Longtime Native American actor, producer and director Gary Farmer is in town for the Centre Film Festival. WPSU’s Kristian Berg talked with him yesterday about his work, the state of Native American films, and his part in the film “Hey, Viktor!”, which will play at the State Theatre in downtown State College on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. as a part of the festival.
Here's that conversation:
Kristian Berg:
I was just wondering if you're feeling that there's a growing movement of Indigenous people getting both in front of and behind the camera?
Gary Farmer:
Of course, yeah. It’s been a hard sell over the years, I would admit. I'm not sure why. I think, well, until we actually had our own television network, and we still don't have that stateside, if we do produce, we still don't really have anyone to market it to unless PBS takes an interest. But that's a certain kind of an audience, you know? In Canada, you know, I helped to establish the Aboriginal People's Television Network at the turn of the century. So, it's got 22 years under its belt. So, the actual footprint for that network goes down to Ecuador. It's the math problem of selling and buying a program for 30 million as opposed to buying a program for 500 million people. So that's the challenges we still face with proliferation of our stories is still under festivals and if something gets picked up. I mean a strong film like “Frybread Face and Me” still having issues with distribution. I finally think it got a Netflix deal. But “Fancy Dance,” as far as I know, still doesn't have any distribution. And it's an awfully strong film. So, there's still mountains to climb. it's one thing to make a film, it's another thing to have it seen.
Kristian Berg:
So tell me about “Hey Viktor!,” which is screening this Sunday at the Centre Film Festival at the State Theater. It's about and stars Cody Lightning who played the young Viktor Joseph in “Smoke Signals” in 1998 when he was a kid, and now he wants to make “Smoke Signals 2.”
Gary Farmer
[laughs] It's a big comic setup really. You know, Cody is a pretty unique character just as a person. You know, he started obviously in the business when he was a child. And he's got this amazing quality about him that allows him to be self-effacing. And it's, you know, kind of a mockumentary about this effort. Not all of the players in “Smoke Signals” necessarily wanted to play with him. In fact, I regret because, you know, Cody approached me and wanted me to be a priest? … I said, “Look, I'll be a cop.” You know, I had fun working with him. And my part with the film is really just a setup for Cody.
Kristian Berg”
It's been a long time since the early theatrical releases of “Powwow Highway” and “Smoke Signals.” What progress or lack of progress have you seen since then?
Gary Farmer:
There was a period of time when we only could get $5 million max for an Indigenous film, Indigenous story. That was kind of common knowledge to all of us. You know, a lot of things got climbed up because of politics as well. I submitted a project, a documentary film, about that apartheid was really developed in Canada, right? I mean, apartheid - And they told me it wasn't true. The financiers said it wasn't true. And I couldn't believe that, because we had all the research that showed that, yes, this is where the residential school system and the homelands and the reservations all started. That’s where the concept of training Black and Indian communities to be the worker bees for the world. And so they didn't want to deal with that reality back in the ‘80s. Now the story's common knowledge, and there’s a wealth of films coming on the residential school system and all of that. So, you know, the world would be more educated about it, but it's taken 50 years. You know, it's a slow, slow go.
Kristian Berg:
The TV series “Reservation Dogs,” which you are a part of, recently ended after three seasons. But it’s really recognized as pretty much a breakthrough in Indigenous storytelling. What did you like about it? What was important to you about the series?
Gary Farmer:
I don't know. It always had a family environment. Most of these… I didn't know the young actors. All the oldies but goodies, we’ve all worked together for the last 50 years. So, between episodes I usually had a week or ten days, so I would go home my community up in Six Nations, Ontario. And it was so beautiful because I would fill up with what's going on at home. And then I'd come back to “Rez Dogs” and you just bring it as an actor to the show. That whole process was just like one big family. We get to follow those four now, those four youth that starred in this series. Now we get to follow them for 50 years in their careers. So, the whole thing was a regeneration of Indian creatives.
Kristian Berg:
It seemed to be the opportunity to tell a lot of different kinds of Indigenous stories.
Gary Farmer:
It was 20 nations presented story concepts. It's going to birth a whole new generation of storytellers and that's the exciting part.
Kristian Berg:
So, do you think that after “Reservation Dogs” that executives will be more convinced to give Native storytellers the reins?
Gary Farmer:
No, I don't believe that for a second. They're about the bottom line. I don't know. Let's hope so, I guess. You know, let's look at it positively. You know, we're seeing it as more people get control. Even someone like LeBron James investing in the Navajo basketball story, right. So, I think we'll see more of that. It depends. But I can't see the current structure of Walt Disney kind of opening up to Native story any more than they have in the past. If anything, they've tried to undermine our stories as far as I can see. But, you know, things might change. But it's going to take - we're going to still have to maintain that independent spirit. And I don't turn to a network when I want to do something. I just make the film and then find a place to market it and have it seen.
Kristian Berg:
Well, thank you very much.
Gary Farmer:
Yeah.