11/4/22
This week: Queer rom-com escapism, a solid action-thriller, an excellent Western you might have missed, and a stop-motion film that proves what animation is capable of.
TRENDS THIS WEEK:
Youtube HOW THE NATIVE AMERICANS BUILT A LEGENDARY CIVILIZATION
Letterboxd WENDELL & WILD
Spotify Taylor Swift - ANTI-HERO
Netflix THE BAD GUYS
Twitter #NativeTwitter
Trailer YELLOWSTONE SEASON FIVE
Shopify It’s Been A Week
Life & Culture
One week after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, the platform laid off about half of its 7,500 employees. And, according to The Verge, teams focused on trust and safety issues were among the hardest hit. In the wake of volatility in the business and uncertainty around content moderation, many advertisers, including The Volkswagen Group, General Mills, General Motors, and Pfizer have paused spending media dollars on the platform. Musk, of course, had a different, if inaccurate, take on the situation, conflating corporate brand safety concerns with political correctness.
As climate change worsens and drastically affects different areas of the country, Native Americans communities are preparing to adapt to the extreme weather that comes with it. In Washington, three Native American tribes located around the Olympic Peninsula are planning to move further inland, away from the encroaching coast. But moves like this are expensive, and these tribes don’t have the half a billion dollars in funding that’d be required to relocate. President Biden responded with “the first program in American history specifically designed to help relocate communities threatened by climate change,” according to the New York Times. Next, the government will start the process of evaluating which tribes to award these grants.
And finally, speaking of government, remember: Election day is this Tuesday! Which means that’s when voting ends, not when it begins. Early voting is open now in most states. This map will show you if you can vote early in person, if you want to get it done this weekend. And even if you aren’t registered, 20 states and Washington, D.C. allow same-day registration at your polling place. So it’s (potentially) not too late!
—Darlene Kenney, Director of Brand Marketing
TikTok
This week, I loved this video of a woman taking viewers through her process while getting ready for a powwow. I recommend checking out more of her account too; she offers a lot of insight into the Shoshone-Bannock community, with videos like this one telling her viewers how they can respectfully wear indigenous jewelry while supporting small businesses. I also loved seeing this unlikely trio of hungry animals, and this video that shows how a group of people trapped in an elevator bonded over the hours stuck together.
—Darlene Kenney, Director of Brand Marketing
Film
Before there was BROS, there was BIG EDEN (2000) (trailer here). A more obscure entry in the genre, BIG EDEN is a queer romantic comedy-drama that’s somehow a charming time capsule of the late 90s/early 2000s that’s also incredibly ahead of its time. The movie centers on Henry Hart (Arye Gross), a gay artist in New York City who returns to his small hometown of Big Eden, Montana after his grandfather Sam (George Coe) suffers a stroke. He reconnects with his childhood friend Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig), a sensitive and shy Native American man (Schweig himself is Indigenous Canadian) who has long harbored a secret crush on Henry. Perhaps surprisingly, there isn’t a single trace of small-town bigotry or that distinctly early-2000s flavor of homophobia to be found in this movie; the main conflict deals with the prospect of Henry losing his grandfather, Pike’s reluctance to admit his feelings, and a love triangle with Henry’s high school crush Dean (Tim DeKay). The two romantic leads are given emotional depth and dignity, and the entire town eventually rallies around Henry and Pike getting together, with plenty of home-cooked meals and community get-togethers aiding the process. Some critics have considered this an unrealistic premise, but I think it’s a much-needed dose of escapism into an ideal world where being openly queer in a small town just isn’t a big deal. BIG EDEN is about coming together as a community, making peace with past regrets, and opening up to the possibility of finding love by overcoming the fear of heartbreak.
— Lauren Kirksey, Development Intern
Taking place on the Great Plains in 1719, Dan Trachtenberg’s PREY (trailer here) (a prequel to the PREDATOR series) follows Naru, a hardened and highly skilled Comanche hunter who fights to protect her tribe against an unknown threat that descends upon their community. Featuring a standout performance by Amber Midthunder and some first-rate action set pieces, PREY is an incredibly fun and well-made action-thriller that unfortunately flew under the radar when it was released on Hulu in August. If you’re looking for something to scratch your action-thriller itch at home this weekend, PREY is it!
—Neal Mulani, Development Assistant
I love everything about Westerns—from the story structure to the landscapes and the atmosphere. And these days, nobody makes a Western quite like Taylor Sheridan. The first two films he wrote, HELL OR HIGH WATER and SICARIO, are undeniable. HELL OR HIGH WATER is an action-packed and powerful heist film in the remote landscape of West Texas, and SICARIO’s border crossing scene (IYKYK) will be burned into my brain forever. But I want to talk about his third, less talked-about film, which he also directed. WIND RIVER (trailer here) follows animal tracker Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) as he assists rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) in solving a rape and murder case involving a teenage girl. It’s set against the backdrop of Wind River, the only Native American reservation in Wyoming (a real place, home to the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho tribes). Powered by a strong cast of Native American actors including Kelsey Asbille and Gil Birmingham (both went on to work on Sheridan’s YELLOWSTONE), the film doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of life on many reservations. Because in reality, most cases like the one in the film go unsolved (and as the film points out in its closing “while missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exist for Native American women”). While there are definitely parts of this subject that could have been further explored, WIND RIVER is an engrossing yet somber slow-burn crime thriller that I can’t recommend enough.
—Jackson Ingraham, Executive Assistant
Halloween may have ended but I’m begging you not to sleep on WENDELL & WILD (trailer here) if you haven’t seen it yet. Animation is capable of more than lighthearted G-rated fairy tales or gratuitously raunchy adult comedies, which is why I have been dying for PG-13 animated features to become more common for ages. To see it happen in stop motion feels like a gift, and hearing the words “janky, stanky ass” uttered by a puppet version of Keegan-Michael Key in a “kid’s” movie is a transcendent experience. Not to mention the fact that this movie features casual but highly intentional diversity on a level that is rarely done this well. This is a movie about a Black girl bringing down the private prison system. It’s also a movie about Key and Peele being demons who live in a giant nose. It’s about a trans kid fighting for the people who love him. It’s about magical hair cream. Director Henry Selick knows what he’s doing in the realm of spooky stop motion (he’s the director of CORALINE and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, after all), so while this movie feels fresh and new, it still has that nostalgic quality that makes you want to watch and rewatch again, year after year.
—Anna Lee, Development Intern
TV
I absolutely loved the first two seasons of Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s RESERVATION DOGS (trailer here) and am thrilled that it’s officially been picked up for a third season. It is one of the best coming-of-age stories I’ve ever seen. The show’s four main characters, the titular Reservation Dogs (Devery Jacobs, Paulina Alexis, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and Lane Factor), are Indigenous teens in Oklahoma dealing with the suicide of a close friend. The show moves beautifully between the tragic and hilarious moments, and its young stars are amazingly talented.
—Rosemary Brennan, Marketing Consultant
Elizabeth Ito’s Netflix series CITY OF GHOSTS (trailer here) is one of the most quietly breathtaking shows I’ve ever seen. Truly. Drawing attention to the diversity of Los Angeles’s many beloved neighborhoods, each episode tells the story of a different community through the lens of children interviewing the friendly ghosts haunting the city. The fourth episode, titled “Tovaangar,” follows the kids as they discover the history of the indigenous peoples of Los Angeles, known as the Tongva. While this show is joyous and kid-friendly, it doesn’t shy away from somber truths, and this episode in particular carries a melancholy weight as the kids begin to understand the effects of industrialization on the city they call home. With its charming, innovative animation and documentary-style patience, CITY OF GHOSTS is a show that will remind you why you love the communities you’re a part of.
—Anna Lee, Development Intern
Book
THERE THERE by Tommy Orange is an incredible novel that has stayed with me for years after I first read it. The book’s multiple Native American narrators share their interwoven journeys leading up to a powwow in Oakland. Orange’s prose is breathtakingly beautiful and his characters navigate intergenerational trauma, addiction, art grants, heists, unrequited love, and more. I listened to the audiobook while commuting (pre-pandemic, naturally), and had to pull over multiple times to catch my breath and wipe away tears at Orange’s moving storytelling.
—Rosemary Brennan, Marketing Consultant
Music
FROM THE VAULT
Black Belt Eagle Scout—the moniker under which Katherine Paul releases her music—makes fuzzy rock jams to fill your bedroom at night. And slow indie-folk ballads to angstily drive to. And echoing dreamy melodies to get lost to somewhere in the hazy Pacific Northwestern woods, because she’s from Portland. Swinomish, Iñupiaq, feminist, and queer, Paul draws on her unique experiences along with universal ones to write about anything from Standing Rock to good old-fashioned heartache, and by repeating a simple but perfect line like “I know you’re taken” over pining electric guitar riffs, she effortlessly creates anthems of desire. Give her a listen, and start anywhere; you really can’t go wrong.
—Alicia Devereaux, Development Assistant
Have a great weekend! And as always, be kind, stay healthy, and stay creative. ツ