The two completed works, "Pow Wow Dreams" and "He Can't Be Caught" had their world premiere screening on Saturday, Nov. 18, at the House of Blues in West Hollywood. The reaction from the standing room only crowd was overwhelmingly positive.
"We shot these films in three days," emphasized "He Can't Be Caught" production mentor Keith Gruchala after the screening, putting in context the significance of the accomplishment with limited time and resources.
Actor Mark Reed added, "Imagine what we could do with more time and money."
The journey began in July known as the Creative Spirit Script-to-Screen Short Screenplay Competition, an initiative launched by Southern California Indian Center's InterTribal Entertainment as a means to identify, train and promote the talents of Native Americans in the film industry.
After a nationwide call for short scripts, two writers were selected, Princess Lucaj ("Pow Wow Dreams") from Hermosa Beach, CA, and Clementine Bordeaux ("He Can't Be Caught") from Pine Ridge, SD.
"We felt that these were two particularly gifted writers with the ability to tell Native American stories that have mainstream appeal," says James Lujan, Planner for Southern California Indian Center, who conceived the Creative Spirit initiative as a vehicle to take Native American storytelling and talent to the next level of access to Hollywood finance and distribution.
In the weeks leading up to principal photography, high-definition video equipment was purchased, a cast and crew were assembled and locations were scouted. Said Lujan, "Even though we did the films on a shoestring budget, we did spend relatively a lot of money for a nonprofit organization to do them right, to do them by the book. We went through SAG (the actor's union), we paid our professional consultants, rented a 4-ton grip truck from Birns and Sawyer, and we paid for permits which were almost prohibitively expensive, but they bought our cast and crew some peace of mind, which is very important on a location shoot.
"The philosophy of (SCIC Executive Director) Paula Starr is that if we as Native Americans want to be perceived as professionals in the film industry, we need to conduct ourselves as professionals and go through professional channels. I think the results of this extra effort show up on the screen."
On November 11, the writers came to Los Angeles, and the following day principal photography began, with three days for shooting and three days for editing.
"Pow Wow Dreams," written and directed by Lucaj, tells the story of four sisters (played by Delanna Studi, Elena Finney, Thirza Defoe and Lucaj) who live life on the road going from pow wow to pow wow, but face a crisis when one of the sisters decides to leave the group.
"He Can't Be Caught," written by Bordeaux and directed by Lujan, tells the story of a young couple (played by Eva Thomas and Ian James) who, on their way home from a Halloween party on the reservation, come across a fallen figure in the darkness (Mark Reed) who may or may not be Bigfoot.
Lujan says that future screenings are being planned until the films become available for download on the nativefilm.com website. Because Creative Spirit was a nonprofit endeavor geared toward the entertainment industry, the DVDs are not for sale, but will be made available upon written request to industry professionals.
Please make any inquiries to [email protected].
