OKLAHOMA CITY – “American Indian Graffiti” is a new film written and
directed by Native Oklahomans Tvli Jacob, Choctaw, and Steve Judd,
Choctaw/Kiowa. The film premiered Feb. 20 at the Individual Artists of
Oklahoma Gallery in Oklahoma City, and it will also play at Dakota State
University in Madison, S.D. on April 15. The filmmakers formed Restless
Natives Motion Picture Company to make movies by, about, for, and featuring
American Indians. Their objective is to show American Indian people in a
realistic light.

Because the filmmakers have been in a rush to finish the project, “American
Indian Graffiti” has only been shown in Oklahoma’s “Bare Bones
International Film Festival,” where it won the Grand Jury Award.

“The movie is about Native Americans in a contemporary setting,” said
co-director, co-writer, and co-star Steve Judd. “Kimberly Norris Guerrero,
who was in ‘Dreamkeeper’ and ‘Seinfeld’ (in the cigar store Indian
episode), flew in from Los Angeles to do a part in our film. Yvonne Russo,
who helped produce ‘Naturally Native,’ Chris Freihofer, who was in ‘O’ and
‘Eye of God,’ the artist Richard Ray Whitman, and the rest of the leads are
all American Indians from Oklahoma.”

The film is set in a fictional town and intertwines the stories of four
individuals over a summer. Judd likens the structure to Paul Thomas
Anderson’s modern classic “Magnolia,” where the separate stories slowly
come together at the end of the narrative. He said that, like graffiti, it
all becomes one big picture. “The main story is about two girls who
graduated out of high school and, like a lot of people, they talk about
going to California or New York when they graduate, but one of the girls
decides she wants to work in the summer and go to school,” Judd said. “The
other girl, unbeknownst to her friend, is dying, and this will be her last
trip so, they get into an argument about it. The mother and the twin sister
of the girl that wants to go to school both died when she was born. The
girl always wondered why she lived, but it turns out the secret everyone
knew, but her, was that her mother tried to abort her. That part is about
her coming to acceptance, and about the girls’ friendship.

“The other story, featuring Richard Ray Whitman in the lead, is about a
mechanic who had a drunk driving accident when he was in his twenties that
killed his wife and his son. His mother lived, but she doesn’t want
anything to do with him, so he’s a loner, almost suicidal. One day a
7-year-old girl wanders into his shop, her mother didn’t want to take care
of her; she’s always out with the guys. It’s about the unlikely friendship
between the girl and the man.

“The third story is about an artist who, since he was a little kid, has
never seen a blank canvas,” Judd continued. “There was always a picture on
every canvas he sees, so he paints over the pictures. He becomes famous and
is about to become the next big thing, then all of the sudden he loses his
artistic ability when he sees a blank canvas for the first time in his
life, and it follows his downward spiral from there. The film goes back and
forth from story to story; everyone is involved in each other’s story.”

Judd wanted to make a movie that not only reflected American Indian life,
but his own experience of growing up in Oklahoma, where Native culture is
integrated into mainstream society. “When I was growing up I probably liked
more mainstream films, while Tvli was really into foreign films and art
films,” Judd said. “When I a kid I saw ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and I
realized there was never a movie where I could see someone who looks like
me. It’s not that I couldn’t identify with the film, I would go home and
pretend to be Indiana Jones, but I could never say ‘Wow! That could be me.’
Tvli and I wanted to make movies that could star any nationality. Our
movies are about Native Americans, but it doesn’t focus on the phenomenon
of being Native American. There are plenty of movies that do that, and I
love them, but we wanted to get a different take on it. Also, most films
about Native Americans are usually about some northern tribe out on the
reservation. Of course, if you talk to Indians in Oklahoma, it’s slightly
different.”

“American Indian Graffiti” was shot on digital video and Judd described it
as “a zero budget film.” However, that will not be the case in his next
project. “Smoke Signals” director Chris Eyre showed his film “Skins” at the
University of Oklahoma, where Judd and Jacob managed to get a rough cut of
their film to him. Eyre liked it and gave the young directors a quote for
their poster. “If we were African-American, he would be like Spike Lee to
me,” Judd said. “He’s the only director who has done anything that is known
in the mainstream. He’s like a brand name.” Eyre is set to produce Restless
Natives’ next project, which will be an action movie.

“American Indian Graffiti’ is not a movie for everyone,” Judd said. “It’s
not artsy, in the sense that you’ll see a cow walking out of the middle of
nowhere, but it’s artsy in that you would see it more in art theaters,
because it is on digital video, and it’s character driven. It’s a slice of
life. We shot the movie on the cheap, and it’s pretty much for people who
want to see a story, and we hope they like it and enjoy it. We did our
best.”

To find out more and to download the trailer of the film, visit
www.restless-natives.com.