Educational Media Reviews Online

Daniel Golding, Native filmmaker, does a masterful job showing us a day in the life of Jimmy (not a real person), a middle-aged Pomo Indian who has relocated from the reservation to an unnamed urban center. Jimmy, whose name we learn not from the film but from the credits, wakes up in his dreary studio apartment, lights a cigarette, trips over an open bottle of cheap "Night Train" booze, washes his face in the cramped bathroom, goes to a diner where he has a cheap breakfast of coffee and cherry pie, then makes his way to the welfare office where he has to wait in a long line to ask for work ("None today, come back tomorrow, but get here early.") and to pick up his check. With nothing to do, he walks aimlessly in the downtown area, drinking from a bottle in a paper bag. He comes across a sculpture called "The Early Days" that depicts early settlers and Indians. In frustration, he throws his bottle at the statue. The film fades to black and in a few seconds we see Jimmy waking up the next day, lighting a cigarette, tripping over a bottle of booze, and washing his face.

There is no plot, yet there is a lot going on. This video is about Jimmy's dreary urban existence, a life of isolation, mindless repetition, frustration with bureaucracy, life-depleting alcoholism, prejudice, and discrimination. The black & white photography adds to the overall sense of dreariness. There is very little dialogue in this short piece. What little there is adds to Jimmy's sense of a lack of identity and importance. The diner's owner, for example, refers to him as "Chief". And the welfare worker doesn't address him by name. She simply calls him "Next".

There are a few flashbacks of his childhood at the reservation, and there are some scenes of a traditional Pomo Indian doing a traditional dance, accompanied by Pomo chants. These are interwoven with the scenes of urban life, further adding to the sense of isolation in this film.

This independent film, obviously made on a bare-bones budget, could have been improved with better lighting and audio. And the credits are a bit fuzzy. But these are minor flaws. In 17 minutes, this video portrays cultural isolation and personal disintegration better than most full-length documentaries on this topic. It has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival (1998) and at the Brisbane International Film Festival.

When the Fire Dims is recommended for public libraries and for academic collections supporting programs in Native American Studies, Multicultural Studies, Sociology, and Social Welfare.