SUGARCANE Hits the Road with Nat Geo
The doc will play at festivals before a theatrical run and Disney+ release later this year.
Weyt-kp (Hey, hi, hello)!
I have been derelict in my newsletter publishing, but for good reason: I’ve been writing!
So, let me take a moment of your time to catch you up on what’s happening with Sugarcane and my forthcoming book, We Survived the Night.
1) Sugarcane had a dream world premiere at Sundance.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Congresswoman Sharice Davids turned out for the Sugarcane world premiere and joined our film team on the red carpet. Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary in United States history and a good friend, is leading a federal inquiry into Native American boarding schools—an absolutely essential but largely unknown effort that we hope Sugarcane will help support.
Adam Chitwood described the scene when the lights came up in the Library Center Theater for The Wrap:
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house at the Sundance Film Festival premiere of the new documentary “Sugarcane” on Saturday. As the lights came up when the screening at the Library theater ended, the audience’s thunderous applause erupted into a standing ovation while filmmakers Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie took the stage and embraced through tears.
2) Em and I won the Directing Award for the U.S. Documentary Competition.
3) Sugarcane is coming to Disney+
National Geographic Documentary Films, home to Academy Award-winning Free Solo as well as this year’s Academy Award-nominated Bobi Wine, bought distribution rights to Sugarcane.
The film will continue to play at film festivals through the rest of 2024 and will have a limited theatrical run later in the year before streaming on Disney+, likely in the fall.
Under the terms of the contract, the Walt Disney Corporation will own my family trauma for the next quarter-century, which means I will be a Disney kid until I’m 55!!!
4) The reviews have been great.
Here are a few:
“[T]he filmmakers deftly weave together multiple strands to form this compelling, heartbreaking narrative.” – Valerie Complext for Deadline
“[T]he sweet and the sour mingle. Father and son are on a quest to get to the bottom of almost unbearable truths, but their travels often have the warmth and goofiness of a buddy comedy.” - Parul Sehgal for The New Yorker
“[M]ore meaningful than a mere history lesson. It’s a portrait of what remains when injustice occurs.” - Esther Zuckerman for Indiewire (Critic’s Pick)
“[B]eneath the tears and terrors of the past there is a story of survival that’s so seldom articulated as gracefully.” - Jason Gorber for POV Magazine
“This is far more than just a film.” - Brian Farvour for The Playlist
5) I finished the first draft of We Survived the Night!
At a lovely writing retreat at the Mesa Refuge in Pt. Reyes, I finished the first full draft of my first book, We Survived the Night. It’s in my editor’s hands now.
Here’s an excerpt where I introduce the trickster Coyote:
Coyote was a lonely bachelor. A transformer who assumed the body of a man more often than he took the shape of a canid, Coyote had no wife and no kids. More anti-hero than hero, he was infamous, but not popular. Ever since Creator sent Coyote down to earth to finish what Creator had left undone, Coyote traveled the land, womanizing, creating, destroying, stealing, tricking, getting tricked, dying, resurrecting and then dying again. Though Coyote was one of the immortals, he was always getting himself killed. Jesus died and then, on the third day, miraculously rose from the dead. Christians honor his resurrection every Easter. Coyote, Creator’s prolific and often unreliable apprentice, perished and rose from the dead so many times, the Indians lost count. There are no Coyote holidays. Just Coyote Rocks marking his feats and, more often, failures.
This newsletter is FREE, need I remind you, so (for now) that’s all you get.
6) Sugarcane at Sun Valley Film Festival
Sugarcane has been selected to close the Sun Valley Film Festival in beautiful Sun Valley, Idaho. So that’s where you can catch Em and me getting in some turns on the slopes and answering all the questions you’re too afraid to type up in response to this newsletter and instead decide to ask by traveling to Sun Valley and raising your hand during our Q&A.
As my kyé7e says: “Me7 ri7-k cen di penhen.” See you when I see you,
-j
I watched your film this evening. Thank you for sharing your story and the stories of those in the film. It's a powerful thing to witness one another. I pray the truth keeps coming and that the healing keeps coming.