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00:00Tell me about kind of when you recognized, as you mentioned, being in the entertainment industry for a couple of decades,
00:05when you recognized the appetite, not just on the audience side, because the audience is always looking for stories that they can recognize,
00:12but the industry's reception to telling these stories. Do you remember when you saw that shift?
00:18A hundred percent. Girl, I started at a time when, you know, they didn't know what to do with my look,
00:24where indigenous people were not given lead roles or necessarily supporting roles, you know,
00:30and it was just, I don't want to say it was on racism or anything, it was just people still figuring things out, you know,
00:36people's placement in the world, people's stories and all that, so I feel really grateful to be a part of that shift
00:42and to just be kind of spearheading, I think, like our TV show that we do, Dark Winds, right now,
00:47is the only indigenous show currently on the air to represent us as a community and people at large,
00:53so yeah, I'm just, I don't know if I answered your question, but yeah, I'm happy to be part of this movement.
00:59It doesn't hurt that Dark Winds is just a big hit, too. It is one of those shows that, you know, everybody is watching
01:05and it goes to prove that everybody would love to know stories, whether or not they particularly identify with a certain community.
01:13Yeah, I mean, you know, George R.R. Martin and Robert Redford have been trying to get this show off with Chris Eyre,
01:19our other director and executive producer for, I believe, over 15 to 20 years, and the feedback was,
01:25even another network prior to landing on the AMC said, essentially, we don't know if anyone wants to watch a show just full of Indians,
01:33and lo and behold, there is an appetite for it, like you said, so I'm grateful that people have an interest in other cultures
01:41and Indians, that it's healing in a way, I think, not also for our Native community, but also for an audience that has an appetite for that
01:49and who wants to know more about other cultures and just on a soul level, so I want to see it that way, that this is all healing in itself.
01:57Well, with Dark Winds and with Res Ball, being obviously, both of those being big hits, where do you look at as your next project?
02:05What is the dream piece of content that you would like to put out into the Hollywood world?
02:13Well, it's a little bit of a plug, but I had a development deal in Canada for a TV show that I wanted to make based on a true story of,
02:21you know, it was a Native modeling agency that was created essentially on Skid Row, and it was actually acting as a women's shelter for women of all walks of life
02:33and helping them sort out their lives and everything and just the chaos and beauty of it all, so I mean, that would be the next project I would really like to get off the ground
02:41because it's about seeing and hearing people from all walks of life.
02:45Who do we need to get involved? Let's pitch it, who's going to come on to produce?
02:49Whatever producer network wants to take this, please do, I swear, we can change it as much as you want, but there's methods for my madness, as there always is,
03:00which is I have a mission statement where we hire certain crew members who fell under my Indigenous Film Academy, which I have,
03:08that we bring them on board and that we continue to help grow their careers so that they can expand in this business too,
03:14so that's what my platform's for, I just want to help other people who took a chance on me, you know,
03:20a stranger's taken a chance on me in this business, I come from nothing, and I just want to be that for tons of other people too,
03:27you know, to give other people a chance and see them.