Preview of Callous

Here's a Native movie I just heard about. I gather it premiered at the Riverside International Film Festival in 2009.

CallousBased on true events, CALLOUS is an unpredictable and violent ride on the shoulders of Garrett Blackfoot. This once-abused fragile boy is now a single father haunted by the demons of his childhood. In denial of his Native American lineage, he is brought face to face with the reality that there is a spiritual plane and the things he saw in the shadows as a child may be more than just imagined. His own mother is the catalyst of his painful youth and devourer of his future. He must wrestle with his best intentions for his daughter, a race against time to save his dying brother, and the unceasing effort to contain a rage sown from the seeds of despair, abandonment and revenge.Joey Lanai, the writer, director, and star, apparently is part Native:Joey Lanai was born in Compton, California, and has been a Los Angeles Native ever since. His father is from American Samoa and his mother from Charleston, West Virgina. Joey is an uncommon mix of ethnicity with an islander father and a mother of Native American origin. This diversity allows him to pursue a great range of roles as an actor.

Comment:  Hmm. I'm not sure the world needs another Native movie about despair, abandonment, and revenge. Seems to me filmmakers have tackled those themes enough already.

Also, Lanai's character defines "callous" as a thick patch of skin in the trailer, but that word is spelled "callus." Unless he intended the title to have a double meaning, that's a big oops.

Marcos Akiaten as Blackfoot's brother is the only Native actor I recognize in the cast. But there may be others.

Anyway, you can watch the trailer at the official site. Get ready with the volume controls, because the site launches with loud music that you can't turn off.

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