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Is it comedy or racism? Brocket 99 film raises big issues By: Alexandra Burroughs

Calgary Herald – Wednesday July 13, 2005

Howie Miller is known to be a very funny guy. As an aboriginal stand-up comedian, he has performed throughout Canada, packing houses at Yuk-Yuks for nine years. Critics say his comic schtick succeeds in finding the funny in the most hideous stereotypes, often breaking down those clichés with laughter....

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Vancouver filmmaker explores racist audio tape that became cult phenomenon

Lisa Arrowsmith, Canadian Press Sunday, October 01, 2006

Its cringe-inducing, racist humour is what strikes film audiences first.

A merry radio-style jingle and a man playing an aboriginal announcer named Ernie Scar draw listeners into a phenomenon known as "Brocket 99" - an underground audio tape that critics say has spread hatred against aboriginals for over two decades....

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Top 5 films from this year's Edmonton Film Festival.

Citytv's resident 'Movie Guy' - Oct. 2, 2006

Brocket 99, Rockin’ the Country: Yet another compelling documentary, this one exploringand enduring ‘legacy’ of the infamous ‘Brocket 99’ tape.

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Constructive exploration of racism

Edmonton Journal - Saturday, September 30, 2006

Some of you are no doubt familiar with the Brocket 99 tape. It's a mock radio program made by an anonymous group in Lethbridge in the '80s. The problem is that it's about a fake radio program hosted by fake native Canadians based on the very real reserve near Brocket. The tape is rife with racial stereotypes about the alcoholism, laziness and stupidity of aboriginals. Funny? Racist? That's debatable. But what's true is that it was circulated widely across Canada, passed from hand to hand though bootleg copies.

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East Indian tackles native Indian stereotypes

Mari Sasano Special to The Journal - Saturday, September 30, 2006

Vancouver filmmaker Nilesh Patel finds that Canada's multiculturalism policies are only skin deep.

We Canadians like to think we're nice people. So it takes a verrry careful touch to bring up the topic of racism, even though it has been part of our society since the first Europeans settled here.

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Festivals finest features

Calgary News and Entertainment Weekly - Thursday, September 21, 2006

During a film festival, it is certainly easy to get caught up in the hype. With so many works to choose from, there really is something for just about everybody and decisions can be tough. The best piece of advice I can offer is to look for pieces that interest you and balance them with selections that you might not have an opportunity to see on the big screen again.

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The tale of the tape - A recording produced two decades ago in Alberta that makes fun of aboridocumentary film

Globe an Mail - Tuesday, July 12, 2005

If you live in Western Canada, Atlantic Canada or any rural area in between, just the mention of Brocket 99 will likely arouse feelings of outrage or embarrassed amusement. For folks in Southern Ontario, Quebec or Vancouver, Brocket 99 probably won't ring any bells.

But according to a young Vancouver filmmaker, no matter where you are in Canada, you need to know about Brocket 99 -- a controversial parody of a radio show made 20 years ago in southern Alberta that dredged up every negative stereotype about aboriginal people and went on to grab ears around the world.

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It Can Be Shocking

Hollywood North Report - January 27th 2007

It Can Be Shocking What's In Store and Brocket 99 Profiles of two very different documentaries at the Victoria Independent Film Festival

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Brocket 99 documentary ‘pretty provocative,’ says filmmaker

Lethbridge Herald - Sep 19, 2006

A film on Brocket 99, a controversial bootleg audio tape parodying a native radio show, will be screened this month at the Calgary International Film Festival. Vancouver filmmaker Nilesh Patel, who first heard of the tape while living in Prince George, B.C. in the 1980s, has created a documentary called Brocket 99 — Rockin’ the Country on the controversial work, which is believed to have been created in Lethbridge a couple of decades ago.

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Citizen Staff

Prince George Citizen - July 29, 2005

A former Prince George resident is gaining media coverage across Canada for his controversial documentary film on a fictitious radio station that talked about dysfunctional life on First Nations reserves.

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VAFF - Brocket 99 review

Rice Paper Review

While a film about portrayals of Canadian First Nations may initially seem like an odd selection for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Patel’s documentary was certainly not misplaced. Indeed, it was refreshing to see an “Asian film” that lacked any on-camera Asian presence, for it signals the growing ability of Asian artists to focus on topics beyond their own ethnic identities

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Scott Lingley – Film Critic 4 **** - Edmonton International film Festival

See Magazine

Sometime in the mid-1980s, some professional radio people in or around Lethbridge got together in a recording studio and, for a lark, produced a morning show parody that became known as Brocket 99, named for a small community along Highway 3 in southern Alberta, in the heart of the Peigan Nation. The 90-minute show mixed weather reports, real advertisements and rock anthems with on-air banter that channeled all the racist stereotypes surrounding Aboriginal peoples—host Ernie Scar and his colleagues are drunken, violent, ignorant and unemployable, living off government hand-outs and cursing whitey for their problems.

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See Magazine Review

In case you‚ve never heard it, Brocket 99 is a joke tape made in the 1980s by some wags in Lethbridge who imagined a radio station manned by stereotypical drunken Indians on a reserve in southern Alberta. Somehow the joke sprouted legs and became a prairie wide phenomenon, promulgating through cassette dubs and rednecks with questionable senses of humour. Director Patel goes on a road trip from Kelowna to the Brocket reserve, stopping along the way to take in southern Alberta‚s breathtaking landscape and real cowboy culture. Most people he talks to admit that they find Brocket 99 pretty funny, but only the most ignorant peckerwoods can’t hide their retrograde attitude toward aboriginal people in general. Ultimately it goes on a little too long, but it sure reveals a lot of perspectives and doesn‚t limit itself to just the coherent ones. ****



Indo-Canadian filmmaker makes waves with his anti- stereotyping film

SOUTH ASIAN OBSERVER – 10/06

An Indo-Canadian filmmaker has been hogging headlines through out Canada after making a very powerful anti-stereotyping film. Thirty-one year old Nilesh Patel’s film "Brocket 99 - Rockin' the Country" has been getting rave wherever it is getting screened.

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Mark Campbell GlobalTV Interview

Mark Campbell of GlobalTV interviews director Nilesh C. Patel in Lethbridge, during production of the film, in the summer of 2004.

Shaw Interview

Production interview for Brocket 99 - Rockin' the Country shot in Calgary during production and the 2004 Calgary Stampede.

Relevancy today? CBC Report from 2006

CBC Report on racist audio recording circulating the RCMP, the Peel Police force, and other public servants in 2006.

Sounds Like Canada Interview with Jian Ghomeshi

Sounds Like Canada interview of Nilesh C. Patel, director of the critically acclaimed feature documentary film, Brocket 99 - Rockin' the Country.

This interview was done by Jian Ghomeshi and broadcast across Canada in the summer of 2005 during the time of initial test screenings of the film.

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