#starrier

[storm-of-silver]

Tell me, where do I go?

Tell me, where do I take us?

Your heart is starting to slow

May the water be safer

As I dive in

@bonefall Anytime you mentioned this death scene, I keep associating it with this song since the lyrics are LITERALLY this entire scene. "Bloodstains washing underneath the waves"??? "I can't hold on much longer, we're drifting down to the other side"?????? It was fucking PLAGUING me and I had to just get this out.

Anyways ur AU fucks and since this is ur favorite death scene hopefully I did it justice :)

[abigailspinach]

MATTHEW was having a bad ten minutes of it. He had come into the kitchen, in the twilight of a cold, gray December evening, and had sat down in the woodbox corner to take off his heavy boots, unconscious of the fact that Anne and a bevy of her schoolmates were having a practice of “The Fairy Queen” in the sitting room. Presently they came trooping through the hall and out into the kitchen, laughing and chattering gaily. They did not see Matthew, who shrank bashfully back into the shadows beyond the woodbox with a boot in one hand and a bootjack in the other, and he watched them shyly for the aforesaid ten minutes as they put on caps and jackets and talked about the dialogue and the concert. Anne stood among them, bright eyed and animated as they; but Matthew suddenly became conscious that there was something about her different from her mates. And what worried Matthew was that the difference impressed him as being something that should not exist. Anne had a brighter face, and bigger, starrier eyes, and more delicate features than the other; even shy, unobservant Matthew had learned to take note of these things; but the difference that disturbed him did not consist in any of these respects. Then in what did it consist?

Matthew was haunted by this question long after the girls had gone, arm in arm, down the long, hard-frozen lane and Anne had betaken herself to her books. He could not refer it to Marilla, who, he felt, would be quite sure to sniff scornfully and remark that the only difference she saw between Anne and the other girls was that they sometimes kept their tongues quiet while Anne never did. This, Matthew felt, would be no great help.

He had recourse to his pipe that evening to help him study it out, much to Marilla’s disgust. After two hours of smoking and hard reflection Matthew arrived at a solution of his problem. Anne was not dressed like the other girls!

The more Matthew thought about the matter the more he was convinced that Anne never had been dressed like the other girls—never since she had come to Green Gables. Marilla kept her clothed in plain, dark dresses, all made after the same unvarying pattern. If Matthew knew there was such a thing as fashion in dress it was as much as he did; but he was quite sure that Anne’s sleeves did not look at all like the sleeves the other girls wore. He recalled the cluster of little girls he had seen around her that evening—all gay in waists of red and blue and pink and white—and he wondered why Marilla always kept her so plainly and soberly gowned.

Of course, it must be all right. Marilla knew best and Marilla was bringing her up. Probably some wise, inscrutable motive was to be served thereby. But surely it would do no harm to let the child have one pretty dress—something like Diana Barry always wore. Matthew decided that he would give her one; that surely could not be objected to as an unwarranted putting in of his oar. Christmas was only a fortnight off. A nice new dress would be the very thing for a present. Matthew, with a sigh of satisfaction, put away his pipe and went to bed, while Marilla opened all the doors and aired the house.

[mylovelyhyunjin]

240825 Dominate Seoul D2

Hyunjin

instagram @hynjinnnn

[©rin91251, ©hyunpits, ©akioaya, ©sceacel, ©starrier, ctto]

🤍

[bonefall]

what if theres like . A Thing where Mousefur was supposed to be the lawyer but somehow Ashfur dispatched her . n her mysteriously being Gone or Hurt could serve as some intriguing foreshadowing . idk just spitballing here

Hrrmm.... that DOES sound interesting.

Ashfur coming back, suddenly starrier, suddenly shinier. Everyone assuming that Mousefur went out for some kind of stroll, blaming her lateness on how difficult it's been to go from one plane to the next lately.

Could be one of his first victims.

[mzannthropy]

Reading this article, I get the point the writer is trying to make. Then I get to the last paragraph:

Let’s put this film plan on hold, wait 30 years, and then set it in space and cast Timothée Chalamet as a version of Tommy Shelby who is a base-jumping cowboy with a laser gun. This, and only this, is what the people really want to see.

Well played, Mr Stuart Heritage. Well played.

[paigelts05]

Clestrian [DQ9]

https://www.deviantart.com/paigelts05/art/Clestrian-DQ9-949917904

Published:  Feb 17, 2023    

My dragon quest 9 hero. Yes she has my name. Last time I drew her was 2018. I'm now lv99 +1 in my main class (martial artist) and have sunk so many hours into skill points for the other classes so I now have over 100 MP as the class that has next to no MP. I've been playing on the same profile since I was 10. Back in 2011. Starts out with eyes starrier than the skies. Beat the game in 2013. Over the next 10 years (300 hours of gameplay), she became more of an adventurer and slightly jaded as she realises how messed up everything was for her (remember the goretress). She really misses her wings and halo, especially since she realises that she's spent longer without them than with, but the fake halo somewhat fills that void, but not enough. Celestrian yeeted from the observatory by the lightning storm. Misses her wings and halo. And she is the reason why my main OCs have pink pigtails.

[poems-from-around-the-world]

The Song of Exile - Gonçalves Dias - Brazil

Translator: Unknown (Portuguese)

My homeland has many palm-trees and the thrush-song fills its air; no bird here can sing as well as the birds sing over there.

We have fields more full of flowers and a starrier sky above, we have woods more full of life and a life more full of love.

Lonely night-time meditations please me more when I am there; my homeland has many palm-trees and the thrush-song fills its air.

Such delights as my land offers Are not found here nor elsewhere; lonely night-time meditations please me more when I am there; My homeland has many palm-trees and the thrush-song fills its air.

Don’t allow me, God, to die without getting back to where I belong, without enjoying the delights found only there, without seeing all those palm-trees, hearing thrush-songs fill the air.

[starrierknight]

MY EYES WORK! 👏👏👏 Sorry it's just funny to me that I had to ask Doc to help me write something because of how bad my eyes got and then the next day or so I'm perfectly fine

I don't have much time to write because the sooner I finish this message the sooner I will get back to working on that project of mine, and since my eyes work again I can do the more complex parts that require seeing what I'm doing and checking if it matches the tutorial. But I wanted to tell you a few things!

Uhhh first of all it's so funny to me that every now and then Doc just goes "hang on gotta check if starrier posted yet" and even gets excited when seeing you've posted something, eagerly scrolling down to see if you've answered our asks etcetera, and yet this same mad scientist claims to view everyone in the world as a lab rat. My friend, at this point that's called liking someone at the very least! Anyway.

I have various things planned for the upcoming weeks and months and while it's partially stressing me out it's also exciting! Stuff like meeting up with people, parties with various people (imcluding a big one that I'll have to figure out if I can actually go to!) and more. I'm so hyped to see all those people again :D

About the drawings, once we find them we'll send another image album link (like Doc did with the cat pictures) in a separate ask so you can look at them. Feel free to show those on your blog if you ✨ deem them worthy enough ✨ to be on here

Oh! Doc also said you really need to rescue your cat from the "evil dragon's tower" but probably you already knew that, safe to say Doc approves. And thanks for showing all the pictures, I love them <3

Okay bye now, time to make stuff! (scaryyy 👻 haha)

- Star 💫

lololol human bodies are weirddddd n so temperamental!!!! glad you're doing better mein schatz <3 hahaha i hope this project of yours is working out okay!!!!

HAHAHAHA PLSSSS doc is so silly. i'm flattered that they (and you!) have any interest in speaking to me. always very glad to see you cuties in my inbox <3

ahhhhh i get you, i think it's faily usual to be excited n stressed abt upcoming social events lol. i hope you have so so so much fun!!!! and that it all goes smoothly :3 oooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! i eagerly await to see the drawings if you manage to find them. bouncing on my heels with excitement.

hahaha yeah poor Binny definitely needs to be rescued </3 my poor little darling UGH i miss her so much :/ glad you liked the pics of her!!!!

hope your creations went well :3

[yana77777]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: FRAME Jeans Le High Metallic Ankle Skinny NWT.

[mywifeleftme]

138: Various Artists // Experiments in Destiny

Experiments in Destiny Various Artists 1980, BOMP!

BOMP! is a venerable Los Angeles-based indie label, founded in 1974 and would you believe still going to this day. Experiments in Destiny samples 28 bands either signed to or distributed by the label, and it’s a who’s who of “Who?” with a few starrier names scattered in. They specialized in New Wave, homages to ‘50s and ’60s rock, and springy power pop. I wrote this intro after deciding to do a track-by-track recap below, so uh, let’s get to it because there are too many words as it is.

Side One

Stiv Bators: First time hearing the solo work from the Dead Boys’ Stiv Bators, and it turns out he’s… Tom Petty-ish?

The Real Kids: Pitching this here with no real forethought, but you can divide power pop bands by whether or not their singers sound like their throat is dry. Boston’s The Real Kids are great, great dry-throated power pop, and probably one of the better-known acts here thanks to “All Kindsa Girls” showing up on a lot of compilations. They’d already broken up by 1980, so we get an unreleased demo that probably wasn’t easy to find elsewhere at the time.

The Dadistics: Somewhere between the Slits and Rough Trade, a little Pat Benatar in the vox—puts me in the mind of the similarly cool and obscure Mo-Dettes. The first third of the song is a no wavey fakeout, then it goes into a kinda Feeliesy riff. Extremely cool! And vocalist Audrey Stanzler went on to be part of the original lineup of… Ministry?!

Blake Xolton & The Martians: Tasting notes: Maybe Magazine at their most electronically disassociated? Blake Xolton was a producer with a very sparse discography, who may also have been part of the phony International Society of Poets who set up the controversial Poetry.com, a “poetry shearing site” per Wikipedia.

Jimmy Lewis & The Checkers: Pubby cover of the Aretha Franklin chestnut “Think.” Probably a little too close to Huey Lewis & the News for my taste.

The Nuns: Blondie-esque New Wave, with some very cool guitar and backing vocal effects that make it sound like the action is taking place in a futuristic resurrection chamber.

Gary Charlson: A smooth Kansas City pop rocker—his vocals strongly remind me of some minor prince of '70s classic rock radio, but all I'm coming up with is the guy from .38 Special, and I know that's not it. His sole EP covers a number of the titans of power pop (e.g. the expected Raspberries, Byrds, and Badfinger, the at the time obscure Big Star, the eternally head’s only Crabby Appleton and Vance or Towers), but he somehow never ended up cutting an LP despite a very radio-ready sound. Self-produced wonder? Nice bit o' Middle American flavour to it.

Side Two

Rodney & The Brunettes: Cutesy one-off cover of the surf rock classic by LA DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, who gives a respectable effort.

The "B" Girls: Toronto girl group who might've been able to get some of that Go-Go's money with a little polishing. Good harmonies, lead singer had a nice voice on her.

The MnM's: Excellent shake and pop, written by Paul Collins of the Nerves and the (American) Beat, and featuring the latter band's Steve Huff on bass. Vocalist Marci Marks is the kind of diminutive punk girl I’d probably have been crazy for at the time.

Paul Collins: Speaking of Collins, this is a second reminder in a row that I really need to get around to listening to his post-Nerves material, because this is a great sub-two minute blast of punkified Merseybeat.

Nikki & the Corvettes: Three-piece girl group from Detroit that sound strikingly like Tweens, a 2010s pop punk fav of mine. I'm addicted to this particular kind of snotty/bratty femme vocal, love how much room the single guitar gives to hear the bassist noodling around. Somehow I think this is the first time I’m hearing these guys.

Kathy & the Lawnmowers: After five straight '60s revival songs, we take an abrupt detour into Devo world. Kathy & the Lawnmowers were produced by the notorious Kim Fowley, who provides a blurb in the liners explaining that the mysterious bandmembers arrived at a session wearing masks having never met before, cut some tracks, then removed their masks, didn't like the looks of one-another and split for good. That's obviously baloney, but I prefer it to the version where Fowley did something terrible to them, which would not be uncharacteristic. They’re also credited as Jukebox Rebel Queens on the back cover? Anyway, fun trash sci-fi ramble about green children.

Side Three

The Sonics: "Up (to) the Junction"—sadly not a Squeeze cover, but pretty fetching stuff from the legends nonetheless. The bluesy rocking side of the Sonics (as opposed to the frothing proto-punk side), nice biting guitar tone.

The Weirdos: Per the liners, allegedly LA's first punk band, a claim I can't dispute because I continue to not know much of anything about LA punk, this is fun rockabilly style fair, like a less stylish Cramps. Good stomping beat.

The Zantees: A Gene Vincent cover in a Stray Cats vein, with a guitar player who can really go in that zippy old school Scotty Moore style.

Jon & the Nightriders: A surf rock instrumental cover—I wondered if "Super Jet Rumble" might've been by the Jet-Tones (of "Jet Tone Boogie" 'fame'), but no, seems to be a tune by The Breakers. Anyway, this sounds like every surf rock song, which is to say it rules but not in a way you'll necessarily remember.

The Lipstick Killers: High energy Australian garage rock that the band apparently called "straight edge music"; presumably Ian MacKaye had to go down to the Yabba and win a few rounds of the game from Wake in Fright to win the rights to that term. While we're at it, the song's called "Hindu Gods (of Love)"—Warren Zevon and R.E.M., you've got some explaining to do! Presumably on the B-side of the original single they also coined the term 'hyphy' and invented Lou Barlow.

The Hypstrz: A Minneapolis band with a legendary live reputation, but I can't really fuck with bands whose main gimmick is garaged up versions of old R&B sides. They probably absolutely crushed it live, but this version of "In the Midnight Hour" just kinda exists for me.

The Last: Clearly a last-minute (not a pun, fuck you) addition as it's not listed on the back of the sleeve or in the liners, the Last's "She Don't Know Why I'm Here" is a slashing piece of Anglophile psych-pop and one of the best things on this entire comp. It stuffs a remarkable number of twists and turns, false finishes, and secondary riffs into its three-and-a-half-minute runtime. The Last have a small cult following for their run of singles and debut LP LA Explosion! My only regret is that they didn't include the original single version of this one, as it elevates a groovy jam into a thrashing raveup.

The Dead Boys: Stiv Bators' second appearance on the comp; the Dead Boys were an almighty force in their day, but there's something kinda funny to me about ol' sloppy Stiv being the centrepiece of any label's roster. A good-enough take on "3rd Generation Nation" from their live LP Night of the Living Dead Boys—RateYourMusic reviewer mofoking shares some interesting backstory on how that LP came to be distributed by Bomp! and why nearly all of Stiv's vocals had to be overdubbed.

Side Four

The Crawdaddys: Perfectly competent Velvets cover, though the vox sneer their way past Lou into a Dylan impression.

The Martians: Previously appearing on this comp backing up "Blake Xolton" on a weirdo New Wave Christmas song, their own sound is traditional Merseybeat stuff. This isn't a classic, but it's a damned fine pastiche. Apparently they were a pair of record producers who joined together for this project, sharing lead vocal duties and playing all of the instruments themselves. No wonder it sounds great.

Pete Holly & the Looks: Heavy New Wave from Boise, Idaho, sporting a hilarious watery vocal filter and waka-waka guitar riffing. The chorus conceit is goofy ("Look out! Below!") but the Boiseans acquit themselves well. Somebody had to hold down the fort between Paul Revere & the Raiders and Built to Spill, so my thanks to Pete Holly.

The Wombats: Not the ’60s Wombats from Illinois or the ‘90s Wombats from also Illinois or the ‘00s Wombats from Liverpool, but rather a fourth Wombats from Cleveland, presumably the marsupial capital of the Lower Midwest. This (“Utter Frustration”) is sloppy and great and went by very quickly while I was trying to research whether Ohio's indeed part of the Lower Midwest, so I had to listen to it again.

Rainbow Red Oxidizer: A former sideman for the Seeds' Sky Saxton (presumably around the time he was fucking around with the Source Family), Rainbow Neal is accompanied by members of Focus, Spirit, Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, and even Mars Bonfire from Steppenwolf. I've got like six tabs open trying to figure out what this guy's deal is--love when a compilation sends me down a research hole like this. I'm sampling the Oxidizer LP now, and despite its New Wave window dressing, it's viciously sarcastic garage rock with the occasional jangly gem—if anything Rainbow's voice reminds me of Wire's Colin Newman. What a great song "When You Walk in the Room" is!

Cheek: Okay, these guys are Australian, covering an old Easybeats song, and are even produced by Vanda & Young, who give them something like a vintage AC/DC production sound, though these guys are considerably poppier than Angus and company. Vocalist does have a faint Bon Scott keen to his voice at times though.

The Romantics: Detroiters best known for "What I Like About You" (one of those songs I have heard ten thousand songs and never questioned the provenance of) turn in a rarity in "Running Away," a slab of pristine midwestern power pop that was apparently intended to be issued as a single with BOMP! but ended up seeing its first release here. They'd lose the Romantics to the Atlantic-distributed Nemperor Records right before they blew the fuck up, which has gotta be a label owner's nightmare.

Well, that took goddamn forever. If you’re still around, the tracks I most recommend fishing out are the Real Kids, Dadistics, “B” Girls, MnMs, Paul Collins, Nikki & the Corvettes, Last, Martians, Wombats, and Rainbow Red Oxidizer tunes. Not a bad haul!

138/365

[broodparasitism]

Also someone in my family said that they associate me with stars and night sky types of pattern which is honestly so nice 🥺 I actually really like having that association. Should I make this blog starrier.

[nyssasorbit]

Your Plucky Dreamwalker Partner Reveals What She Knows

It’s Detective Ava time! Doing the spacey background was a bit difficult to blend it in right tbh. (Also, unlike the other ones, I used a stock photo to help me with the icon/symbol, so don’t give me too much credit for it, lol)

idk if it’s noticeable, but Blake’s sword symbol is-ish in the rubik’s cube pattern~ (Since she’s his sister)

[fandom-official]

The Star Wars series just keeps getting starrier 🤩

[letterboxd]

Reservation Roots.

For Indigenous People’s Day 2021, Leo Koziol explores the indie-film roots of Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s hit native series, Reservation Dogs.

Breakout FX on Hulu hit Reservation Dogs speaks directly to native audiences, each episode made lovingly by a bevy of native directors, actors and crew, many of whom found their storytelling voices through independent film. Anyone new to native cinema could do no better than to start their journey with a few choice cuts from these native talents.

The indie-film factor in Reservation Dogs’ success cannot be overstated. Television has a reach that other media do not, yet the path to primetime has never been easy. Any television project can die in development, fall at the pilot stage, or fail to be renewed after one measly season. For underrepresented storytellers, this road is even rougher.

To arrive on the small screen with a fully formed voice, there needs to have been a place to warm that voice up, and it’s more often been in the world of independent film that these opportunities lie for Indigenous artists.

Reservation Dogs is the brainchild of Taika Waititi (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Aotearoa) and Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee Creek), who were both supported as indie darlings at Sundance under the watchful eye of recently retired native program director Bird Runningwater. (He has left the storied institute in order to produce his own projects.)

Lane Factor as Cheese, Paulina Alexis as Willie Jack, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear, Devery Jacobs as Elora Danan Postoak in TV series ‘Reservation Dogs’.

Episodes were also directed by veteran natives Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo Nation) and Sydney Freeland, as well as performance poet and Bishop Paiute Tribe citizen Tazbah Rose Chavez (from the Nüümü, Diné and San Carlos Apache).

Between them, these five have made fifteen feature films (and won an Oscar), which represent a wellspring of native cinema ripe for rewatching or—going by many recent Letterboxd reviews who have come to them via Reservation Dogs—first-time discovery.

For aficionados of native cinema, Reservation Dogs is full of uniquely native humor (greasy fry bread, anyone?) and pop-culture references (main character Elora is named for the baby in Willow), but the most fun aspect for me has been the in-jokes. The Skux Soda cabinet at the native clinic (Hunt for the Wilderpeople fan service), a row of Māori dolls in a native rez store (co-creator Waititi is Māori) and, best of all, in episode five, an Oklahoma cinema marquee listing films by the four Native American directors of the series: Barking Water (Harjo), Drunktown’s Finest (Freeland), Fukry (Lowe) and Your Name Isn’t English (Chavez).

Waititi, the starrier of the two creators, whose feature works range from the awkward romance of Eagle vs Shark through to next year’s Thor: Love and Thunder, has certainly injected a careful balance of humor and emotion into the series. From his filmography, Reservation Dogs most resembles his 2010 semi-autobiographical comedy, Boy. But at heart, it is Harjo’s show—set in his home community of Oklahoma, and the culmination of fifteen years of filmmaking that serve as a calling card to its themes.

Richard Ray Whitman and Casey Camp-Horinek as Frankie and Irene in Sterlin Harjo’s ‘Barking Water’.

Stretching back to his beginnings, you can see two of Harjo’s best shorts on his YouTube channel. Goodnight Irene mirrors episode two of the series with malaise and humor in a native clinic; Three Little Boys directly mirrors the “kids on the Rez” ensemble of the show.

Then, in a trio of dramatic features, we see the progression as Harjo’s filmmaking skills grow alongside better budgets and resources. Letterboxd members are proudly noting the thematic similarities in his works. “Like Reservation Dogs, Harjo finds his most striking emotional moments in the quiet spaces between friends and family members,” writes Hannibal Montana of the first, Four Sheets To The Wind (2007).

CoterEB notes that Harjo’s 2009 follow-up, Barking Water, slots neatly into the Reservation Dogs storytelling family: “What Harjo absolutely succeeds at is letting the audience go along with it… It’s emotionally effective without manipulation.” It’s an approach that is further on display in his third feature, Mekko (2015), Hannibal Montana again recognizing that “much like Reservation Dogs, Mekko has one foot in a nostalgia for a lost, proud past and another in the immediate issues facing Indigenous people today, namely poverty, violence, and addiction”. (Hanabi Banana gives a more pointed review of this film, which I loved. Spoiler alert!)

A still from Blackhorse Lowe’s 2009 short, ‘Shimásáni’.

Blackhorse Lowe is a long-time collaborator of Harjo’s; he was one of the editors of Mekko, and is also a Sundance alumnus. Lowe has a two-decade pedigree across many filmmaking departments and is a champion of genre-driven Indigenous films in New Mexico. His 2009 short Shimásáni is currently available on MUBI. He’s made three features, my favorite of which is Chasing The Light.

Writing about the 2014 film, Andy Nelson observes: “Lowe, also the cinematographer, captured some beautiful and haunting black-and-white imagery, which certainly helps add to the other world wanderings. It’s worth checking out, but the grittiness and raw drug comedy elements may be too much for a lot of people.”

I’m a huge fan of Lowe’s fellow Navajo director Sydney Freeland. You can watch her 2017 second feature, Deidra & Laney Rob A Train, on Netflix, but for me her best work to date is her first, Drunktown’s Finest (2014). Leonara Ann Mint writes of Freeland’s debut: “a very nuanced and powerful experience. Native American and trans voices are both way too rare in cinema, so to get both in the same film is often a revelation. All three plot lines here have depth, warmth and nuance, and by the end, the film had achieved a deep sense of emotional connectedness with each character that I won’t soon forget.”

Jeremiah Bitsui, MorningStar Angeline and Carmen Moore in Sydney Freeland’s ‘Drunktown’s Finest’ (2014).

When Drunktown’s Finest was released, Freeland had not yet come out as a trans person (one of three stories in the Navajo-set film is of a trans woman, and how Navajo culture traditionally accepted those of a “third gender”). She’s gone on to cut a path in both LGBTQ storytelling and Indigenous film, and it’s wonderful to see her on the team for Reservation Dogs. Freeland is also directing episodes of Peacock’s Rutherford Falls, which shares creative talent with the Reservation Dogs collective. And with Harjo, she is making Rez Ball, a sports film for Netflix about the unique culture of Indigenous basketball.

In front of the camera, the ensemble cast of Reservation Dogs carries a film pedigree as deep as the directors behind it, and while many of the films they have appeared in are made by non-native writers and directors, their performances—and, in many ways their experiences on those sets—inform their work on Reservation Dogs.

Kahnawà:ke Mohawk actress Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (credited as Devery Jacobs for her role as Elora) has played significant roles in Rhymes for Young Ghouls, the zombie outbreak gore-fest Blood Quantum and the Neil Gaiman series American Gods, as well as a number of short films, including Ara Marumaru for the Māoriland Film Festival Native Slam.

Dallas Goldtooth, who is Dakota and Dińe, appears on screen as the spirit of a warrior who died at Custer’s last stand. Goldtooth can also be seen as Rich Hall’s traveling companion in the comedian’s 2012 documentary re-examination of Native American stereotypes. Bear is played by Canadian actor D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (of Oji-Cree, Anishinaabe and Guyanese descent) who has a breakout feature role in this year’s Beans, by Mohawk director Tracey Deer.

The cast also includes several veterans of the native film scene. First Nation media pioneer Gary Farmer, of the Cayuga Nation and Wolf Clan, has appeared in more than 50 films, including First Cow, Dead Man and Blood Quantum, and has been nominated three times for an Independent Spirit Acting Award.

Devery Jacobs and Kiowa Gordon in ‘Blood Quantum’ (2019).

The legendary Cherokee star Wes Studi, who won an honorary Oscar at the 2019 Academy Awards, has had roles in numerous Hollywood blockbusters, including Dances With Wolves, The Last of the Mohicans and Avatar. My favorite Studi film is the comedy short, Ronnie BoDean, which you can watch for free on director Stephen Paul Judd’s Vimeo.

Nothing gets made without a script, and the brains in the Reservation Dogs writers’ room also have considerable roots in independent arts. Many of the crew, including Harjo and Goldtooth, are members of the 1491s, an Oklahoma-based native sketch comedy group. The 1491s are most famed for the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where they premiered Between Two Knees, an intergenerational comedic love story/musical set against the backdrop of true events in native history.

1491s with writing credits on the show are poet and podcaster Tommy Pico (from the Viejas reservation of the Kumeyaay nation), Bobby Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota), who plays Marcus Werewolf in the What We Do in the Shadows television spinoff, and Migizi Pensoneau (Ponca/Ojibwe), who has several shorts on his filmography.

Right after the finale of series one, FX on Hulu announced Reservation Dogs season two and an expansion of its all-Indigenous writers’ room. Director Blackhorse Lowe joins the room, along with actors Jacobs and Goldtooth.

Other new writers in the room are Ryan RedCorn (Osage), who played Mike in Harjo’s Barking Water, Afro-Indigenous comedian and director Chad Charlie (Ahousaht First Nation), who made the 2020 short Uu?uu~tah and has another, Firecracker Bullets, coming next year, and award-winning writer-director Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga). Her 2020 short film Little Chief premiered at Sundance, and she is following in Waititi’s and Harjo’s footsteps as a Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab fellow.

The hope for both audiences and our industry is that Reservation Dogs won’t be a one-off. At the 2021 Emmy Awards, Harjo stood on stage and said, “We are here on television’s biggest night as creators and actors, proud to be Indigenous people working in Hollywood, representing the first people to walk upon this continent.”

Joined by his four leading actors, the group collectively stated: “Thankfully networks and streamers are now beginning to produce and develop shows created by and starring Indigenous people. It’s a good start, which can lead us to the day when telling stories from under-served communities will be the norm, not the exception. Because, like life, TV is at its best when we all have a voice.”

Sterlin Harjo and Taiki Waititi. / Photo by Robin Lori / INSTAR Images

As someone who for many years has followed the rise of native cinema from my home film festival, the arrival of this Stateside television hit marks a new day for native creatives. To Indigenous film fans, its creators are cult heroes who have been working for decades both in front of and behind the screen getting native American stories told, uncompromisingly.

I think about the collective talent that Sterlin and Taika have wrapped around the series, and I realize they simply contacted all their friends from past indie productions and said, hey, come work with us on this all-native production, we can pay you this time.

Related content

Leo’s list of the indie roots of Reservation Dogs

Reel Injun: a 2009 documentary by Catherine Bainbridge, Neil Diamond and Jeremiah Hayes about the Native American Hollywood experience

El Napalmo’s extensive Indigenous Cinema list

Dolores’ list of movies in which the main native character is in fact white

Beans is released in select theaters and on demand on November 5

Follow Leo on Letterboxd