The Putnam County Public Library District will screen “Bearing Witness: Native American Voices in Hollywood” at the Condit branch at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20.

For more than a century, Hollywood has shaped the public’s perception of Native Americans, often through harmful and inaccurate portrayals. Early Westerns cast Native people as villains, reinforcing racism and obscuring the genocidal violence that accompanied the westward expansion of the United States.

For decades, these films glorified “Manifest Destiny” and celebrated the conquest of lands deemed “wild,” showing little regard for the Indigenous communities who lived there. It wasn’t until the Vietnam War era, alongside the civil rights and protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, that Hollywood began to slowly shift. Films such as “Little Big Man” and “Soldier Blue” introduced more complex and truthful portrayals, acknowledging the massacres and injustices Native peoples endured.

In this documentary, Native American voices take center stage as they reclaim their story and challenge the stereotypes that Hollywood perpetuated for generations. Their narrative — too often silenced — reveals the power of cinema as both cultural propaganda and a tool for truth-telling.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 815-339-2038. The Condit branch is at 105 N. Center St., Putnam.