Variety’s Indigenous Storytelling Breakfast Spotlights Native and Indigenous Creators

Variety hosted its first Indigenous Entertainment and Storytelling Breakfast on June 5 in Los Angeles. The event included insightful conversations with Native and Indigenous creators, talent and industry leaders such as “Reservation Dogs” showrunner Sterlin Harjo, Bird Runningwater of “Fancy Dance,” Kali Reis of “True Detective ” (who was joined by co-star Isabella Star LaBlanc and showrunner Issa López) and many others. The program highlighted Indigenous stories and the achievements of Indigenous communities in film and television and even included a surprise message from director James Cameron.

The event also explored how the industry is succeeding in creating opportunities for indigenous talent on and off screen. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Native Americans gaining U.S. citizenship, as President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, inspired by the high rate of enlistment of American Indians during World War I. worldwide.

Breakthroughs in Indigenous Storytelling

The first panel of the day highlighted the creative achievements of Indigenous communities in film and television. Bird Runningwater, executive producer of the upcoming film “Fancy Dance” starring Lily Gladstone, spoke about his experience in the entertainment industry.

For 20 years, Runningwater led the Sundance Institute’s commitment to Indigenous filmmakers, guiding new generations of Native and Indigenous filmmakers through the Institute’s lab and the Sundance Film Festival.

“I was trying to make a lot of noise when a lot of people weren’t paying attention,” Runningwater said.

Alongside Runningwater, the conversation featured speakers Billy Luther, writer and producer of “Frybread Face and Me” and “Dark Winds”; Tazbah Rose Chavez, writer, director and producer of “Reservation Dogs” and “Accused”; Jana Schmieding, actress and writer for “Rutherford Falls”; and Aiko Little, administrator of the Office of Business and Finance at the United American Indian Involvement, as well as chair of the Native American Writers Committee of the Writers Guild. Variety Jazz Tangcay, editor-in-chief of Artisans, moderated the panel.

Chavez said she met Runningwater when she was 16 and later interned for him at Sundance. She also explained that it is important to continue to hire Indigenous and Indigenous people in positions of power in the entertainment industry.

“We are not a monolith. Just because you have one indigenous show doesn’t mean you can’t have another one…” Chavez said. “I think we’re ready to go and we’re excited, but it also takes the rest of the ecosystem to support that. If you want us to tell our stories, let us tell them without all these little caveats or rules or ways that make sense to you.

Schmieding noted her experience in writing rooms that feature more than one Native or Indigenous writer: “90% of the work I get in this town is from other Natives, from Native producers and that’s the feeling most rewarding to be employed by my friends and to collaborate with my indigenous friends and colleagues. This is something that, in my professional life, I never really had the opportunity to do. And here I am, trying to get into the same position they opened up for us.

Watch the full conversation above.

Meet the Creators: Nat Geo’s ‘Candy Cane’

“Sugargane” co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie have joined Variety Clayton Davis to discuss his illuminating and devastating look at abuse and missing children in Canada’s residential schools. Although he initially decided to stay behind the camera, NoiseCat found himself in the frame shortly after his family story became one of the film’s main narrative threads.

“For the first year of our work on the documentary, I barely participated,” NoiseCat said. “But I think the story and the other participants in the documentary, especially some of those I’m related to, had other ideas. Very early on in our filming, my aunt Charlene Belleau, who is one of the main protagonists of the film, took us to the barns and was essentially more or less the director of the film and the events of that day. She performed, what I think you would accurately describe as a ceremony, during which she wrapped me in a blanket and sang a few songs and asked me to help her take on the responsibility of telling this history and make it known.

“If I didn’t want to go there with my own story,” NoiseCate continued. “Then I didn’t give that movie and that part of my life everything it deserved.” The Nat Geo film premiered at Sundance, read our review here. Watch the full conversation above.

Conversation with Ray Halbritter and Sierra Teller Ornelas

Ray Halbritter, Oneida Indian Nation leader, producer and Academy Museum trustee, joined “Rutherford Falls” co-creator and showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas in a discussion moderated by Variety Jazz Tangcay, Senior Craftsman Editor.

The duo detailed their progress so far in adapting Sally Jenkins’ book “The Real Americans.” The story follows the 1911 students of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of the first Native American boarding school aimed at assimilating Native American children and youth into white society. After years of pleading with the administration to let them participate in sports such as football, they formed the most successful team in the league, dominating established schools and fundamentally changing the way everyone played the game.

Halbritter described the school’s philosophy as “kill the Indian, save the man,” but hopes to focus the narrative on the students’ accomplishments, highlighting Jim Thorpe, who attended the boarding school and was the first Native American athlete to win a gold medal. medal for the United States at the Olympics.

Ornelas said the entertainment industry must continue to provide opportunities for indigenous creators and talent: “It’s going to take an old-school guy… who follows his instinct, who makes those decisions to choose these films, to give opportunities to people. There will be a lot of newcomers.

Watch the full conversation above.

Keynote Conversation with “Reservation Dogs” Showrunner Sterlin Harjo

Sterlin Harjo, co-creator of FX’s “Reservation Dogs,” said he and fellow creator and executive producer Taika Waititi came up with the idea to combine their separate story ideas into a single series during an evening spent to drink Casamigos together.

During an opening conversation moderated by Variety Clayton Davis, Awards Editor, Harjo explained that after he got home from their meeting, he wrote a page about their conversation and didn’t think about it again until his agent called him and says he made a deal for the pilot.

He said that just a few years ago, many people thought an indigenous-led show could never happen: “The industry is stupid. They act like there are rules, but there aren’t. Before “Reservation Dogs,” everyone in this town would have said “There’s no way you can staff an entire room with Native writers” or “There’s no way you can get Native directors for the first time in this series and that’s it.”

He went on to say that no matter what, Indigenous and Indigenous creators need to come into meetings grounded in what they want to create and not be afraid to walk away if they don’t feel like it. comfortable with what production companies want to do with their project.

Looking ahead, Harjo revealed his upcoming feature “Rez Ball,” co-written with Sydney Freeland. The basketball-centric film is produced by Lebron James’ SpringHill Company and is expected to be released later this year on Netflix. The film follows a Native American high school basketball team in Chuska, New Mexico, competing for a state championship title.

“Any time an audience feels a specificity and knows that whoever is behind it knows where they stand, where the story is, I think that draws people in,” Harjo said. “You feel safe, you let yourself go and you enter this world.”

Watch the full conversation above.