NATURALLY NATIVE from RED-HORSE NATIVE PRODUCTIONS (1998). 1 Star Out Of 4 Stars.... I was asked by a friend to review this film because of the Native/Indigenous story. The screenplay was written and co-directed by Valerie Red-Horse. She also played the lead role of Vickie Lewis Bighawk. (Red-Horse is Cherokee).
The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe (Connecticut) financed the production with $700,000. It premiered at the "Sundance Film Festival" in 1998. The interest was high because of the Native American cast of women. It grabbed no film distributor even after a screening on the Paramount Pictures lot at Los Angeles. It went straight-to-video with little interest. Red-Horse productions uploaded it free to the internet platform "Vimeo" in 2017.
A fan has uploaded it to "You-Tube" and it's receiving mainly positive comment reviews. It has received bad reviews though on the "Internet Movie Database" IMDB.
I think it's great that we had an all Native cast which was rare for 1998. You never saw this in mainstream movies nor on television. It's very different now in 2022 with the Internet.
"Naturally Native" tells the story of three native sisters who were adopted by "White" parents. They grow up and the oldest sister Vickie has the idea of starting a "skin-care" business. It comes from the plants grown in the back yard of her home. She asks her two sisters to be partners, Karen Lewis (Kimberly Guerrero) and Tanya Lewis (Irene Bedard).
This main story gets pushed to the background throughout the whole movie. It veers off into native stereotypes and old cliches. An example is the "tired" native flute playing when the onscreen moments get "philosophical" and/or "serious." It's so "Hollywood" Indian that it's laughable. The cliches don't stop there either.
It also tackles issues of alcohol abuse, physical violence and a near date-rape scene. The endless list of issues is long too.... Plus, virginity and a wife's low-body self image. There is a bath-tub sex scene which comes straight out of a "Lifetime" movie. Why? It has nothing to do with the main story. All of these issues are never dealt with on any serious level. They are swept under the rug because of the next native problem. It tries hard to be a TV Sitcom too, but can't get out from under those countless and countless native issues.
Vickie's husband is a traditional Lakota Sioux who speaks his language in one scene. There is no English subtitles. We aren't supposed know what he says I guess. He never practices his culture either. Vickie is lost too because of her adoption. Yet, her tribe is right there in front of her and the sisters. Just reach out to them.
I don't have room to write about the Indian blood situation. The sisters are native who try to receive funding for their skin-care products. Why not just get a loan from a bank as start-up? Then - they magically receive $50,000 from their own tribe to wrap up a feel-good movie. Why go through all of the drama in the first place? The sisters only needed to ask their own tribe right from the beginning.
Check it out over at VIMEO for free.
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