Art Chowder January | February, Issue 25 | Page 61

I REGIONAL REPORT SPOKANE ARTS t’s powerful, inspiring, and motivating to spend a few minutes reading about all the talent in our community, and getting a glimpse into the hard work and hustle that has brought them this far. In that vein, I’d like to share a bit about one of our 2018 SAGA grantees, Counting Coup Media, who received SAGA funding to create, produce and release a film called Red Road. Red Road Tackling issues of Native identity and Hollywood distortion, Counting Coup’s director, cinematographer, and Spokane tribal member, Ryan Abrahamson, and co- producer Michael Kane collaborated with Derrick LaMere (Rocky Boy) at War Pony Pictures to create the film Red Road. The filmmakers describe the film as exploring “the struggle to understand ourselves, this world, our place in it and how it is okay to be Indian.” Turning away from Western depictions of natives as either shaman or derelict, Red Road follows a protagonist, “a dude who happens to be a red man who wears a tie every day and works with computers and likes to go out with his friends.” The film was an entirely local production, with many scenes filmed on tribal lands in the Spokane area, and the production was supported primarily by native cast and crew. The script for Red Road was written eight years ago by the director, Ryan Abrahamson. Five years ago, Michael Kane helped Abrahamson rewrite some of the script. For a while, the project remained on the back burner until they applied for a SAGA grant from Spokane Arts. While they weren’t successful with their first application, they were encouraged by grants administrator Shelly Wynecoop to revise based on feedback from the selection panel and apply again. The next time they applied, the refined proposal was given a green light for funding. January | February 2020 61