Lily Gladstone is single-handedly expanding Indigenous representation in film with two upcoming projects.
The “Killers of the Flower Moon” Oscar nominee narrates and executive produces documentary “Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya” about the buffalo restoration on the Blackfeet Reservation. The film will premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on February 24 in Missoula, Montana.
“‘Bring Them Home’highlights a crucial story of survival; of Iinnii, our Buffalo, of Blackfoot people and our culture, and of the very land which we call home,” Gladstone said in a press statement. “Like the Buffalo, our land does not acknowledge fences, and nor does our changing climate. For the Blackfeet, survival of the Buffalo has always been intrinsically connected to our survival as people — the revitalization of this knowledge is essential for not just us, but for all of us who share this planet, and who work to nurture hope for our collective future.”
Gladstone also executive produced and filmed an “Unknown Country” sequel in secret. The actress takes a literal backseat (read: supporting role) in the follow-up to the roadtrip drama.
The sequel, “Jazzy,” wrapped production in July 2023, shortly after “The Unknown Country” was completed under a SAG-AFTRA strike waiver agreement. As Gladstone previously told IndieWire, the cinema verité doc-style sequel centers on Jasmine “Jazzy” Bearkiller-Shangreaux, the daughter of producer Lainey Bearkiller-Shangreaux. Fit Via Vi and The Film Arcade are producing “Jazzy.” The Duplass brothters are executive producing, as is Gladstone.
Gladstone won a 2023 Gotham Award for her turn in “The Unknown Country,” which was released by Music Box Films. Gladstone portrayed Tana, a grieving woman who sets out on a road trip across America.
“Jazzy” was filmed over six years, with Jazzy and her friends growing up onscreen. The film centers on Jazzy’s loss after her friend moves away.
“One of the greatest gifts of making ‘The Unknown Country’ with Morrisa Maltz was meeting the Bearkiller-Shangreaux family, and witnessing the unbridled, exuberant creative energy that Jasmine brings into every corner of her young life,” Gladstone said in a press statement. “Her gregarious confidence lent itself to the effortless story construction and improvisation that made the scenes work, and made all of us, who were relatively strangers, feel like immediate family.”
Syriah Fool Head Means, Richard Ray Whitman, and Raymond Lee co-star in “Jazzy.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Best Actress Oscar nominee Gladstone is next set to lead Charlie Kaufman’s “Memory Police” adapted from Yoko Ogawa’s sci-fi novel of the same name. Reed Morano is attached to direct, with Martin Scorsese executive producing. Her other 2023 film “Fancy Dance” recently received a distribution deal with Apple.
