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This message is reprinted under the Fair Use
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FROM: THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWSPAPER
tntget=2005/04/25/business/media/25native.html&tntemail1
Indians Investing, but Carefully, in Hollywood
Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal
Ray Halbritter, chief executive of the Oneida Indian Nation, with Jay Leno in
January at an NBC concert benefiting tsunami relief efforts.
By JAMES ULMER
Published: April 25, 2005
Rick Schroder, center, directed "Black Cloud," which includes Eddie Spears,
right, and Janelle. The movie was financed by Indians.
ecades after John Wayne and his cowboys vanquished the Indians for
generations of white movie audiences, American Indian tribes are beginning to invest
more than just lingering bad faith in Hollywood.
A few tribes are starting to put money into the same mainstream media that
once glorified their demise. One Indian-financed movie, Rick Schroder's recently
released "Black Cloud," is about a young Navajo boxer who wins a spot on the
United States Olympic team.
In an alliance between Hollywood and Indian country, Mr. Schroder rallied 12
tribes around the country to finance his $1 million project, which he also
wrote. After 50 cold calls and six months of rejections, Mr. Schroder got his
first yes and a low six-figure commitment from the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.
The Oneida Indian Nation of New York partnered with NBC sports to present
"The World of American Dance" in 2003, the first Indian-financed documentary to
be shown on network television. The tribe, which fully financed the $350,000
production and took a loss on it, is also the first, and so far only, one to
hire a Los Angeles public relations firm to help handle its Hollywood ventures.
"We wanted to begin to understand the business and for others to understand
us, so our motives weren't solely for profit," said Ray Halbritter, chief
executive and nation representative for the Oneida Nation. "It was important for us
to show the industry we were capable of actually producing something, that we
were a player."
These ventures are seen as loss leaders to help tribes gain a foothold in the
mainstream media. What has made their investment possible is the growth of
the lucrative casino business. According to the National Indian Gaming
Association, tribes collected $18.5 billion in revenue in 2004, a 10 percent increase
from the previous year.
Hollywood producers have called on Indian financiers in the past, but almost
all entreaties have been turned down by tribal financiers unimpressed with
often non-Indian storylines or what they deemed to be clichéd depictions of
Indian culture. Both the Oneida of New York and the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut
turn down about a dozen script submissions a year.
"Hollywood in its own infinite deteriorating wisdom has always thought of us
as invisible," said Sonny Skyhawk, an American Indian producer in Los Angeles
who was also a partner in "The World of American Dance." "Now that gaming has
enabled us to empower ourselves, and people can see we're still here, our next
hurdle is to make movies and programs that help change the old biases."
Indeed, many Indian business leaders say they are struggling with another
mainstream caricature, born not from Hollywood but from 1988 federal legislation
that allowed gaming on their lands.
"Indians have gone from the stereotypical impoverished noble savage to the
stereotypical Mr. Money Bags," said Tim Johnson, executive editor of the
newspaper Indian Country Today. "It's amazing how quickly we've been universally
branded."
While each Indian sovereign nation has its own culture, there's a common
ritual for those making business pitches to a tribe. As a candidate, Mr. Schroder
had to make his case before each tribal council, which usually consists of up
to a dozen businessmen and women and community leaders.
"When the elders of the council look you in the eye, if they don't like you
and trust you, you'll get nowhere," Mr. Schroder said.
Securing a commitment from a tribe can take months, and producers hoping to
find one-stop financing will probably be disappointed. The nations are highly
competitive and rarely partner among themselves to invest in projects. That
left Mr. Schroder crisscrossing the country in a dogged and scattered pursuit of
tribal financing.
Mark F. Brown, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe, which financed the East Coast
release and media campaign for "Black Cloud," said that a movie "is a very
risky proposition," compared to the safer returns from gambling. But he added:
"Our market is the New York area, and Rick's name is well known there from 'NYPD
Blue.' " Mr. Schroder played Danny Sorenson, a detective, in the ABC drama
series that ended this year.
The Mohegan Tribe has also sponsored a premiere of "I{sheart} Huckabees" at
their huge Mohegan Sun complex in Uncasville, Conn., the largest casino resort
in the world. The tribe also donated $50,000 to a favorite charity of the
film's star, Mark Wahlberg.
If America's 215 gaming tribes are not exactly throwing open their vaults to
movie producers, they may have good reason. Mr. Halbritter said that his tribe
wanted to build relationships with Hollywood, but that it was hard to know
whom to trust.
Skepticism of Hollywood is not relieved by the industry's track record. Even
the 1992 film "Dances With Wolves," which many Indians heralded as Hollywood's
first positive and accurate portrayal of native life, left resentment after
its release.
"Our reservations were flooded with New Agers who brought their crystals and
started hundreds of sun dance cults," said Frank King, editor of the Indian
newspaper The Native Voice and a member of the Lakota tribe. "It broke our
culture, and we lost our ohuntka," a Lakota word meaning original route.
Filmmakers with a television or film documentary to sell may have the best
shot at loosening tribal purse strings. "Tribes will more readily fund a
documentary project," Mr. King said. "They trust it more than a fiction film because
it's a form through which they can directly tell their stories."
Currently, two major television projects are vying to offer the first
Indian-run, nationally distributed programming for Indians.
The most developed appears to be "Indian Country Today on TV," a spinoff of
Indian Country Today. The newspaper would provide editorial content for the
program's 39 weekly half-hour shows covering Indian news and issues, which would
be presented in a format similar to "60 Minutes." The show's executive
producer, Michael Fields, is petitioning PBS to distribute the series.
"This program must somehow fly above any contentious issues between the
tribes," said Mr. Fields, who is not Indian. "It must show the outside world that
these people have a common history and premise, though we'll portray the tribal
differences, sure."
The nascent Native American Television Network, co-founded in Albuquerque by
the half-Indian investment banker John Francis and his partner Anthony
Conforti, also hopes to become the first publicly traded and advertising-supported
24-hour digital cable channel. It recently struck a distribution deal with
WinSonic Digital Cable Network Systems, based in Atlanta.
Mr. Skyhawk, the producer in Los Angeles, owns Amerind Entertainment. The
company promotes his film and television projects both to tribes and to
Hollywood, where his studio and network relationships make him one of the best-known
conduits for Indians. He contends that Indians must exploit Hollywood's
opportunities more deeply so that they can create their own media structures.
"We can't exist without Hollywood's machinations," he said. "So, I'm trying
to impress on the tribes nationally that it's vitally important we become
players. How are we going to overturn the image of the American Indian if we don't
do it ourselves? Hollywood sure won't."
Mr. Skyhawk is doing what Mr. Schroder did: pitching to the tribal councils,
one nation at a time.
"Our tribes are so afraid of the unknown," he said. "But we need to be
proactive if we want to coexist on the American media scene. After all, we were the
original storytellers."
This message is reprinted under the Fair Use
Doctrine of International Copyright Law:
************************************************** *************
FROM: THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWSPAPER
tntget=2005/04/25/business/media/25native.html&tntemail1
Indians Investing, but Carefully, in Hollywood
Paul Drinkwater/NBC Universal
Ray Halbritter, chief executive of the Oneida Indian Nation, with Jay Leno in
January at an NBC concert benefiting tsunami relief efforts.
By JAMES ULMER
Published: April 25, 2005
Rick Schroder, center, directed "Black Cloud," which includes Eddie Spears,
right, and Janelle. The movie was financed by Indians.
ecades after John Wayne and his cowboys vanquished the Indians for
generations of white movie audiences, American Indian tribes are beginning to invest
more than just lingering bad faith in Hollywood.
A few tribes are starting to put money into the same mainstream media that
once glorified their demise. One Indian-financed movie, Rick Schroder's recently
released "Black Cloud," is about a young Navajo boxer who wins a spot on the
United States Olympic team.
In an alliance between Hollywood and Indian country, Mr. Schroder rallied 12
tribes around the country to finance his $1 million project, which he also
wrote. After 50 cold calls and six months of rejections, Mr. Schroder got his
first yes and a low six-figure commitment from the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.
The Oneida Indian Nation of New York partnered with NBC sports to present
"The World of American Dance" in 2003, the first Indian-financed documentary to
be shown on network television. The tribe, which fully financed the $350,000
production and took a loss on it, is also the first, and so far only, one to
hire a Los Angeles public relations firm to help handle its Hollywood ventures.
"We wanted to begin to understand the business and for others to understand
us, so our motives weren't solely for profit," said Ray Halbritter, chief
executive and nation representative for the Oneida Nation. "It was important for us
to show the industry we were capable of actually producing something, that we
were a player."
These ventures are seen as loss leaders to help tribes gain a foothold in the
mainstream media. What has made their investment possible is the growth of
the lucrative casino business. According to the National Indian Gaming
Association, tribes collected $18.5 billion in revenue in 2004, a 10 percent increase
from the previous year.
Hollywood producers have called on Indian financiers in the past, but almost
all entreaties have been turned down by tribal financiers unimpressed with
often non-Indian storylines or what they deemed to be clichéd depictions of
Indian culture. Both the Oneida of New York and the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut
turn down about a dozen script submissions a year.
"Hollywood in its own infinite deteriorating wisdom has always thought of us
as invisible," said Sonny Skyhawk, an American Indian producer in Los Angeles
who was also a partner in "The World of American Dance." "Now that gaming has
enabled us to empower ourselves, and people can see we're still here, our next
hurdle is to make movies and programs that help change the old biases."
Indeed, many Indian business leaders say they are struggling with another
mainstream caricature, born not from Hollywood but from 1988 federal legislation
that allowed gaming on their lands.
"Indians have gone from the stereotypical impoverished noble savage to the
stereotypical Mr. Money Bags," said Tim Johnson, executive editor of the
newspaper Indian Country Today. "It's amazing how quickly we've been universally
branded."
While each Indian sovereign nation has its own culture, there's a common
ritual for those making business pitches to a tribe. As a candidate, Mr. Schroder
had to make his case before each tribal council, which usually consists of up
to a dozen businessmen and women and community leaders.
"When the elders of the council look you in the eye, if they don't like you
and trust you, you'll get nowhere," Mr. Schroder said.
Securing a commitment from a tribe can take months, and producers hoping to
find one-stop financing will probably be disappointed. The nations are highly
competitive and rarely partner among themselves to invest in projects. That
left Mr. Schroder crisscrossing the country in a dogged and scattered pursuit of
tribal financing.
Mark F. Brown, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe, which financed the East Coast
release and media campaign for "Black Cloud," said that a movie "is a very
risky proposition," compared to the safer returns from gambling. But he added:
"Our market is the New York area, and Rick's name is well known there from 'NYPD
Blue.' " Mr. Schroder played Danny Sorenson, a detective, in the ABC drama
series that ended this year.
The Mohegan Tribe has also sponsored a premiere of "I{sheart} Huckabees" at
their huge Mohegan Sun complex in Uncasville, Conn., the largest casino resort
in the world. The tribe also donated $50,000 to a favorite charity of the
film's star, Mark Wahlberg.
If America's 215 gaming tribes are not exactly throwing open their vaults to
movie producers, they may have good reason. Mr. Halbritter said that his tribe
wanted to build relationships with Hollywood, but that it was hard to know
whom to trust.
Skepticism of Hollywood is not relieved by the industry's track record. Even
the 1992 film "Dances With Wolves," which many Indians heralded as Hollywood's
first positive and accurate portrayal of native life, left resentment after
its release.
"Our reservations were flooded with New Agers who brought their crystals and
started hundreds of sun dance cults," said Frank King, editor of the Indian
newspaper The Native Voice and a member of the Lakota tribe. "It broke our
culture, and we lost our ohuntka," a Lakota word meaning original route.
Filmmakers with a television or film documentary to sell may have the best
shot at loosening tribal purse strings. "Tribes will more readily fund a
documentary project," Mr. King said. "They trust it more than a fiction film because
it's a form through which they can directly tell their stories."
Currently, two major television projects are vying to offer the first
Indian-run, nationally distributed programming for Indians.
The most developed appears to be "Indian Country Today on TV," a spinoff of
Indian Country Today. The newspaper would provide editorial content for the
program's 39 weekly half-hour shows covering Indian news and issues, which would
be presented in a format similar to "60 Minutes." The show's executive
producer, Michael Fields, is petitioning PBS to distribute the series.
"This program must somehow fly above any contentious issues between the
tribes," said Mr. Fields, who is not Indian. "It must show the outside world that
these people have a common history and premise, though we'll portray the tribal
differences, sure."
The nascent Native American Television Network, co-founded in Albuquerque by
the half-Indian investment banker John Francis and his partner Anthony
Conforti, also hopes to become the first publicly traded and advertising-supported
24-hour digital cable channel. It recently struck a distribution deal with
WinSonic Digital Cable Network Systems, based in Atlanta.
Mr. Skyhawk, the producer in Los Angeles, owns Amerind Entertainment. The
company promotes his film and television projects both to tribes and to
Hollywood, where his studio and network relationships make him one of the best-known
conduits for Indians. He contends that Indians must exploit Hollywood's
opportunities more deeply so that they can create their own media structures.
"We can't exist without Hollywood's machinations," he said. "So, I'm trying
to impress on the tribes nationally that it's vitally important we become
players. How are we going to overturn the image of the American Indian if we don't
do it ourselves? Hollywood sure won't."
Mr. Skyhawk is doing what Mr. Schroder did: pitching to the tribal councils,
one nation at a time.
"Our tribes are so afraid of the unknown," he said. "But we need to be
proactive if we want to coexist on the American media scene. After all, we were the
original storytellers."
