My Winnetou | movie

At home he turns on his big TV for me and puts in “Geronimo” on DVD.
The longer the film goes on, the more uncomfortable I feel. Ray’s great-grandfather was Geronimo’s half brother and was with him until the end.

My Winnetou, 2003, video for projection, 16 minutes, Mini–DV, camera: Michael Weihrauch, Miguel Sarria, Stefka Ammon

EXCERPTS FROM VOICE OVER

[…] At home he turns on the TV (a very big one) for me and puts in “Geronimo” on DVD.

The longer the film goes on, the more uncomfortable I feel.
Ray’s great-grandfather Perico was Geronimo’s half brother and was with him until the end when they decided to surrender.

Ray is asleep when the film is over. Suddenly he seems to me incredibly alien, and I to him.

He shows me his son’s room, where I can sleep. Below a giant tail bustle, which Ray made of eagle feathers for his son. I brush my teeth. The bed smells of detergent.

I don’t sleep a wink all night. I don’t know what has happened. I feel illegitimate in a place which is not mine. A landscape which belongs to these people.

I already know all the events of the movie from books, but the images of the movie somehow turn them into something tangible, and especially to this specific place.

All night, half-asleep, I keep brooding over what I can possibly do and feel so incredibly silly and am fucking mad at Karl May.