Actor Gary D. Farmer has never turned down a role because he objects to the way it portrays his heritage.

He prefers a different strategy.

“What I do is rewrite the script and fax it back to them,” Farmer says.

“Usually they’re the ones who get up in arms and say, ‘No one’s ever done that’ or ‘We can’t work with that.’ I try to work with them and bring them around. Mostly they don’t have the time or interest because that’s not their intent to portray Native people (accurately).”

Farmer, a veteran performer with nearly 80 feature film and television credits, says certain directors and producers have “been very cooperative” with this response, allowing the actor to have a voice in the project.

Others, not so much.

“That show with Michael J. Fox (‘Spin City’), they sent me off a thing and I rewrote it. I actually thought it was funnier. They said, ‘We’re not able to do that,'” he recalls. “For ‘Will and Grace’ I said I’m not going to wear a wig. They wouldn’t let me be myself as an Indian, so someone else got the part. That’s all that happens: They just turn to whoever else.”

One part Farmer has definitely landed is as guest of honor at the Third Annual American Indian Film Festival. The two-day event is organized by the Stories N’ Motion Film Club of Haskell Indian Nations University.

The 53-year-old native of Ontario, Canada, will present a film he stars in called “Heater” at 7 p.m. today. He’ll lead a Q&A after the screening.

“Because there are some potentially young filmmakers at the festival, I wanted to show a first film by a filmmaker (Terrance Odette). The budget was around $105,000. The subject matter is about homelessness. So I thought those three things were really relevant to a Native filmmaker,” he says.

Six entries were selected for the festival, which also will showcase “Kickapoo People,” “Ransom,” “The Cats of Mirikitani,” “Mni Sose” and “The Canary Effect.”

“Even now we have people submitting films, but we locked out the schedule,” says Jakari Jackson, a Haskell sophomore who is president of the film club.

Jackson says the idea isn’t to present movies that just center on powwows and headdresses, but to show American Indians doing everyday things.

He adds, “We made one exception this year for ‘The Cats of Mirikitani.” It involves a Japanese man in World War II. We felt his experience could be related to in how there was basic bad treatment in internment camps, similar to what Native Americans went through in this country.”

The Stories N’ Motion Film Club began in 2003 and is comprised of 12 steady members. One of these students, Chester Mandan, will be screening his project “Ransom,” which focuses on a gambling addiction that leads to a kidnapping.

“Film is not a real big deal around here,” Jackson admits. “So we’re trying to increase its popularity. But as it stands right now, it’s not a huge thing as compared to KU’s campus.”

Farmer actually attended the festival last year when his friend actor Wes Studi (“Dances With Wolves”) was the guest of honor.

“Being at an Indian university is kind of fascinating,” says Farmer, who went to school at Syracuse University and Ryerson University in Toronto. “I tried hard to help maintain their media program the last time I was there, because it was on the chopping block as far as funding goes.”

When traveling, Farmer says he gets the most feedback about three of his past roles: Philbert Bono in “Powwow Highway,” Nobody in “Dead Man” and Arnold Joseph in “Smoke Signals.” But he says, “A movie like ‘Smoke Signals’ wouldn’t even be on the horizon now in the political climate that exists for entertainment.”

Farmer doesn’t expect that climate to be warming up anytime soon – and he’s not exactly trying to make converts of those who aren’t familiar with American Indian cinema at the moment.

“That’s really not what I’m out to do,” Farmer says. “The Native community is itself. Really why I’m going is to support their interests and continue to foster creative filmmaking in the community.”