December 05, 2008

The Only Good Indian at Sundance

KU professor is returning to SundanceThe latest feature from Lawrence-based moviemaker Kevin Willmott is going to Sundance.

“The Only Good Indian,” a drama filmed in Kansas and starring Cherokee actor Wes Studi, has been accepted to January’s film festival in Park City, Utah.

It’s the second time in four years that a film by Willmott and producer Rick Cowan has played Sundance. In 2005 their “C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America” was screened there, receiving a rave review and given theatrical bookings around the country.

“We’ve been very fortunate,” Willmott, an assistant professor in the University of Kansas film department, said of his movie’s Sundance berth. “From the very beginning the goal was to tell these stories we think are important while making the films relevant to what’s happening today. You try to speak to people, particularly young people, in a way they can connect to.”
Comment:  C.S.A. tackled the issue of slavery in an entertaining but flawed way. I hope The Only Good Indian is better.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I have said before, more on the American/Canadian Indian, boarding school experience needs to be illuminated via literature, or more expediently, through film - as so much of the present-day dysfunction of our communities is directly related to what went on at these schools.

During my many travels, I have heard stories (from even my own immediate and extended family) about the boarding schools that simply defy belief.

Anonymous said...

FYI - "Anonymous" here is me, Melvin Martin