Dead man walking

Sleepdancer...A Silent Man’s Plaintive WailThe second feature written and directed by and starring Rod Pocowatchit, Sleepdancer is above all else a drama about everyday people in an anyplace town with regrets, secrets, tragedy and eventually, forgiveness. The film begins with an earnest coroner’s investigator, Derek Smith, studying the death of a 65-year-old Native man who died of natural causes. What should be a routine assignment turns into an obsession for Derek, played with understated realism by Mark Wells, as he delves into the past of the disturbed, mute son, Tommy.

As Tommy, Rod fills the screen as a tic-afflicted dead man walking. With less than several sentences of dialogue in the entire film, he is the core of the story—what happened to this formerly “normal” guy that has transformed him into a zombie?