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Articles

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2012): The Voice-Over

Native American Filmmakers Reclaiming Voices: Innovative Voice-Overs in Chris Eyre’s "Skins"

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14288/cinephile.v8i1.197989
Submitted
March 19, 2023
Published
2012-03-01

Abstract

Most discussions of voice-over narration focus on either third-person “authorial” narrators or first-person “character” narrators. However, Sarah Kozloff argues that, in actuality, there are a “myriad of invisible storytellers” at work in all voice-over films (6). Kozloff, also, pointedly notes that “more than anything else, studying voice-over prompts one to pause over beginnings” (64). Appropriately, then, a critic examining Skins, a 2002 film by Chris Eyre, has much to linger over inasmuch as the film opens with not one, but several voice-over narrators. The film concerns Rudy Yellow Lodge, a Lakota tribal police officer who takes care of his alcoholic brother, Mogie, and who must also deal with poverty and Native-on-Native violence and despair every day. During a murder investigation that structures part of the plot of Skins, Rudy’s frustration with the justice system, and possibly his possession by the Lakota trickster spider called Iktomi, cause him to become a vigilante. He eventually realizes that this only hurts his own people. Rudy must atone for his misguided actions while learning how to appropriately express his anger, and honour his brother.