Director: David Poisey, William Hansen
Picture This Productions. 2002.
Length: 60 minutes
Audience: High School, Post-Secondary
Topics: mass communications, development communications, minority representation

"Me do, kemo sabe." Who knew that the Lone Ranger's faithful sidekick cringed every time he said those words? In 1949, at age 35, Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels became the first Aboriginal actor to play a Native American on television. He played the stoic, monosyllabic Tonto with poker-faced perfection, becoming the symbolic "Indian" to a generation.

Jay Silverheels: The Man Beside the Mask will take viewers into the life of a man who was determined to make it big in Hollywood and leave his home Reserve and Indian heritage behind him. In later life, Silverheels changed direction and fought for better, more realistic roles for Natives in film and TV. He founded the Indian Actors' Workshop, and helped train other Native actors but he didn't live to see the results of his labour. Full of interviews with Jay's family, firends and colleagues, and hundreds of rare photos, Jay Silverheels: The Man Beside the Mask is an intimate look at the real man behind the larger-than-life character.