Rez Ball | |
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Directed by | Sydney Freeland |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | Canyon Dreams by Michael Powell |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Kira Kelly |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Netflix |
Release date |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Rez Ball is an upcoming American sports drama film written and directed by Sydney Freeland that will be available on streaming service Netflix. Freedland and Sterlin Harjo adapted the screenplay from The New York Times journalist Michael Powell's nonfiction sports novel Canyon Dreams. LeBron James is a producer on the project. An ensemble cast is set to feature Jessica Matten, Julia Jones, Amber Midthunder, and Kiowa Gordon.
The film is slated to premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. [1]
The Chuska Warriors, a Native American high school basketball team from Chuska, New Mexico, are competing for the state championship title but lose their star player. [2] [3]
Sydney Freeland was announced as director of the project for Netflix in August 2021. Freeland and Sterlin Harjo had written the script inspired by Michael Powell's nonfiction sports novel Canyon Dreams (2019). The project was produced by Wise Entertainment with Maurício and Katie Mota involved. [4] That same month LeBron James and Maverick Carter were announced to have joined the project as producers via The SpringHill Company with Spencer Beighley and Jamal Henderson executive producers for SpringHill. [5]
In April 2023, Deadline Hollywood reported that principal photography was underway and taking place in New Mexico with filming on the Navajo Nation, with the permission and support of the local sovereign tribal nations. [6]
Frybread is a dish of the indigenous people of North America that is a flat dough bread, fried or deep-fried in oil, shortening, or lard.
Chinle High School is a public high school in Chinle, an unincorporated area of Apache County, Arizona, United States. The school is the only high school in the Chinle Unified School District, and all of the district's elementary and middle schools feed into it. Chinle High School serves several unincorporated areas in Apache County, including Chinle, Cottonwood, Del Muerto, Lukachukai, Many Farms, Nazlini, Rough Rock, Sehili, Tsaile, and small portions of Round Rock and Sawmill. The areas the school serves are within the Navajo Nation.
The Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the weekend following the third Thursday in August. The event draws an estimated 150,000 people to the city from around the world. The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) organizes the market, showcasing work from 1,200 of the top Native American artists from tribes across the country.
Kiowa Joseph Gordon is a Native American actor of Hualapai heritage. He is best known for his role as shapeshifter Embry Call in The Twilight Saga, as well as Junior in the TV series The Red Road.
Julia Jones is an American actress. She may be best known for playing Leah Clearwater in The Twilight Saga film series and Angela Bishop in the television series Dexter: New Blood.
Drunktown's Finest is a 2014 American drama film directed by Sydney Freeland. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. The film later screened at the Sundance London Film Festival on April 25, 2014.
Sterlin Harjo is a Seminole filmmaker. He has directed three feature films, a feature documentary, and the FX comedy drama series Reservation Dogs, all of them set in his home state of Oklahoma and concerned primarily with Native American people and content.
Sydney Freeland is a Native American (Navajo) filmmaker. She wrote and directed the short film Hoverboard (2012) and the film Drunktown's Finest (2014), which garnered numerous acclaims after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Her second film, Deidra and Laney Rob a Train, debuted at Sundance and was released on Netflix in 2017.
Chernin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded and owned by producer and former media executive Peter Chernin, who is chairman and CEO of the company. Jenno Topping is the president of film and television, with David Ready as EVP of film and TV. Kristen Campo is EVP of television. Twenty-seven films have been produced by the company, most of them with 20th Century Fox.
The 1491s are a Native American sketch comedy group, with members based in Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Montana. While the members' sketch comedy has had a growing cult following since the mid-2000s, and their videos since 2009, they are perhaps best known for their work in more widely-known shows such as Rutherford Falls and Reservation Dogs.
Amber Midthunder is an American actress. She is known for her regular roles in the FX series Legion and The CW series Roswell, New Mexico, as well as appearances on Longmire, Banshee, and Reservation Dogs. She starred as Naru in Prey, the fifth installment and first prequel of the Predator franchise.
Jessica Matten is a Canadian actress and film producer.
Reservation Dogs is an American comedy-drama television series created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi for FX Productions. It follows the lives of four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma, as they spend their days hanging out and committing crimes to earn enough money to leave their reservation community.
SpringHill Company is an entertainment development and production company founded in 2020 by LeBron James and Maverick Carter. Its board of directors includes Serena Williams. The company unites three earlier companies founded by James and Carter: SpringHill Entertainment, an entertainment production company founded in 2007, the Robot Company, an integrated marketing agency and brand and culture consultancy founded by Carter and James together with Paul Rivera, the creator of the talk show The Shop, and Uninterrupted, founded in 2015 with the aim to empower athletes by providing a platform that allows them to share their stories.
Dark Winds is an American psychological thriller television series created by Graham Roland based on the Leaphorn & Chee novel series by Tony Hillerman. It premiered on AMC and AMC+ on June 12, 2022, with the first season consisting of six episodes. After its premiere, the series was renewed for a six-episode second season, which premiered on July 30, 2023. In September 2023, the series was renewed for a third season.
D'Pharaoh Miskwaatez McKay Woon-A-Tai is a Canadian actor of Indigenous descent. He is best known for his role as Bear Smallhill in the FX on Hulu comedy-drama series Reservation Dogs (2021), for which he received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Critics' Choice Television Awards.
Nancy Utley is an American film producer and studio executive. She held the positions Executive Vice President of Marketing at 20th Century Fox and co-president and co-chairman of Searchlight Pictures. Under Utley’s leadership, Searchlight Pictures received 122 Golden Globe nominations, 159 Oscar nominations, and 40 Oscars, including four Best Picture Awards. Since 2021, Utley has run Lake Ellyn Entertainment, a production company she founded.