Sterlin Brown Harjo, Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Harjo at SXSW 2024 | |
| Born | November 14, 1979 Holdenville, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Oklahoma (BA) |
Sterlin Harjo (born November 14, 1979) [1] [2] is a Seminole filmmaker. He has directed three feature films, a feature documentary, and the FX comedy drama series Reservation Dogs , [2] all of them set in his home state of Oklahoma and concerned primarily with Native American people and content.
Harjo, a citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma [1] who also has Muscogee heritage, was born and raised in Holdenville, Oklahoma. [1] He attended the University of Oklahoma, where he studied art and film. [3] [4]
In 2004, he received a fellowship from the Sundance Institute. [5] His short film "Goodnight, Irene" [6] premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival [3] and received a special jury award at the Aspen Shortsfest. [3] In 2006, he received a fellowship from the newly formed organization United States Artists. [7] [8]
Harjo's first feature film, Four Sheets to the Wind , tells the story of a young Seminole man who travels from his small home town to Tulsa to visit his sister after the death of their father. [9] [10] The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the grand jury prize. Harjo was named best director at the 2007 American Indian Film Festival. [11] The film's co-star Tamara Podemski won a Sundance special jury prize for her performance in the picture, [12] and she was later nominated for best supporting actress at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards. [10]
Harjo's second feature, Barking Water , premiered at the 2009 Sundance festival. [11] It portrays a road trip by a dying man and his former lover across Oklahoma to see his daughter and granddaughter in Wewoka, the capital of the Seminole Nation. [13] [14] Barking Water was named best drama film at the 2009 American Indian Film Festival. [15]
Harjo's first feature documentary, This May Be the Last Time , is based on the story of Harjo's grandfather, who disappeared in 1962 in the Seminole County town of Sasakwa. It explores the subject of Creek Nation hymns and their connection to Scottish folk, gospel and rock music. [16] [17] [18] The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival [19] and its distribution rights were subsequently acquired by AMC/Sundance Channel Global for the Sundance Channel. [20] His third feature film, Mekko , a thriller set in Tulsa, [21] premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2015. [22] [23]
Harjo has also directed a number of short-form projects. His 2009 short film Cepanvkuce Tutcenen (Three Little Boys) was part of the Embargo Collective project commissioned by the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. [24] He has directed a series of shorts for This Land Press in Tulsa, where Harjo is the staff video director. [25] He was a member of the 2010 Sundance shorts competition jury. [26]
Harjo is a founding member of a five-member Native American comedy group, the 1491s. [27] He is also one of the directors of the Cherokee Nation's monthly television news magazine, Osiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People. [28]
In 2021 FX released the first season of the groundbreaking Indigenous comedy series Reservation Dogs . The series is executive produced, directed, and co-written by Harjo, with Taika Waititi co-writing and executive producing. [29] On September 2, 2021, FX renewed the series for a second season. [30] More recently, he had signed a new overall deal at FX. [31] In 2022, Reservation Dogs was recognized at the 37th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards as Best New Scripted Series, and Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series. The awards were presented to series co-creator Waititi. [32] At the Spirit Awards ceremony, actor Devery Jacobs said: "This prize is so much bigger than ourselves, just ourselves. Each of us come from different nations across Turtle Island who survived 500 years of colonization. And in the 100 years of film and TV, Reservation Dogs now marks the first project with all Indigenous creatives at the helm." [33]
Harjo was awarded the 2011 Tilghman Award from the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle [3] and the Tulsa Library Trust's 2013 American Indian Writers Award. [34] He was also awarded a 2021 Peabody Award for his producing the TV series Reservation Dogs.
Pryor Creek or Pryor is a city in and county seat of Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 8,659 at the 2000 census and 9,539 in the 2010 census.
Beggs is a city in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,179 as of the 2020 census. Beggs was named for C.H. Beggs, vice president of the St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) Railway.
Okmulgee is a city in, and the county seat of, Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States, and is part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area. The name is from the Mvskoke word okimulgee, which means "boiling waters". The site was chosen because of the nearby rivers and springs. Okmulgee is 38 miles south of Tulsa and 13 miles north of Henryetta via US-75.
Terlton is a town in Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is located one-half mile south of US 412/US 64 on Terlton Road and County Road E0570. The population was 77 at the time of the 2020 Census.
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.
Taika David Cohen, known professionally as Taika Waititi, is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor and comedian. He is known for directing quirky comedy films and has expanded his career as a voice actor and producer on numerous projects. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award, as well as two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
Barking Water is a 2009 independent feature film written and directed by Sterlin Harjo that premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Harjo's second feature film, it stars Richard Ray Whitman, Casey Camp-Horinek, Jon Proudstar, Aaron Riggs, Laura Spencer, Quese iMC, Ryan Red Corn, and Beau Harjo.
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the largest of the three federally recognized Seminole governments, which include the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Its citizens are descendants of the approximately 3,000 Seminoles who were forcibly removed from Florida to Indian Territory, along with 800 Black Seminoles, after the Second Seminole War. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is headquartered in Wewoka within Seminole County, Oklahoma. Of 18,800 enrolled tribal citizens, 13,533 live in Oklahoma. The tribe began to revive its government in 1936 under the Indian Reorganization Act. While its reservation was originally larger, today the tribal reservation and jurisdictional area covers Seminole County, Oklahoma, within which it has a variety of properties.
Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers from all over the world. At the core of the programs is the goal to introduce audiences to the artists' new work, aided by the institute's labs, granting and mentorship programs that take place throughout the year in the United States and internationally.
Four Sheets to the Wind is a 2007 independent drama film written and directed by Sterlin Harjo. It was Harjo's first feature film, and won several awards at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and American Indian Film Festival.
Garrett Basch is an American film and television producer. He is best known for his work on the Emmy-winning series The Night Of and What We Do in the Shadows.
Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs is a First Nations (Mohawk) actress, writer, and director. For her performance in Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013), she garnered a Canadian Screen Awards nomination for Best Actress. In 2023 and 2024, for her role on Reservation Dogs, she was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.
Arigon Starr is a Kickapoo singer, actor, playwright and comic book writer, who is known for her one-woman shows. She has won numerous awards for her music, art, and plays, including the Native American Music Awards for Best Independent Recording in 1999 and Songwriter of the Year in 2007. In 2016, Starr edited the graphic novel Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, which was named one of the American Library Associations 2018 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. She won a Tulsa Artist Fellowship in 2017 and her play Round House was produced by the New Native Play Festival in 2018.
This May Be the Last Time is a 2014 American documentary film produced and directed by Sterlin Harjo. The film had its world premiere at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2014.
Mekko is a 2015 American drama film directed by Sterlin Harjo. Harjo's third feature film, it is a thriller set among a community of homeless Native Americans in Tulsa.
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.
Rod Rondeaux is a Native American actor and stuntman. As an actor, his work includes the 2005 miniseries Into the West, Comanche Moon in 2008, the Cayuse character in the 2010 Kelly Reichardt film Meek's Cutoff, and the lead role in the 2015 film, Mekko. His stunt work includes Reel Injun and Comanche Moon.
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.
Taika Waititi is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor and comedian. Waititi began his film career in the early 2000s by directing short films. His short film Two Cars, One Night (2003) got him an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. His first feature film, Eagle vs Shark, was released in 2007. Waititi's second film, Boy (2010) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
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 two Critics' Choice Television Award nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
