were being exploited.”

Diamond, a Cree photographer, writer, and filmmaker from Waskaganish, Quebec, travels to the four corners of North America and to Europe throughout the course of the film to ask, “why do they love us so much?” Serving as the film’s on-screen guide, his charm, humour, and connection to the story adds to the film’s enjoyment.

Red Fever is structured into four major chapters, Fashion (Spirit), Sports (Body), Politics (Mind), and Earth (Heart), the film looks at the roots of how Indigenous cultures have been appropriated, romanticized, and profited from in these spaces.

The film emanates a hopeful depiction of Indigenous success and seeks to inform viewers rather than to guilt them. Throughout Diamond’s travels, he tells the shocking truths of how Indigenous culture has influenced all parts of western society, from blatant appropriation in fashion to the American Constitution. 

The film illustrates how Native Americans and  Indigenous Peoples more broadly have had a profound impact on American fashion through outright theft, despite the presence of contemporary Indigenous fashion designers being scarce. This reality is slowly being flipped as more brands choose collaboration over appropriation; a hopeful change showcased in Red Fever. 

Perhaps, the most shocking part of the film is the chapter on politics. Red Fever points out how much of the ideas of freedom and democracy that laid the foundation for US independence were stolen from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the oldest democracy in the world. 

Europeans are often accredited with the invention of democracy through movements like the Enlightenment, however the film presents that these “new” ideas can be traced back to the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous Peoples in the Americas.

Political activist Gloria Steinem points out the irony in this fact, saying “it’s unfortunate that Columbus is viewed as discovering America, when in fact, in many ways the European people came here and discovered democracy.”

Red Fever showcases the absurdity of this widespread obsession with Indigenous culture, that is often paired with the lack of accurate representation and rights for Indigenous Peoples. 

The film presents the devastating effects of using Indigenous ideas and images in western culture. However, Red Fever gives a sense of hope to its viewers exemplifying how Indigenous Peoples are slowly regaining control in their representation. 

The film was recently screened as part of the 2025 Reframe Film Festival, for future screenings visit the Red Fever website: https://redfeverfilm.com/