An upcoming film production in northern Minnesota plans to bring together a talented team of Indigenous storytellers, actors, and crew. Producers say the film will portray Indigenous culture, life, and romance.
Chandra Colvin: For years, Native representation in film and TV was limited and often distorted. Old Westerns, for example, depicted Native Americans as antagonists or “savages,” reinforcing harmful stereotypes that reduced Native cultures to one-dimensional tropes.
In more recent years, Native voices have been stepping up to change those stereotypes and negative representations. TV shows such as “Reservation Dogs” have grown in popularity and even Lily Gladstone’s performance in “Killers of the Flower Moon” have brought attention to Native voices.
Here in Minnesota, local voices are stepping up to tell more localized stories.
John Williams is an up and coming Lakota film producer based in Minneapolis. In the past, he’s worked in public broadcasting, such as for PBS in fundraising roles. Williams says while at PBS he assisted with the fundraising for several documentary-style projects. And at the same time, he was able to gain some knowledge of film production. Now he’s using that knowledge to produce his own film.
John Williams: We have been stereotyped in such negative ways forever. You know, we’re either the drunks or the casino Indians, and it seems pretty black and white to most non-Native people that we’re one of those two things. It’s not true.. We are many tribes. There’s nothing pan-Indian. We are sovereign nations. We are strong, resilient people.
Chandra Colvin: Elizabeth Day is a producer who went to school for film production. She’s a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. And she has experience producing documentaries. Together with Williams, they are working to produce a film based on the book “Native Love Jams” by Red Lake Nation band member, Tashia Hart.
Elizabeth Day: It was a rainy Saturday afternoon, and Tashia had sent me a digital copy of it [Native Love Jams]. I am a slow, very slow reader, and I read “Native Love Jams” cover to cover in one afternoon. It was so funny and so light, and just a little bit steamy. I was like, oh my god, this is so fun. This could be a really great movie.
Chandra Colvin: The tagline of Hart’s book is, “Two cooks go foraging and fall in love in a berry patch.” Hart explains the story follows a Native woman named Winnow.
Tashia Hart: She’s a cook and a forager. She travels to Rainy Bay to work at their first annual Indigenous Food Day Celebration in Rainy Bay – It’s a fictional reservation uh – Anishinaabe, and I like to envision it as being east of Red Lake, south of Bois Forte and north of Leech Lake.
Chandra Colvin: Williams and Day pitched the film project at the Minnesota Film Festival in Duluth. Day says their 10-minute pitch ended with interest from the Midwest Film Office.
Elizabeth Day: It was so much fun. It was totally unexpected. We were both so nervous, but we rehearsed and we rehearsed and ended up winning the top prize for that. And it was kind of lucky. You never know who’s in the room, and you never know who is going to hear your pitch and have that resonate with them. We were so lucky that the right people were in the room who heard our pitch.
Chandra Colvin: Author Tashia Hart says her inspiration for the story comes from her own experiences traveling as an Indigenous Chef for food sovereignty summits and events. Hart has also released several other titles including a cookbook.
Tashia Hart: I just wanted to write a story where we got to see ourselves have a happy ending like that is so important. Seeing yourself in the characters in this community, seeing your community in the community of Rainy Bay, and just feeling good. And feeling like, “Yeah, we’re doing this, and we can have a happy ending too, because that’s what that romance genre is all about.”
Chandra Colvin: Producers say filming will take place in northern Minnesota.
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Chandra Colvin.
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